USA gets serious

BY GARY HAWKINS

MAINE (USA): After spending a year playing with and against some of the better men's field hockey talent in the country, Gardiner's Ross Gorham has formed his long-term goal.
"Now it's much more toward the 2016 Olympics," said Gorham, a current member of the U-21 national team.
Gorham, a 2007 graduate of Gardiner Area High School, has spent the past two weekends competing in tournaments in California and New York. Later this month, he'll play at a festival in San Diego where the junior and senior men's national teams will be re-selected.
"It's getting more and more intense as we draw closer to bigger events," Gorham said.
Gorham, 20, figures there will be 50-60 players competing for one of the 24 roster spots on the U-21 team which will play in the Pan Am Games in October and at the Junior World Cup next June.
Gorham, who is a defensive midfielder, has played field hockey most of his life. He was a member of a middle school team that won three straight championships. Although boys are longer allowed to play on girls teams in high school, he was around the team coached by his aunt, Moe McNally, throughout his years at Gardiner.
"More and more (men) are playing as the national championships get bigger," he said. "There's a lot more younger (boys) playing than ever before."
The men's game is played at a quicker pace and is much more physical than the women's. At 6-foot-1 and 178 pounds, Gorham can hold his own at the junior level.
"I think I do have to get stronger the make it to the next level," he said.
The U.S. men's team failed to qualify for this year's Olympic Games and Gorham thinks many of the players may retire, creating openings throughout the program.
A freshman majoring in sports studies at the University of New Hampshire, Gorham worked out and traveled with the women's field hockey team.
"I'm with the team all the time when they're together," he said. "It's kind of a coaching thing."
Gorham's trip to San Diego will preclude an opportunity to help coach at McNally's Big Cat Field Hockey Camp. But he will coach for Seacoast United in New Hampshire later in the summer.
"There's players from all over the place," he said. "There's a couple of kids from Augusta."