USA Field Hockey is looking for more boys and girls to begin playing field hockey. The Tigers are a member club of USA Field Hockey and we will be hosting our Spring Hockey program beginning field hockey players (7 to 13 years of age).

Players don't have field hockey experience. It would help if they have played baseball, basketball, soccer, lacrosse, or ice hockey.

All sessions will take place from 6:00p to 7:30p on the turf at The Pennington School (April 29, May 6, May 20, June 3, June 10), located on Delaware Avenue, in Pennington Borough. Don't worry if you have to miss a day!

FEE: $125 per season. That includes annual USA Field Hockey membership, which provides insurance and other benefits. Already a USA Field Hockey member? The season fee is only $100. Each additional family member is only $50 plus USA Field Hockey membership.

For a registration form, please join our email list by clicking here.

Yes! Boys really do play field hockey. Around the world, in fact, more boys play field hockey than girls. Only in America and Canada do female players outnumber males. Here are photos of some of our proud Tiger Field Hockey Club members...

 

Two Tigers, Austin Groeneveld and Keeling Pilaro, were not available on the day we took these pictures because they were named to positions on our men's national teams (Austin to the U21 team and Keeling to the U15 team) while competing in the Junior Men's National Championship, which was held at the Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista, CA.

By the way, men play too! Here are photos of some of the men on our national team...

 

Yes! The Tiger Field Hockey Club is open to boys and girls. Tiger girls are the only field hockey players in the state who regularly practice with and play against boys. This seems to help the girls with their self-confidence and it helps the boys because most of the girls have more years of playing experience than most of the boys.

 

Some of the Tigers in the photographs above began working with our coaches when they were in 5th and 6th grade.

The Technical Director for the Tiger Field Hockey Club is Cris Maloney. Cris became involved with field hockey when he was 18 years old, which was more than three decades ago. He went on to play at the national level with the national men's program, he coached at the national level (gold medals at two US Olympic Festivals), and has been helping USA Field Hockey's officiating program for several years. He is the author of HOW TO UMPIRE FIELD HOCKEY, editor of USAFieldHockey.com's Rules, Umpires, and Ask the Umpire sections, and publisher of UmpireHockey.com. In 1985 he was asked to present at an Olympic Solidarity Seminar for coaches, an International Olympic Committee program. The topic of his presentation was called "Field Hockey: The First 30 Minutes" where he introduced a systematic method of teaching youngsters how to begin playing field hockey---their first 30 minutes.

During his decades involved with the sport, Cris has also been a field hockey developer. For example, he founded the Garden State Games Field Hockey Event (www.GSGFH.info) in 1983. The GSGFH Event was the first and is now the longest running annual field hockey tournament in the USA to be played entirely on an artificial surface, a.k.a. turf.

In the Spring of 2011, Cris decided to start a field hockey program for boys, which was part of a 2011 development initiative supported by USA Field Hockey. Boys as young as 8 years old and as "old" as 18 joined the program. Three of the boys were selected to the east coast high performance program for junior boys. Two of those boys went on to be selected to compete in the National Junior Men's Championships where they won the gold medal!

Boys, however, weren't the only players who joined the Tiger Field Hockey Club. As soon as the program began, Cris' middle school age daughter and several of her girlfriends wanted in on the fun and they also joined the club.

Outside of field hockey, Cris is a father of four and grandfather of one. He and his wife live in Hopewell Township. He works with Henderson Sotheby's International Realty, where he heads up marketing and the LeadRouter program.

Helping develop the young Tigers is Suzanne Albanese. Suzanne graduated from the West Windsor-Plainsboro school district, played Division I field hockey for the University of Delaware and was named "Coach of the Year" during her tenure as head coach of the field hockey team at the Peddie School. Suzanne is a Level III umpire with USA Field Hockey and a certified umpire coach. Suzanne's son and two daughters, the youngest is in middle school, are all Tigers. She runs a summer field hockey camp at Mercer County Community College. She teaches physical education at Our Lady of Sorrows, a Pre-K thru 8th grade co-educational Catholic school located in Hamilton. She and her husband live in Mercerville.

The coach of the Tiger's Boys' Travel Team is Pervez Siddiqui (shown here with his 6 year old daughter). Pervez has played field hockey for over 20 years, spanning across multiple countries. He picked up the game as a 7 year old while attending St. Peter's School in Bombay, India. When he was about 10 years old he transferred to St. Anne's, a school reputed for producing several field hockey Olympians, and was coached by a former Olympian. While at St. Anne's, Pervez ended up playing on the Junior Bombay team four consecutive years, finishing runner up at the state championship. After high school Pervez captained his college team to the regional championship game. He was selected to play for the Bombay Republicans, a club reputed for up and coming players. However, shortly after that Pervez's field hockey career was cut short when he elected to pursue Engineering, and stopped playing competitive hockey. In 1999 Pervez moved to the US to pursue his Masters in Management at Clemson University. Being a passionate fan of field hockey, he continued to look for opportunities to be connected to the game and played on the Clemson Club team. When the Siddiquis moved to New Jersey in 2007, Pervez immediately started looking for opportunities to play and connected with the Eagles, a field hockey team for men and women. However, in 2010, while playing in the men's division of the Big Apple Tournament, injuries got the better of Pervez and he decided to pursue coaching as a means of staying connected with the game. Pervez and his wife live in Montgomery Township.

Practicing on turf is very important for young field hockey players for many reasons and it is our intention to rent turf whenever possible. We want our players to enjoy themselves. Young players can be very successful on turf. Success breeds enjoyment. Playing on grass can be very frustrating and, if it is too long, dangerous!

 

All Tigers must wear a mouth guard and shin protection during drills and games. Tigers also bring a whistle to learn basic umpiring skills. We have lots of loaner field hockey sticks for players who are just trying field hockey for the first time. We can help Tigers find a stick of their own once they decide to continue with the sport. We have pinnies for practices but ask that Tigers wear a white shirt and bring a dark shirt to all practices.