First off, I would like to thank EG News for giving me the space to voice my opinions. Any opinions voiced here are my own and not necessarily those of EG News. How long this lasts and how often we get together depends on you and your response. I encourage anyone that has an opinion on what is written here to comment. And, if you have an issue you feel should be brought up here, let me know. 

This blog is focused primarily on East Greenwich High School sports, but other issues may pop up from time to time. I welcome your input.

So, we start another year. 

All sports started tryouts and practices the week of Aug. 14 and I stopped by the field last week to find the girls field hockey and soccer teams practicing. Both teams did great last year with field hockey taking second place in the state championship.

Talking to field hockey head coach Deb McMullen, her biggest setback from last season was losing eight seniors. The one senior in particular who will be hard to replace is Alex Mega. Still, Deb told me that she has enough talent to feel confident about this upcoming season.

When I asked the question of who will step up, she didn’t hesitate to say, “I have unbelievable leaders both on and off the field and exceptional players.” 

She named Migs and Cat Neville; junior midfielders Maeve Kiernan, Olivia Prior, Ellie Picard; and junior goalie Layla Cameron. She also told me that Sachi Chan and Catherine Sprague will also be full-time contributors.

I got to see them in action Aug. 26, when EG hosted Notre Dame for a scrimmage and the Avengers looked pretty good. I see that set plays are being used, but passing skill is lacking. No score was kept but the ball spent most of its time in the ND end.

Every time I heard the distinct sound of the ball hitting the baseboard in the back of the net it was always at the ND end of the field.

There are new rule changes in field hockey this season. Now the players can wear any jewelry they want as long as it doesn’t cause a threat of injury to the wearer or others. At this scrimmage, the official pointed out a set of large hoop earrings that a player had on, but the officials did not tell her to take them off.  

The other is players do not have to wear head protection. The only time it is mandatory is during a corner. Then the defensive players must wear the gear but can discard them off the playing field after the corner is started. 

What do you think about these changes? Time will tell how these changes play out, but they are a hand down from college where they’ve been in effect for a while.

Should the school set its own rule about jewelry?    

And at the beginning of the season think about having me shadow your player for a game. This season I’ll be posting fewer games on my site and more on MaxPreps, so the surefire way to have great action shots of your player is the Shadow. Check my site chuckn.com for more information.

Chuck Nadeau is a photographer and sports enthusiast.