Local flavor

Schalick, Woodstown among 8 teams in inaugural South Jersey field hockey tournament of champions

By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News

Two of Salem County’s finest field hockey programs will be in the field when the South Jersey Field Hockey Coaches Association’s inaugural in-season tournament gets underway next month.

Schalick and Woodstown are among the eight teams committed to play in the NJSIAA-sanctioned South Jersey Tournament of Champions. The tournament, first reported by Riverview Sports News earlier this month, will be played Oct. 4 at Camden Catholic and Oct. 5 at Clearview.

The other four teams are Bishop Eustace, West Deptford, Delran and Gloucester. The bracket, pairings and schedule are still to be determined.

“It’s a go,” said Clearview coach Britney Ewan, president of the SJFHCA. “We’ve been working on it for the past couple years because North Jersey has a tournament, Cape (Atlantic) has a tournament, and there’s been a lot of strong teams in our area that play in the MAX Tournament, and what was happening is because we’re choosing to play in that tournament, which are amazing strong teams and are good for the teams to play, it was hurting us power point wise when it came to rankings for our playoffs and our state tournaments. Not to mention it was great preparation (for the post season).

“So, (Camden Catholic coach and SJFHCA board member) Mark Vittese and I decided to put our heads together and get this thing going.”

Originally there were 16 teams considered for the tournament, largely based on last season’s rankings, but the others opted out for various reasons.

“We were excited to be invited, we’re excited to take part in the tournament,” Schalick coach Heather Cheesman said. “It’s the first one for field hockey down here so we’re super excited. The girls are super excited.

“I know on the original list we were the last to be invited, so we’re honored to be included and excited to see what it is when we get there and the competition we’re going to have.”

The Cougars have already played two of the teams in the field. They beat Woodstown 3-0 last Thursday and lost to Camden Catholic 9-1 Tuesday.

“(Vittese) was like, ‘I’ll see you in two weeks,’” Cheesman said.

Brian Tortella contributed to this report.