Written by Aaron Ramsey / Co - authored by Kylee Elderkin
Fireworks, field hockey, and football - that's a lot of events happening on one field.
On september 7th, 2019, the UMaine Black Bears field hockey team were in a double overtime game with Temple University. The game took place at Kent State University in Ohio. On this day UMaine experienced what they called “a first.” UMaine and Temple were kicked off the Kent State field hockey field after the first overtime period with a tied game at 0-0 so they could set up fireworks for a football game occuring later that day. Although the teams were informed that the field would not be available after 10:30 am, the contract stated that if they allowed a 9:00 am start than the game should be allowed to finish to conclusion. The Kent State athletic department sent out a tweet apologizing for the inconvenience. Here at Nokomis, we decided to conduct an interview with Nokomis field hockey coach Katie Thompson. This interview was conducted via phone call.
Q: “How did you hear about the news?”
A: “I heard this news through the UMaine Twitter account.”
Q: “What was your first reaction when you heard this news?”
A: “I was shocked. I thought that there must be more to the story.”
Q: “Are surprised that this incident got the attention that it did?”
A: “I was definitely surprised that it made national news but I am glad it did. I am glad that people took notice to a women's sport being pushed aside.”
Q: “Do you think this reflects negatively on Kent State's reputation? Their athletic department?”
A: “I think their reputation has been only slightly tarnished because they did warn them that they would have to be off the field by a certain time.”
Q: “Do you think that the outcome of the game should have been different? Not called as a scrimmage?”
A: “I think they should have been allowed to play out the game and finish.”
Q: “Do you think that the field hockey team being kicked of had to do with the gender of the sport? Or the fact that football has more fans/spectators?”
A: “I do not believe that it had to do with gender at all. I think that it had to do with the scheduling issues. They had already planned to use the field and the field hockey teams were aware of that.”
Q: “Do you think that if it were Kent State's field hockey team playing that it would have been different? Do you think they would have been kicked off the field?”
A: “I think that scheduling would have been different and the two events would not have interfered with one another.”
You can also check out this article written by The Washington Post. The article includes the coaches reactions and a video of the fireworks.
We would like to thank Nokomis field hockey coach Katie Thompson for her time and sharing her thoughts on the whole situation.