Controlling the Uncontrollable, Field Hockey Style

Scholar Athlete, Offensive MVP, and Women's Varsity Field Hockey captain. Senior Santina Asimos holds these three titles but she's doing way more than just playing field hockey, she’s teaching it. For her Senior Project, Asimos taught incoming freshman and any other beginners how to play field hockey.

Field Hockey has been a passion of Asimos' since freshman year.

Asimos explained how she decided on this project, "I just really like to play field hockey and I wanted other people to also like playing field hockey."

Helix is one of the few schools in East County that has a field hockey program and it has only been around for about 10 years. The program has struggled with numbers in the past, and Asimos wanted to help that problem by introducing the sport to a few girls before the season started.

Putting together a clinic for a sport that is not known very well can be extremely challenging.

Asimos said that she, "had to make sure there was someone there to supervise the event." As well as have to, "make sure that enough people would be there so that it was a valid project."

Although she was enthusiastic about her project, other people didn't always feel the same. Asimos noted that the most challenging part was, "Probably, getting enough people to come because everyone was unpredictable with different schedules and some people came early or came late."

About 10 other girls attended Asimos’ clinic where they learned, “Basic skills like dribbling, pulling, hitting, pushing, and slaps (a different type of hit),” said Asimos.

Carissa Ramirez, one of the girls that Asimos coached at the clinic, went on to make the Varsity team her freshman year. Now, she had also attended many other field hockey practices with the team over the summer, but the skills that Asimos taught couldn’t have hurt, and definitely improved Ramirez’s game.

Overall it was a rewarding experience because Asimos was able to, “teach people about the sport that I love.” She went on to say that, “i learned how to be more patient with people and how to explain field hockey strategies and skills in the most effective ways.”