In the fall of 1979, I was the starting right halfback on Old Saybrook High School's varsity field hockey team. The year before had been a season of high expectations but ultimately low achievement for our team, and in the spring most of the starters graduated, moving on to other places. In response, the '79 season was dubbed a ‘rebuilding year’ by our small-town newspaper, as nearly the entire varsity team was replaced by our less-experienced junior varsity members. Admittedly, we were a pretty motley crew: jocks, hippies, preppies, and nerds. No one player really excelled; we were all about equal in skill. Yet, what we lacked in the flashy talent of the previous year's team, we made up for in shear grit and determination. A mongrel team of underdogs, motivated by what we felt was a general ‘dis’ to our potential. Of course this never got articulated; it simply got enacted.

In the end, our motley crew turned a ‘rebuilding year’ into the best school record ever achieved, including winning the Connecticut State Championship. I graduated that spring and moved on myself, participating in college athletics and then years later, the All-Navy basketball team.