Copleston wows the USA

Former OCHC captain turned tax exile Eds Copleston made the local Greenwich (New York, not London) newspaper after featuring in an exhibition hockey match. Here is the report ...



Girls from town field hockey teams got a chance to see some high-level competition Sunday, as athletes from the Greenwich and New York City field hockey clubs faced off in a special exhibition match at Greenwich Academy.

For the record, the male players were wearing shorts.

While field hockey is known mostly as a sport for high school girls in pleated skirts, it is second in popularity to soccer in many other countries, said Danny Haydon, president of the New England Field Hockey Association, which has eight men's teams.

"A lot of us have been playing since we were kids," said Haydon, 30, who was born in Australia, and grew up in Hong Kong and England.

The teams are made up of members from the tri-state area -- including many expatriates, as well as ex-Olympians, and former national team members -- and they play games in the fall and spring at Columbia University in Manhattan. There are also eight women's clubs, as the teams are known.

The New York City team, of which Haydon is also president, is a spin-off from the Greenwich Field Hockey Club.

Greenwich resident Ian Tapsall, who plays for the Greenwich club, decided to have the teams play a match at Greenwich Academy, which his two daughters attend. Last year, there was a similar game at Darien High School.

"We're just trying to get Fairfield County girls more aware of what men's field hockey is like," Tapsall said. "It's a lot quicker."

The ball that can travel up to 80 mph, Haydon explained, and the men were taking the exhibition game seriously, running quickly up and down the field with their sticks and shouting instructions.

Tapsall said many of the high school players will go on to play on Division I and II college teams, and he wanted the girls to get a sense of what high-level competition is like.

Greenwich High School seniors Britt Smith and Gabriele Lenihan, co-captains of the school's field hockey team, heard about the game from their coach, and sat in the bleachers with some of their teammates.

"It's a lot different," Gabriele, 17, said of the exhibition game. "They have a different style of play than us. It's very inspiring to see a game of this pace and level and talent."