By Danny Cohen ’15, Staff Writer

There’s nothing that Maia Yoshida, senior captain of the field hockey team, cannot do on the field. She is a veteran of the game, and over the course of her years at Newark Academy, field hockey has become a huge part of her identity.

Maia has been an essential member of the Newark Academy field hockey team over the past four years.  One of the reasons she is so important to the team because of her versatility: she’s played left, center, and right forward for the Academy’s team.  She has also played midfield in the past for her three club teams: Impact, G-Force, and the Harding Hawks.  Recently, Maia has stopped playing field hockey year round due to her rigorous workload in the classrooms at Newark Academy, but she has not taken any focus away from her school team in the fall.

Although it may take time away from her studies, Maia has stuck with field hockey over all these years because she loves the team concept.  Maia places a huge amount of value on teamwork in field hockey, saying “You can’t get up the field without passing and constantly communicating with your team members.”  This teamwork and camaraderie has been pivotal to the field hockey program’s survival.  Field hockey has put a team on the field for each of the past four seasons despite low numbers.  In 2012, the team had only twelve members; eleven players must be on the field at a time.  Despite these difficulties, Maia and the team persevered.  “Everyone had to be well-conditioned to play a full hour with basically no subs.  People were not allowed to get injured or sick on game day, and luckily, no one did.”  Although having only twelve players seems like a huge problem, Maia and the rest of the team instead focused on the positives, and created a close-knit, family-like atmosphere.  This positive attitude allowed the field hockey team to not only field a team, but also have some success.

This year, the team has some slightly higher numbers, increasing their roster size from 12 players to 17.  Still, the team has to deal with the loss of four important seniors, including goalie Grace Thompson and midfielder Lisa Swenson.  The onus is on the team’s eight freshmen to replace the holes left by these graduated leaders.  As Maia has throughout her career, however, she looks at the challenge with optimism. “It will take some time for the players to learn their new teammates’ strengths and weaknesses, but I think we’re going to have a great season,” she says.  While they may still have low numbers, it is clear that led by Maia, this year’s field hockey squad will always have a positive attitude and some solid leadership.  Often, on the athletic field, that is all you need.

Compared to many other high schools in the area, Newark Academy has a relatively small student body.  In athletics, this can create some disadvantages: while other schools may be able to have freshman and JV programs for every sport, some Newark Academy teams can only operate at the varsity level.  Additionally, some teams, like Maia’s field hockey team, can suffer from low numbers in the heat of battle.  However, our athletes often compensate for their lack of numbers with more dedication, team camaraderie, and hard work, and thus the Minutemen, including the field hockey team, are able to compete with much bigger schools and more well-rested teams.  With committed athletes like Maia leading the way, there is no reason that Newark Academy sports teams cannot enjoy sustained success.