Last month, an age-old conflict between field hockey and football arose into something more: a devastating rift between two incredible fall sports on Westmont’s campus.
Senior George Bilionis explains that the conflict stemmed from “an ongoing disagreement for years, mainly because they [fockey] have priority over the football field.”
Every day after practice, both sports split practice time on the field. Field hockey reserves the whole field for an hour. For the next half hour, both teams split the field until fockey practice ends. Overall, both sports receive equal practice time on the field, though field hockey reserves the first half split of practice time.
Sophomore Lexi Gourvennec criticizes, “Football had a lot of anger built up even though it was an hour and half [of fockey being on the field]. They still got it an hour and a half after us.” Further defending field hockey, she states, “it’s harder for us to push a ball on the grass than it is to do plays on the grassy field.”
On the opposite side of the spectrum, George states that “they [football] believe fockey shouldn’t have access to the field since we bring in all the money and they don’t have as many fans. It’s also called a football field.” Understanding field hockey’s perspective though, he adds, “field hockey has nowhere else to practice and they deserve the field because they are a sport too.”
Tensions first rose when football players would heckle field hockey players on campus and on the field out of field space frustration. In retaliation, field hockey players would reciprocate mean remarks. At the climax of disagreement, after a fockey player messaged football about ending the conflict, football became more riled up; making tensions worse.
In the end, Lexi concludes “we [both football and field hockey] all just decided that it was stupid and that it wasn’t a big deal.”
Reflecting on the conflict Senior Sana Sharma states, “even if it was a joke [to start things with fockey], it is kinda nice to have respect on campus.” Further explaining, they appreciate the “encouragement during practice because it gives us [fockey] motivation and makes it feels like we’re more respected on campus.” Ending the conflict, both football player George Bilionis and fockey player Rachel Griffith smile together in an instagram post; showcasing an agreement between both sports to coexist peacefully. Safe to say, the beef is squashed!