The Peters Township Field Hockey team, reigning WPIAL and section champions, have their sights set on repeating their success of the 2024 season and are looking to make history in the process. The team has never won a WPIAL title in back to back years; but this year’s team is strong and they are working hard to defy those odds. co-captains Heidi P. and Dana A. have a plan to make the second WPIAL championship a reality, especially after gaining experience in last year’s successful season.
“I think the biggest part of us winning the WPIAL finals this year is going to be our mental toughness and bringing the energy to the game,” said captain Heidi. “We all have the skills and speed to beat whoever it is that we play, we just need to focus on pushing ourselves as well as each other when it is a difficult game. We have performed very well throughout the regular season and our mentality is a large part of it.”
While the captains have a lot of confidence that their team will be the first Peters Township Girls Field Hockey team to win a second WPIAL championship, it hasn’t come easy. The team has put in a lot of hard work and dedication to getting to this point.
“Since the summer, the whole team has expressed that our goal and what we look forward to is getting to win the WPIAL title again, knowing that everyone on our team wants that pushes us all to work harder,” says captain Heidi.
The team’s biggest challenge is Fox Chapel, the girls beat them in WPIAL finals last year and are competing with them for the top spot in the section this season.
“Beating Fox Chapel is a big step we must climb to fuel our fire coming closer to WPIAL finals,” said Dana A. “As a team, our goals are to score early and often to get a lead and keep it.”
The team lays out certain goals by watching their previous games on film, which helps them develop a specific game plan to defeat the next opponent.
“We want to focus on staying really wide and making strong passes up the field for our teammates to run on to. We also want to focus on taking quick shots on goal and being in good position in the circle,” stated Dana A.
When these things aren’t working and the team isn’t clicking, Dana shared what they do to come together as a team, “At halftime, if our team is losing we get in a circle and take long, deep breaths. This helps us relax a little in the stressful game setting, and helps us reset our mindsets to focus on what needs to be accomplished when we go back on the field.”
This team is constantly working to get better individually and together to achieve the same common goal, a second WPIAL championship.
