Syracuse field hockey head coach Kathleen Parker sat in her office and talked about men’s college basketball. It was hardly field hockey, but she thought it illustrated her team’s position well.

She had watched the national championship game between Georgia Tech and Connecticut a few nights earlier and was amazed at how many breaks went Connecticut’s way.

She then quickly likened Georgia Tech’s plight to that of her own Orangewomen this past fall.

In 2001, when Syracuse won the Big East field hockey postseason tournament and advanced to the NCAA quarterfinals, everything went its way. Shots grazed the post and went in.

This year, shots clanked off the metal and wandered aimlessly along the Coyne Field turf.

The Orangewomen lost five one-goal games this fall. Three of their four Big East losses were by a goal, the fourth by just two. Syracuse limped to a 7-11 finish, 1-4 in the vital Big East standings.

For the first time in the 15-year history of Big East field hockey, Syracuse wasn’t a part of the postseason tournament. While Boston College collected an overtime win against Connecticut in the final, Parker was busy preparing for next year.

‘First you don’t get any breaks and then you start to think, ‘Well, this is our destiny,” Parker said. ‘Good teams make their own breaks, but when you come on the losing side of one-goal games a lot, you start to feel like this is just the way it is.’

Syracuse suffered through a strenuous early schedule, getting blown out on a few occasions. The early season slide set the tone for a mediocre season. As the losses piled up, the players became more and more concerned with the team’s record rather than getting better.

Parker thought the biggest problem was SU’s attitude and communication with each other. She never felt as if the players were mentally prepared for games. They waited to see how other teams would play, and then would decide whether or not they were going to respond and play.

‘I just don’t know that we met the intensity level when we came into games we needed,’ Parker said, ‘in order to carry us through the games.’

Then when things did go wrong, players wouldn’t directly confront each other. They instead went through a third party, and communication suffered. As a result, the slump Syracuse suffered through was a season-long event.

‘As we started to lose more, the general attitude of the team was depressed,’ Parker said. ‘You start to lose focus on the things you’re doing well and only looking at the wins and losses. Then it starts to become a burden. You start to second-guess everything and everybody else.’

Yet, even as Syracuse struggled, it still had the capabilities of being a good team. In its final Big East game, Syracuse lost to Connecticut, a NCAA tournament team, 2-1. Connecticut head coach Kathy Stevens approached Parker after the game to tell her that she felt Syracuse was the toughest team Connecticut faced all year.

‘I didn’t think we were a bad team last year,’ Parker said. ‘Not going to the Big East tournament was something that we certainly didn’t want. The team did not want that. It wasn’t like something we worked for.

‘We just turned out on the short end of those one-goal games.’

Despite playing well at the end, Parker still knew changes were needed.

During spring practices, she has stressed attitude adjustments and communication among players above fundamentals. While she still focused on weak areas from last year, such as drawing more fouls in the circle and moving the ball quicker up the field, Parker knew adjusting attitudes was the top priority.

‘It’s probably the hardest thing,’ Parker said. ‘It’s the off-the-field stuff that’s the hardest to work on.’

She established a Player’s Council to provide a better mode of communication. There’s a representative from each class year on the council, as well as the newly elected captains, who meet once a week to discuss issues of concern. The council has also been meeting with players on a monthly basis individually to discuss their needs.

In one of their recent meetings, they talked about maintaining positive attitudes on the field and showing more emotion. Parker felt her team was not demonstrative enough last season.

Parker also hopes her new captains will have an effect. Seniors Lindsay Kocher, Leah McKay and Elizabeth O’Hara are the 2004 captains. Kocher was a captain last year, while McKay worked her way into the starting lineup. O’Hara has participated very little over her tenure at SU, but her leadership skills have landed her an important role despite playing in only six games over three seasons.

Stevens also stressed the importance captains can have on a team, and said she recruits certain players who she feels will eventually have a chance to be the type of leader she likes.

While the off-field work will continue, on-field practices concluded this past weekend with tournament visits to Princeton and Yale.

Parker feels the team is playing better now, but it’s sometimes hard to tell because the pressure is not the same as it is in the regular season.

‘They’re not worried about whether they’re going to be starters or whether they’re going to be players off the bench,’ Parker said. ‘It’s just a time to work on things and they’re not afraid to make mistakes.’

Parker doesn’t know definitively what will make the Orangewomen better, but both Stevens and she agree in field hockey, leadership and communication are two of the best ways to improve a team.

‘They’ve made an effort to try to be more open with each other,’ Parker said. ‘The talent is there. We just have to start over again.’

Published on April 20, 2004 at 12:00 pm