After losing their whole varsity line up to graduation, Dartmouth High School’s field hockey team is looking at a season of “rebuilding,” according to Head Coach Beth Arguin.

“We’ve got some talented young kids — we’re going to fill those shoes,” Arguin said. “It’s going to be hard, but we’re going to try.”

Participation in the sport has been down across the region for some time now, she said. While the school could previously field three teams, they are barely getting enough players to sustain two.

However, compared to some other area teams, she said she believes Dartmouth is still in a “good place.”

At the scrimmage against Somerset Berkley Regional High School held Saturday, Aug. 24, Arguin said she is still sorting out what positions will suit each player best, adding she needs to find a combination of students “who are going to work well together.”

She said it’s challenging to evaluate players in practice, but playing scrimmages such as this help her identify strengths and weaknesses.

“They worked hard,” Arguin added. “I think we just need to work harder now.”

She noted how the team appears to be putting in an amount of energy into their game play that wouldn’t be necessary if they were better utilizing their teammates.

“I think that’s going to just come with chemistry and time,” she said.

Arguin said it's a fast and skill-based game and that’s what she loves about it: “If you have that competitiveness, it’s a fun game to play.”

Co-captains junior Kaelyn Zuber and senior Natalie Murphy said they appreciate the team building aspect of the sport. 

“The feeling you get when you’re with your team and just succeeding and you’re watching everyone grow as people” — that’s what’s kept Zuber playing the sport since she was in kindergarten.

Murphy, who’s also a 12-year player of the sport, said, “I think there’s hope for the season.”

With the team largely being juniors this year, she said she imagines they’ll have an even stronger team next year. 

Zuber said, “Don’t underestimate us because we were good last year and we are still going to be good this year, we just have to put in the work.”