Seattle Jets participated in the Vancouver International Tournament (VIT 2017) mixed-social division. With two wins, one draw and one two losses, the team was placed fourth overall.

Seattle Jets in Action at Sacramento Field Hockey Tournament

Some of you wanted to see more action pictures from the Sacramento tournament. Here are a few.....

Seattle Jets Win Sacramento Field Hockey Tournament

Seattle Jets Warming Up before the Game

The triumphant moment: trophies and smiles

The Champions after the well-won Finals

As I mentioned in my last blog, the Seattle Jets traveled to Sacramento to participate in the annual "Gurmukh Memorial Field Hockey Tournament" over the Labor Day weekend.

Since this was the first long distance participation (at least in recent history), there were some apprehensions and reservations in the beginning. However, after a lot of players expressed interest, it was decided to field our team in the social division.

Some of us drove all the way while others flew in to Sacramento.

The tournament organizers were very gracious and generous right from the start. They provided our team with four hotel rooms, did not charge us entry fee and on top of it, catered for all the meals for the team players. This included breakfast and dinner/drinks at the hotel & lunch and tea/pakoras at the fields.

There were six teams participating in the social division championship. We were placed in Pool B along with NorCal Hornets and Sacramento Sikh Society. Pool A also had three teams - San Jose Khalsa, Yuba Brothers and Phoenix Scorpions.

Our first game was played on Saturday at 12 noon against the NorCal Hornets. The temperature was over 95 degrees and the black rubber pellets in the artificial turf were radiating as much heat as the sun above. All in all, tough playing conditions for our players used to the 60's and 70's temperatures. We are surprised to see a strong presence of police officers patrolling the fields. We strike a conversation with one pair in our team stand. They ask where we had come from. When I told them we had come from Seattle, he said, looking quite surprised : "You came all the way from Seattle to DO THIS ?" We laughed and told them, yes, we came from Seattle to "DO THIS" because we love this game. They went on to ask more about the game and whether the scoring was similar to soccer etc. We also told them that there were teams that came from Toronto and Vancouver, Canada to "do this" :-) Such is the love of field hockey. They looked very dazed to say the least.

The game started off very well with a number of quick attacks on the Hornets' goal in the first 15 minutes. There were some good saves made by their goalkeeper along with some bad luck. However, the constant pressure and attacks soon resulted in goals. We were soon leading 3-0 at half time. Our team scored another two after half time to end with a 5-0 lead. In the few years that I have been associated with Seattle Jets, I have not seen such a dominant game and score. Well done everyone. Great game and a big morale booster.

The second game was at 5 pm against the stronger Sacramento Sikh Society team. We started off well and made several attempts at their goal. The goal keeper was sharp, coming from the premier division team, and made good saves. Then around the 15th minute in the first half, Sacramento struck, scoring a goal to give them the lead. After that we held well and made some more good attacks but were unlucky to not score. At half-time score was 0-1. In the second half, the same pattern continued - we more or less dominated the play and kept the ball in their half and D. However, we were unlucky to not score. Towards the dying minutes of the game, Sacramento struck again from a long distance shot into the D being touched by their player standing ahead of our goalkeeper. Score 0-2. We lost the game and ended in the second place in Pool B.

The next day, Sunday, the semi-final was scheduled for 10 am. We were lined up against the Phoenix Scorpions who had finished at the top of Pool A. The game got a bit delayed due to our goalkeeper representing another team in the premier league. The game started off well with some changes made to game strategy. We played two backs instead of three and 5 forwards. This strategy seemed to have helped the attacks going on Phoenix's goal at regular pace. It was a very evenly balanced game with both teams making serious goal attempts. Then around the 12th minute in the first half, Phoenix scored the first goal. However, Seattle Jets took it in their stride and kept building momentum and put pressure on the Phoenix goal with relentless attacks. Around the 20th minute, we got our equalizer in the form of a good field goal. Now, it was 1-1 at half time. There were more discussions and strategy/tactics at half time. Based on the game so far, we were convinced that we had a serious chance at winning and that we could pull it off to reach the finals. The second half of the game was dominated by our team. It seemed that all our outdoor practice this summer had helped increase individual players' stamina. No one seemed to be tired. This, along with some clever substitutions, resulted in the ball being kept in Phoenix half most of the time. After some of our failed attempts and some good saves by Phoenix goalkeeper, we got the winning goal through a penalty corner. We now led 2-1. This dominating pattern continued for most part of second half and we ended with a sweet victory to reach the finals. This win, after being down 0-1, over the top team from Pool A boosted the confidence level of the team. It was a great team effort and the result showed it.

So here we were - in the finals !! Great going so far. In the other semi-final, Sacramento Sikh Society beat San Jose to also reach the final. And they beat us 0-2 in the pool.

Having reached thus far, it now seemed like a possibility, even though a remote one, for Seattle Jets to make a serious attempt at winning the trophy. The pool game loss to Sacramento did not seem to affect our team. Because, even though we lost the game 0-2, we knew that the two goals were a matter of chance/luck and we could still beat them.

The finals were held the same evening and despite our players being tired and heat-exhaustion building up, we were raring to go. The team got together and warmed up and practiced hitting and passing in a circle. I have to admit that I have never seen such enthusiasm and disciplined approach before.

The game started off well and we again played two backs. The half line pushed forward to support the forwards very effectively. In addition, a man-to-man marking of a Sacramento key player, made him quite ineffective. The result was we made several attempts at their goal but were unlucky to score. Then around the 18th minute or so, Sacramento made a couple of really serious raids on our goal. It seemed for a moment that our defense may be penetrated. However, with some luck on our side, we thwarted those attacks successfully. One such attack was particularly strong with a serious melee building inside the D with four attackers and six defenders. It could have gone either way and at one point in time the ball almost reached the goal line. Phew !!! That was very close and almost cost us the game (and trophy :-)).

However, we soon recovered from it and went into half time 0-0. Again, some serious talking and exchange of ideas ensued amongst the team members. We started the second half well with many serious attempts at Sacramento goal. The goal-keeper made some excellent saves, both from field attempts as well as penalty-corners. Talking of penalty corners, our team got some very good practice at taking them. It was actually a big highlight of this tournament that we got so many penalty corners. That is testament to the number of attacks we made on our opponents goal. OK, I got digressed. Back to the final game, second half. As the game went on, the Sacramento team seemed to lose steam. On the other hand, Seattle Jets' team players seemed to have a lot of juice left in them despite the extremely tough conditions. Everyone seemed to have reserve stamina that they drew up on to keep going full-charge. The result - Sacramento forwards did not reach our D more than once in the second half and as a result the ball stayed in their half and D most of the time. Our team was really unlucky to not score despite numerous attempts at the post. Some excellent saves by the Sacramento goal keeper and some poor luck resulted in a no-score end of the game, leading to penalty-shootout to decide the winner.

Again, this was a situation Seattle Jets have not been in before and we have never practiced penalty strokes. After some brief talk and discussion amongst the team, players were lined up for the penalty shootout. It was a tense moment. Sacramento decided to save first. Despite a not-so-strong stroke, Seattle scored, with the Sacramento goalkeeper diving to the other side. 1-0. Sacramento then took their stroke and converted. Score : 1-1. Seattle then converted again with some luck and scored the next goal. It's 2-1 now in our favor. The next Sacramento stroke turned out to be key to our win. Seattle Jets' goalkeeper makes a brilliant save moving swiftly to the right and pushing out the ball with his right glove. Brilliant save and we are one goal up. Seattle Jets then make a good stroke and scored their third goal. Great going ! We are up 3-1 now. Excitement is building up and we have our fingers crossed. Sacramento then converts their third stroke despite a good attempt by our goalkeeper who got his hands to the ball but could not deflect it. Score is now 3-2.  The fourth stroke is again successfully converted by Seattle Jets and we go up 4-2. Sacramento then takes the fourth stroke and converts easily to reduce the goal deficit. We are now up 4-3 and we are ready to take the fifth stroke. If we convert, we win. If we don't, Sacramento gets a lease of life and a chance to equalize. Everyone is very tense but excited at the same time sensing that a victory is possible and very close. We take our fifth stroke and Sacramento goalkeeper makes a save to his right. Oh no...SO CLOSE. Disappointment tries to make it way into our minds but we hold our breath. The score is now 4-3 in our favor but Sacramento has one more stroke to take with a chance to make it 4-4. Pressure is building up and tension can be felt in the air in both teams' camp. We keep our fingers crosses and do our little prayers in our minds. The Sacramento player succumbs to pressure, fumbles and mis-hits a weak stroke outside the left post. Victory is ours and everyone is so jubilant. Big hugs and high fives follow for Seattle Jets while the host team is obviously saddened.

We had to wait until after the finals of the premier league to get our individual trophies. The premier league finals also goes into penalty shootout after a fast-paced 2-2 game. The host team, Sacramento, luckily edges out Surrey Lions, BC in the penalty shootout and are jubilant. A loss in premier league final after losing the social division, would have very hard on the hosts.

This was a great outing for Seattle jets and a great experience. Congratulations everyone !! Every player gave his/her best and as I said before, stamina and strong will-power played a big role in our wins. As is usual and customary after every tournament we participate in, there were talks of hosting a tournament in Seattle :-) There was also talk of travelling to the Phoenix tournament in 3rd week of January every year. I am sure there will be a lot of feedback and talk when we meet this coming Sunday at Marymoor Park for our practice game. I am confident that Seattle Jets will continue to earn more glory in the future. As some of us have been saying, we need to practice penalty corners with different groupings of players. Converting penalty corners is the easiest way to win games !!

That's it for now from Seattle Jets. Until next time, adieu....

Seattle Field Hockey's New Wesbite Launched

We just launched our new website http://www.seattlefieldhockey.us

This is my first blog entry for all field hockey enthusiasts in the Seattle area. We are a group of people with a love for field hockey. Our members are of all ages and different levels of game play. We encourage everyone, including boys, men, girls ,women to join us for the love of hockey.

This Sunday, Aug 15, we will be practicing at Marymoor Park in Redmond at Soccer Field # 1 starting at 5 PM.

On Labor Day weekend, we plan to travel down to Sacramento to participate in the tournament conducted over Fri, Sat and Sun.

We invite anyone interested to join our team to write to me or better yet, join us at practice this Sunday.

More later....