Franklin Mom Recounts Her Experience Playing Field Hockey at the World Cup

By Judith Dorato O’Gara

This past October, Franklin resident Allie Atwood, a Realtor with Mendon Local Realty, got an experience she never expected, the chance to play for the USA national Field Hockey Masters team in the World Cup in Cape Town, South Africa.

“I played field hockey in college at UMass Dartmouth and in high school at Nipmuc Regional,” says Atwood, “then, after I had my daughter in 2017, I really stopped playing. I just did now know that there was adult field hockey out there.” On a whim during COVID, she says, “I went to this outdoor Mom workout group in Foxboro. Another Mom heard me say I play field hockey and asked me, ‘Do you want to play now?’” Atwood texted the number the other mother supplied and joined a pickup group. “It was the most lovely group of women I’ve ever played field hockey with,” she says. In fact, she was able to bring her two children, Sam, now 4 and Kelly, now 7 ½, with her to a few pickup games, since other women in the group would come with their older kids in tow.

“It ended up being a really enjoyable thing they did, stay up late and play with friends,” she says.

It was through that pickup league Atwood met a woman, Lauren, on the Masters team. 

“She recruited me to play. Honestly, once I found this group of women, really, at Forekicks in Norfolk, they had connections to other leagues. It was unreal. Field hockey has always been the thing that makes me happiest. To have that as a consistent back in my life especially after coming out of COVID, was amazing,” says Atwood. Everyone, she says, “needs that thing,” something she tells her children so they can understand why she is gone a lot to play. “This is the thing that makes Mommy really happy,” she tells them.

Last May, Atwood joined about 16-18 women (all over 35) from the Boston area to head down to Virginia to try out for the Masters team. 

“That experience was intense, because that was the first time I’d been coached and playing seriously in probably 10 years,” says the athlete, adding, “Pickup was just fun, but this was, obviously, intense drills, being evaluated for skill sets and being coached while you were there. 

Once she knew she had made the team, Atwood says, she spent as much time as she could this past summer, at least three days a week, playing in different pickup leagues.

“The pickup leagues are just all different groups around,” says Atwood, “One is a specific club team in Boston that I would play that is co-ed, Minuteman Field Hockey.”

For the competition, Atwood traveled with three other women she plays with from the Boston area who also made the Masters team. They spent a total of about 16 days there, with two days of practice for the whole Masters team. Atwood is grateful her husband, Jeff, held the fort at home while she was away, streaming the games for the family to watch. She is also thankful her co-workers at Mendon Local Realty stepped up to help her with her listings.

“The tournament started on Saturday, and we were lucky we got to scrimmage Argentina and Germany before the tournament started,” explains Atwood. “Then, the tournament started, and it was pool play; groups of four and you all play each other round robin. Our pool was US, Hong Kong, Australia, and the Netherlands, and then the top two teams move on. We finished last.” Later, in a continuance of play for the losing teams, USA would play a second Australia team and then Zimbabwe, but in the end, finished last of all the teams.

Despite the team’s placement, Atwood says, “I could not speak highly enough of the positive experience we had down there. We may have come in last, but our team was the most supportive, lovely, enjoyable group of women. Our two coaches were extremely knowledgeable,  positive and had more of a growth mindset throughout the tournament, so our record definitely does not reflect our growth and improvement as a team.”

Atwood says the women taking part in the Masters all shared “a camaraderie across the whole World’s Cup.” She and her other local Masters teammates are once again in the process of trying out for the team.