Ms. Shelley Ewig was hired as a Spanish teacher here at PHS four years ago, and since then she has made her name very well known. Ewig has sponsored the freshman, sophomore, and senior classes along with the half marathon club. She has been involved in wheelchair basketball games, proms, Girls Night Out events, dodgeball tournaments, and more. She enjoys participating in these activities, her classes, and now a new sport.

Ewig took on a new challenge of coaching field hockey this past fall. This is not only a new sport at the high school, but also for her. She is willing to take on any task, including coaching a sport that she has never even played before, and encourages her students and players to do the same.

Ewig first got connected with field hockey from the head coach, Ms. Jessica Dalton (a teacher at Pattonville Heights Middle School), who asked her to join. Ewig thought that this would be a great opportunity because she always wanted to coach.

She said that before coaching field hockey she was extremely nervous because she had never even played the sport or coached a sport.

“It was a lot better than expected,” Ewig said. “I was very afraid to come to a sport I didn’t know, but I loved it.”

Since Ewig had never played field hockey before, she said that she learned about the game by “Googling it and reading children’s books from the library.”

Ewig said she really enjoyed learning to be a coach and said that coaching and teaching are totally different. Ewig said that she discovered how to motivate girls and had to shed her overly tender image in order to be taken seriously as a coach by her players.

Speaking of her players, Ewig stated that she connected extremely well with her girls. She said that loads of laughs were exchanged between her and the players. Ewig even said, “The girls always wanted to invite me to team bonding! I felt so loved. No other coaches were invited to team bondings.”

Ewig discussed all the equipment needed for field hockey. She said that a player would need their own stick, eyewear, their razor back jersey and skirt, strong shin guards, and cleats. The rubber ball is provided. Ewig told of how exciting it was to play games at the new stadium, but she said the girls practiced on the field by Grace Church.

She stated, “We got to practice on the turf one day before the game and it was so fun to play under the lights.” Ewig said that field hockey does need to build their fan base though.

When asked about the daily schedule for practice, Ewig said practice started at 2:45 p.m. sharp. The girls would have to walk up to Grace and make sure to have all their equipment on by the start time. Ewig would have the girls stretch and then condition until 3:15, when Dalton would arrive from Heights. Then Dalton would teach the girls skills.

Ewig stated, “I would run with the girls and yell. They said my yell was very encouraging.”

Ewig would also like to encourage girls to tryout for field hockey as long as they are somewhat athletic and in shape. She said that the skills are not easy to pick up on, but it can be done successfully if players are willing to work. Ewig also shared an interesting fact. She said that field hockey is actually very popular around the world. It is the world’s second most popular team sport.

Throughout this entire experience, Ms. Ewig decided that her favorite memory was when she realized how important she was to her girls. She said that she was unable to attend one of their games because it was the same day as parent-teacher conferences. But as she went on a jog before her conferences started, the bus that took her players to the game drove by and all the girls were waving out the window. She said the girls were texting her play-by-play to keep her updated about the game. It was that event when she realized how much she loved coaching. Ewig would like to encourage students and players to always be open to new things because you never know how much you could enjoy it.