New Season, New Field at HMHS

It was a postcard-perfect early fall day yesterday as the Haddonfield girls played their first weekend game in the newly-carpeted high school stadium.  There was a lot of agitation by some in town over the decision to replace the rutted football field and adjacent practice field with artificial turf, but walking on the field before the game and watching from the pressbox, it sure seemed like a good investment in our school's athletic program.  (Full disclosure: Debbie and I contributed to the turf field campaign.)

There is now a level, smooth and well-marked playing surface.  Although there are different color lines for Football (white), soccer (yellow), field hockey (orange) and lacrosse (red), the players and officials seemed to have no difficulty discerning the correct markings.  The advantage of turf will hit home when the rains come and the field is still playable.

This was technically not the home opener but as noted the first weekend game on the new field.  Because weekday games are played here as well, the scoreboard is now operated from the scorer's table and that and the benches have been moved form the far side to the side in front of the stands.  Having the clock operated by the scorer is one less thing for me to do during the game, although running a clock in soccer is way easier than football or basketball.

Yesterday we had a nice crowd, great weather, two undefeated teams and a well-played game well-called (in my opinion) by two veteran officials.  Before the game Allen Stout and I reminisced about some of the games he had refereed for my Medford Strikers teams over the years.

Generally stadium operation went well but I did not have time to test the CD player before the game so did not risk trying to play the National Anthem.  Then the microphone stopped working at the very end.  Add to that a few errors in the program, and there are some things to improve on for the Kingsway game on October 5.

All that aside, the game itself was typical Haddonfield-West Deptford: fast, close, exciting.  There were only a few real scoring chances but Haddonfield's Kylie Kirk gave the Bulldawgs all the scoring they need with a goal with just 8:49 remaining.  Haddonfield is now 8-0 on the season with Overbrook and Paulsboro coming up this week.

Action from Haddonfield girls' 1-0 win over West Deptford in the stadium.

High School Team or Academy? This Hawk Chooses High School

Over the years club soccer coaches always grumbled about conflicts with high school soccer.  The problem was especially acute on the girls side where the WAGS (Washington Area Girls Soccer) Tournament was the king of the hill among college showcase tournaments but was played over Columbus Day weekend and inevitably caused at least indirect conflicts with high school games or practices. 

Lately the upper echelon club teams, the so-called academies, have subtly or not so subtly demanded its players forgo high school teams to be on their rosters.  Chris Melchiorre has a story in today's Inquirer about one top college prospect who is going against the flow and will play for his Haddon Township High School team in his senior year this fall, rather than for the Philadelphia Union U18 Academy team. 

I wish him luck and will be interested to see how things turn out for him.