Gilroy Infinity hockey club enjoying successful spring season,
helping players gear up for high school season and beyond
Gilroy – In Gilroy, there isn’t really an offseason for field hockey. And this spring has been a particularly busy one for the Gilroy Infinity club.
Some of the highlights? Playing college-level competition at tournaments at Stanford University, hosting the 4th Annual Spring Fling Tournament and gearing up for international competition at this weekend’s Cal Cup in Southern California.
The Infinity club program, led by Gilroy High coaches Erin and Adam Gemar, started its spring season in March and will finish it off this weekend with the Cal Cup, where the under-16 team took third last year behind two Canadian teams.
The club is enjoying one of its most successful seasons to date – much like the Gilroy High field hockey team did in the fall. Most of the members of that Mustang team – which reached the Central Coast Section semifinals for the first time in the Gemars’ 7-year tenure – play for the Infinity club, including first-team all-CCS selections Karlie Sandoval and Stephanie Glenn.
“Our team compared to others is pretty unique because it’s just our high school,” said Sandoval, who will continue her field hockey career at Boston University in the fall. In comparison, some of the elite San Jose club teams draw talent from multiple field hockey powerhouses such as Archbishop Mitty, St. Francis and Los Gatos.
But that hasn’t stopped the Gilroy Infinity club from competing closely with those top teams.
“It feels like Gilroy High is becoming more noticed in field hockey,” said Glenn, a junior, who along with Sandoval, a senior, junior Erin Magill, junior Kelly Perkins, sophomore Lindsay Valadez and 13-year-old eighth-grader Elise Ogle all earned spots to compete in this year’s Futures regional in Chula Vista. The Futures program is an elite developmental program of USA Field Hockey.
Of the six who participated in the Region 11 tournament, four qualified for the National Futures Championship, the most from any high school in the CCS. Sandoval and Glenn qualified for the under-19 division, Magill for the under-16 division and Ogle in the under-14’s. The national championship will take place in Virginia Beach, Va. June 19-July 4.
The Infinity club also hosted its annual Spring Fling tournament. Held on May 13, the tournament attracted more teams than it ever has. Sixteen teams – 10 more than the tournament had in its first year in 2003 – competed at the event, with Gilroy winning Pool A.
“It’s more like a college tournament now,” Magill said. “It grows every year.”
Erin Gemar feels the popularity of the tournament will only grow because of the attraction of the turf of Garcia-Elder Sports Complex.
The home team enjoys it better, too.
“Before we had to mow the fields and rake the dead grass,” recalled Ogle.
The Gilroy club team beat out an all-male Gilroy team – which included some of the Infinity players’ brothers – that has picked up the sport.
Said Erin Gemar, “Sometimes I feel bad winning our own tournament. But this year, they really were by far the strongest out there.”
Of all the accomplishments this spring, the coach was most happy with the number of players that participated in the Futures regional.
“We’ve barely been getting in those tournaments,” Erin Gemar said, noting the Infinity’s relatively new presence at elite tournaments. “We used to not have anyone in Futures. It was such a big deal to get our first.”
Sandoval Chooses Boston University
Gilroy senior Karlie Sandoval, who was named to the All-CCS first team consecutive year, will continue her field hockey career at Boston University in the fall. The midfielder is the first Gilroy field hockey player to sign with a Division I program.
Sandoval chose Boston over two other DI field hockey programs, Pacific and Davidson (N.C.).
“If I was going to go somewhere far, I wanted it be for a really good field hockey program,” Sandoval said about her decision.
Last season, Boston University finished 16-5 overall and 4-1 in the America East. The terriers lost 4-3 to Michigan in overtime of the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
– Senior goalie Brittany Simpson will also continue her career at the collegiate level. Simpson will play at Division III Albright College in Reading, Penn. in the fall.
