When the Dartmouth High School field hockey team faced a 1-1 tie at their home opener against New Bedford on September 6, head coach Beth Arguin watched from the sidelines, knowing that she will have more work to do to get her team in shape.

“I was more upset over it,” Arguin said. “It felt like a loss to me. We should have won.”

Building the varsity and junior varsity teams began on August 25 with preseason training. Usually, Arguin devotes the first few days of training to deciding who to cut, but this year, Arguin identified the varsity players, and brought the rest of the 36 players onto the JV team.

“I’m still looking for those kids who will shine and can rise above the rest,” Arguin said.

Many of the girls arrive with a firm grasp on how to play field hockey from youth leagues, including the Dartmouth Girls Athletic League, which helps cut down on the need to teach new players, said Arguin. However, the team had taken on more first-year teammates than returning players this year.

“I have a lot of young kids and also have some seniors, but they haven’t really played varsity before,” Arguin said. “I believe we have talent, it’s just a matter of getting us to work well.”

Over the next week of practice, Arguin will be working to fix some of the problems she noticed during the game against New Bedford. She said she will decide which position each team member is the strongest in, improve defensive work, and run her team through more conditioning to develop their strength.

She will also keep an eye out for her strongest players, although she has identified defensive captain Lauren Correia (one of her most experienced varsity players), Grace Sylvia on defense, and Sophia Sousa and Cassidy Vaccari on offense as rising stars, and is now working to figure out which newer players will be able to step up and take on more demanding roles.

Looking forward, Arguin said she has one goal for the season: qualify for the state tournament. She said last year was the first time that she can remember that the team failed to qualify, mostly because of the number of games that ended in ties.