U.S. Field Hockey Team Targets Youths

Six members of the United States men’s national field hockey team visited Pierpont Elementary School on Thursday to share their knowledge of the sport as part of the Field Hockey Federation youth program.

Ten of the team’s 18 members are from Ventura County.

“Ventura County has a tradition of strong field hockey players because of its focus on youth programs,” said Dean Nakamura of Camarillo. Nakamura, 26, is goalkeeper for the national team and has played field hockey for six years.

“Ventura County has the strongest youth development program for boys under 9 years old all the way up to adult programs,” said Nakamura, a 1990 graduate of Adolfo Camarillo High School.

Accompanying Nakamura was Steve Jennings, vice captain of the 1996 U.S. Olympic field hockey team. Also on hand were fellow players Patrick Cota, Ryan Langford, Mike Schanafelt and alternate Jerry Amar, all of Camarillo, and Gus Reed, of Ithaca, N.Y. Coaches Brian Schledorn of Thousand Oaks and Jeremy Cook of Ithaca, N.Y., also attended. Schledorn and Cook are the women’s field hockey coaches at UC Santa Barbara and Cornell University in Ithaca, respectively.

The U.S. national team will be practicing for the next six weeks at the Moorpark College Field Hockey Sports Complex and will attend sports camp from March through July at the Olympic training center in San Diego.

“We hope to try out for the next Olympic team or qualify for the Olympic team this summer during competition at the Pan-American Games in Winnipeg, Canada. That’s why we’re in Ventura County. This is our preparation for that competition,” said Jennings, 29.

“Because more than half of the national team is from Ventura County, we can meet for runs or to play soccer and basketball games. We do all kinds of cross-training. We hold field hockey practices five times a week, two times a day, and each practice lasts from two to three hours,” Nakamura said.