Trinity Field Hockey Tour of Holland and Germany

CARA BRADLEY ’20
CONTRIBUTING WRITER
This summer, the Trinity College field hockey team embarked on a once-in-a-lifetime tour of Europe. Touring four cities and five hockey clubs in seven days, the Bantams divided their time between hockey matches and tourism activities, fully immersing themselves into European culture.
Senior captain Cara Daly says, “For me the most spectacular aspect of the trip to Holland was the realization that sports is a universal language. We would show up to these hockey clubs to play teams where half the women didn’t speak English. However, because we all understood the rules and customs of the sport, we were able to interact in an authentic way.”
Trinity kicked off the trip in Amsterdam, Netherlands, participating in their first clinic the morning of May 31 in the city of The Hague, located on the North Sea coast of the western Netherlands. That evening, they faced the Myra Club team, learning from the young and talented team on and off the field. Following the match, Myra hosted Trinity for dinner, exchanging gifts and language lessons with the Bantams.
The next day, the team spent the afternoon in Amsterdam, taking a canal cruise tour of the city and visiting the Anne Frank House. Trinity Head Coach Anne Parmenter, who will be in her 17th season this fall, found visiting the museum especially poignant for the team as this year marks 75 years since Anne Frank wrote her first journal entry. To fully experience the museum, Parmenter asked the team to read Anne Frank’s novel, “The Diary of a Young Girl,” prior to the trip.
That evening, the team played a match against the Almeerse Hockey Club, enjoying a dinner hosted by the opposition following the match. The next day, Trinity traveled to Rotterdam, Netherlands, located in the province of South Holland for another clinic. The Bantams played at HC Rotterdam, the fourth largest hockey club in the Netherlands with a total of 2,383 members, learning many new tricks and skills from their instructors. After a visit to the famous Kinderdijk Windmills, the Bantams headed to Bonn, Germany for an evening match against the club team Bonner THV.
Trinity spent the next two days exploring the city of Bonn, located in Western Germany, before traveling to Cologne, Germany. There, the Bantams enjoyed a cruise of the Rhine River and a visit to the German Sports and Olympic Museum. The next day, Trinity traveled back to Holland for their final match against Overbos Club in the city of Hoofddorp. The Bantams returned to Boston on ready to begin training for their upcoming season.
Parmenter believes the trip helped the team’s success this season, “Going in June helped to light the fire for people to focus throughout the summer on what they wanted to do this season.” The Bantams are currently 11-5 overall, and have advanced to the NESCAC semifinals, facing Williams on Saturday, Nov. 4, at Middlebury College