Field hockey heads to the beach this weekend with sand soccer – Virginian-Pilot

VIRGINIA BEACH

Dena Soter-Reardon always loved field hockey.

But as a former player and coach who now manages Virginia Beach Field Hockey, she was looking for a way to explore the fun of the sport for the legion of players who have experienced the highly-competitive nature of field hockey.

Her solution: take it to the beach.

Soter-Reardon discovered sand hockey, a transformation of the sport similar to sand soccer. In fact, the two join forces for the second straight year this weekend as the National Sand Hockey Tournament piggybacks with the North American Sand Soccer Championships at the Virginia Beach Oceanfront.

Sand hockey will take up three blocks of the beach from 10th through 12 streets, putting it on the edge of where the sand soccer tournament begins.

“It’s been pretty big internationally for a few years. It started in 2005,” Soter-Reardon said. “The idea is to give hockey players an outlet. Everything is pressure and competition and trying to get at the highest level or to play in college.

“This has done a lot to bring back my love of the sport and has made me love hockey all over again. It’s a blast.”

Teams comprised of five players – four field players and a goalie/field player –compete for two 12-minute halves on a 60-by-90-foot pitch. Instead of hockey’s rock-hard ball, a 5-inch diameter rubber ball is used.

The stick has a larger toe and features slats to sift through the sand. Players  wear sunglasses to prevent sand getting into their eyes, and there is a protective zone around the goalkeeper so their feet don’t get beat up with sticks.

“It’s fast action and high speed,” Soter-Reardon said.

Soter-Reardon is expecting more than 200 players in divisions for youth and adults despite the fact that USA Field Hockey scheduled two other national events on the same weekend.

“We had 225 players last year in our first-go-round,” she said. “But I consider this our first year since we’re now sanctioned by USA Field Hockey.”

Soter-Reardon said she hopes the new version of the sport soon appeals to those who didn’t grow up playing it.

“We had all these people last year who were there to watch sand soccer who came over to watch some of our games,” she said. “They talked to us about it and seemed to enjoy it. I know that it’s really catching on in other countries so hopefully it will here too.

“We’re hoping that more people will show up to the beach with their sand hockey stuff instead of Frisbee’s and footballs.”