Hardy Band of Enthusiasts Fighting to Save Field Hockey : High schools: Many factors, including budget cuts and soccer’s rise, have put the sport near extinction in the county.

Slowly but surely, and sadly for many, a sport is dying.

Field hockey, a game with roots that extend to ancient Greece, seems to be living on borrowed time in Orange County. Only eight county high school teams still play the sport, down from 11 last season. And there are rumors that at least two more programs will be axed by next season.

How did it happen?

How could field hockey, once a thriving part of girls’ high school athletics, dwindle to a precious few teams?

Blame it on budget cuts. On age-group soccer. On the Southern Section. On indifference. On lengthy bus trips.

The list goes on and on.

But the bottom line is that field hockey’s future in the county is in jeopardy. Even at the schools that still field teams--Edison, Fountain Valley, Huntington Beach, Marina, Newport Harbor, Santa Ana, Santiago and Westminster--the clock is ticking.

Coaches and players know this, but that doesn’t mean they are ready to let it go quietly. In most cases, they wage a passionate, sometimes bitter fight to keep students interested, money flowing and administrators happy.

Often, that’s not enough.

Despite the usual high interest from players, coaches and boosters, La Quinta, Santa Ana Valley and University dropped field hockey before the current season began.

Longtime coaches saw it as another sad sign of the times, and began retrenching.

Carol Eseman has coached field hockey at Westminster since 1973, but she’s retiring at the end of the school year. She’s worried that the sport will leave with her.

“It’s very possible it won’t continue at our school because I’m leaving,” Eseman said. “I’m not going to make it easy for them, though. I’ve already found a coach for next season. I don’t know if that will work or not.”

Except for a 10-year hiatus, Kit Snider has been Santiago’s field hockey coach since 1961. She has seen the good times, and now the bad.

“Every year it seems like there’s an ax hanging over your head,” Snider said. “That’s not fun.”

Certainly, it wasn’t always that way, and maybe that’s what makes Eseman, Snider and others so angry and so determined to keep field hockey alive.

Years ago, before the Southern Section had anything to do with girls’ sports, there was the Girls’ Athletic Assn. For the most part, it was the same as it is now. Schools played basketball, softball, volleyball and field hockey against other schools.

Physical education classes focused on all four sports, often all in the same week.

“On Monday and Wednesday, we had basketball,” Snider said. “Tuesday and Thursday we had volleyball, then we’d change it in the winter and the spring. The girls went out for every sport. I suppose we were more recreation-oriented.

“When we became affiliated with the CIF (Southern Section), that’s when the real competition started.”

In 1974, the section offered its first field hockey championship, with Colton recording a 2-0 victory over Sonora in the title game. Snider said there were about 80 section schools playing in those days.

In 1978, the number dropped to 60, thanks to the passage of Proposition 13, which slashed property owners’ taxes but left schools facing huge budget deficits.

The snowball began rolling and it’s still going strong.

“Once one school drops it, it makes it easier for another to drop it,” Eseman said.

Schools scrambled to adapt and adjust. Among the things that had to be trimmed in order to save money were so-called minor sports such as field hockey.

Cal State Long Beach and Golden West College, whichhad the last college programs in the Southland, dropped their field hockey teams in the early 1980s.

In 1984, there were so few high school teams playing, the Southern Section called it quits and stopped sanctioning a championship after Santiago’s 2-1 victory over Garden Grove.

The death knell sounded loud and clear as the 1984-85 season began.

As field hockey slid further from view, high school soccer grew, compounding the problem. Coaches say many who would have played field hockey, choose instead to play soccer because they grew up playing soccer and not field hockey.

Even schools that had strong programs with the backing of their administrations couldn’t hang on forever. Last year, that was the case at La Quinta, where Athletic Director Jim Perry weighed the pros and cons of keeping field hockey, and chose to drop it. As much as he wanted to keep the sport, there were simply too many things going against it.

To wit:

* Only one other school (Santiago) in La Quinta’s school district (the Garden Grove Unified) was still playing.

* There were only a handful of teams playing in Orange County, and often that meant long bus rides to such such locales as Colton and Glendora.

* It wasn’t a Southern Section-sanctioned sport.

“We held out as long as we could,” Perry said. “We had some excellent people here on our staff and in the community who supported field hockey. A couple of our teachers had daughters who played. There was a solid base here. That’s what made the decision so difficult.”

With the loss of La Quinta, Santa Ana Valley and University, the remaining eight schools joined together in the Sunset League and now hope for the best.

No one believes field hockey will disappear entirely, but no one is willing to predict a strong comeback, either. Most likely, it will get worse before it gets better.

Snider, however, is not going down without a fight.

“We need to teach younger kids the way soccer does,” she said. “If we had a grass-roots program for the younger kids. . . . Our kids don’t get any field hockey experience until they reach high school.”

Although the number of players at Santiago remains a consistent 30 to 35 each season, Snider would like to see more young players and coaches coming into the fold.

That’s why it makes her happy to see Mike Coleman, 33, a former member of the U.S. men’s national team, coaching at Fountain Valley. To Snider, Coleman is a symbol of the sport’s future.

Introduced to field hockey as a student at Springfield (Mass.) College, Coleman has been in love with it ever since. Now, he passes it along to his players with great success.

“In my six years here, this is the first time I haven’t had a former player come back and help coach in some capacity,” Coleman said. “The kids have a great commitment to field hockey and their school. Once you start playing, you get hooked.”

It’s that passion that keeps field hockey alive in Orange County. Without it, the sport might disappear.

And if it does?

“It would leave a big void in my life,” Snider said. “As long as I have my field hockey program, I won’t consider retiring.”

Field Hockey: The Field and The Game

Once a staple of girls’ high school athletics, field hockey has all but disappeared in Orange County. Only eight county schools still field teams. Those who coach and play wage a passionate fight to keep field hockey alive at their schools.

* Who plays in Orange County: Eight high schools--Edison, Fountain Valley, Huntington Beach, Marina, Newport Harbor, Santa Ana, Santiago and Westminster. They all compete in the Sunset League.

* Teams: There are 11 players on a side--five forwards, three halfbacks, two fullbacks and a goalie.

* Play: The game is divided into halves of 30 minutes each. Players move a baseball-sized ball down the field using only bladed sticks. They score goals, worth one point, by knocking the ball into a cage 12 feet wide and 7 feet tall. Body contact is forbidden. Players are not allowed to strike a ball if it’s above their shoulders. The goalie may kick the ball or stop it ball with any part of the body, including the hand, but only when the ball is inside the striking circle.

* Origins: Ancient Greek art shows players with crooked sticks and a small ball, but it’s unknown where the game began. Known primarily as a men’s sport outside the United States, the first women’s field hockey association was formed in 1889 in England. The game first appeared in the United States in the early 1900s. It has been an Olympic men’s sport since 1908 and a women’s sport since 1980.

Sources: Southern Section Blue Book and World Book Encyclopedia