Old-Time Hockey : Maruquin Lives in Poverty, Dreams of Olympic Gold

If Ben Maruquin’s self-imposed exile from a so-called normal life must continue, then so be it.

Maruquin has followed anything but a traditional career path since graduating from Ventura High in 1988. He has been all over the map, attending four different colleges and visiting more than 20 countries as a member of the U.S. field hockey team.

Pursuing a dream in a sport that has been part of the Olympics since 1908 but carries little cachet among most U.S. sports fans can be difficult. It’s a life of extremes.

On one hand, Maruquin, 25, is one of the nation’s top players, has traveled the globe and almost certainly will play on the U.S. team in the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta.

But if he has a dollar to his name, he can’t find it. His academic career is on hold, his work resume is a mess and just try to maintain a romantic relationship when you live out of a suitcase.

Yet when he meets with his former high school pals on his rare visits home and hears about their humdrum lives, Maruquin realizes he’s not missing that much after all.

“I ask my friends what they’re doing and I hear the same old stuff about living at home and trying to get some job, and I think, ‘If my life is suspended, I’m kind of glad,’ ” he said. “It’s good not to be normal.”

Even though he lives a nomadic life, Maruquin’s destination is clear: The U.S. field hockey team is guaranteed a berth in the ’96 Summer Games by virtue of America being the host country. And for field hockey players, the trip to Atlanta begins today.

Maruquin will be among nearly 50 players taking part in a team trial today and Sunday at Moorpark College. Players also have been invited to trials in Berkeley (last weekend) and New York City (next weekend).

After next week’s trials, the U.S. Field Hockey Assn. will select the 60 players who will compete in the Olympic Festival in Colorado in July.

The 1996 national team will be selected immediately following the Olympic Festival.

This weekend’s trial is a low-key event for Maruquin. Players will be tested, timed and evaluated in various skills, such as stick-handling. But a player with Maruquin’s credentials has little to prove.

“I’m an established player so I’ll just go out and give a solid performance and show why I’m on the team,” he said.

Maruquin has been a sweeper on the U.S. national team since 1989 and has been selected the male athlete of the year by the USFHA in ’92 and ‘94, the only player to win the award twice.

But given his bloodlines, Maruquin’s success comes as little surprise. With his two trips to the Pan American Games, his family has made seven Pan Am appearances.

Mogie Maruquin, Ben’s father, played on the U.S. team in the 1975 and ’79 Pan Am Games. And John Stockdill, Ben’s uncle on his mother’s side of the family, played in the ‘71, ’75 and ’79 Games.

While other fathers and sons took to the backyard to play catch, the Maruquins were squaring off with field hockey sticks.

Mogie was particularly adept on the penalty corner, a play that has become his son’s specialty.

On a set play in which the ball is centered like a corner kick in soccer, a teammate controls the ball at the top of the penalty circle 16 yards from the goal. Maruquin, 5-foot-10 and 185 pounds, then whacks the ball at the goal like a slap shot in hockey.

Marq Mellor, the U.S. national team captain, calls Maruquin one of the top 10 penalty corner players in the world and marvels at his teammate’s intensity.

“Off the field, he’s a quiet guy who likes to surf and play guitar, but on the field, he’s one of the key players for us,” Mellor said. “We look to him for his aggressive style and work ethic.

“In drills, we’re often pitted against each other. Sometimes I love it because Ben knows only one notch. But other times, I hate it because I know I’ll have to train hard.”

Maruquin has played ever since he can remember and made his first trip abroad at 16. When the United States last played in the Olympics, in 1984, the 14-year-old Maruquin was a fixture at the East L.A. College venue.

The pointers began paying dividends quickly. At 16, Maruquin was one of the youngest members of the junior national team, and he spent most of his senior year at Ventura High on the road, playing in England, Scotland, Holland and Trinidad.

After playing in the Junior World Cup in Malaysia in ‘89, he made the first of two trips to Australia, playing for a top amateur team in Perth. It was during his second stint in Australia, in ‘92, that he heard the good news--Atlanta had been chosen as site for the ’96 Games.

“An old Australian national coach was the guy who told me about it,” Maruquin said.

“He said, ‘Looks like you guys are in.’ ”

Maruquin has been training year-round ever since, which explains why his bank account and work experience are so spotty.

Last summer, after touring with the national team in England, Scotland, Toronto, North Carolina and New Jersey, he returned to Ventura flat broke.

“I didn’t have a cent,” he said. “I couldn’t pay rent.”

Meanwhile, national team members agreed to move to their new training facility in Chula Vista near San Diego four months earlier than the required Jan. 1 start. Maruquin was inspired by his teammates’ dedication but begged off, saying he couldn’t afford the move.

Teammate Larry Amar of Camarillo told him to pack his bags.

“He told me not to worry about the money,” Maruquin said. “My teammates paid my rent. It didn’t feel good to be broke, but you really find out who your friends are.”

Maruquin received a stipend from the U.S. Olympic Committee at the start of the year and now is carrying his weight financially--if just barely.

Poverty, it seems, will be a way of life as long as he chases the Olympic dream.

But as the dream grows closer, money seems less important. Maruquin already is busy handicapping the potential Olympic field, saying a U.S. medal is possible.

That would be an upset to rival the Miracle on Ice in 1980. The United States men have not won a an Olympic field hockey medal since 1932, and the current team has reached no higher than No. 14 in the world rankings.

Said Maruquin: “That’s the great thing about the Olympics. Anybody can come out of nowhere to win it all.”

Maruquin might be uncertain about America’s medal chances, but he remains convinced of one thing. The path he has chosen--even with the financial and personal hardships--is the right one for him.

“Everything has its price,” he said. “There are a lot of highs and lows. If this was a money sport, I’d be making lots of dough. But it’s not.

“But when I’m older and look back I can say, ‘That’s what I wanted to do and I did it.’ ”