By Duncan Nixon
Correspondent
The Fluco sports calendar for the fall season is in place and the action begins soon. Traditionally fall brings us football, volleyball, golf, competition cheer and cross country. This fall there is a new sport on the Fluco calendar. It is girls’ field hockey. This is a fast-paced sport that tends to be low scoring, like soccer. Like soccer and lacrosse, the goal is to get the ball past a goalie and into the net.
The rules of field hockey are different from many other sports and may take spectators a little time to understand. The game is played with a hard ball that is hit with a stick that has one flat side. That side must be used to hit the ball. The ball must be hit along the ground and not up in the air, except on shots on goal. In upper level play, the competitors have the experience and ability to adhere to this rule on virtually all hits. With players who are new to the game, the ball tends to come up in the air fairly often. Although players wear shin guard and mouth guards, when the ball comes up in the air it can hit an opposing player hard and painfully.
Two rules of play in field hockey that take some getting used to are, no tackling (going for the ball) from behind, and no “obstruction”, which is turning your back on an opposing player to put yourself between that player and the ball. In a number of other sports that is a standard and recommended maneuver. You also may not stop or move the ball with your feet.
The field hockey squad does not start play until Sept. On Sept. 3 and 5 they host Chancellor High and Powhatan High. On Sept. 12 they travel to Charlottesville, and then return home on Sept. 17 to take on Western Albemarle. As this will be the Flucos’ first year of play in field hockey and they will be playing schools that have had field hockey squads for a number of years, this will no doubt be a learning season.
In football, the Flucos are coming off the first winning season in a number of years, so there is a lot of excitement about the coming season. Fans may be disappointed to learn that their schedule does not have them playing any regular season games at home until September.They have a scrimmage at William Monroe on Aug. 16 and a home scrimmage against Fork Union Military Academy (FUMA) on Aug. 23. The football team’s regular season begins on Aug. 30 with a game at Broadway High. They then play on the road again on Sept. 6 at Spotsylvania. The first regular season home game is not until Sept. 13 when they host Nelson County. The JV football team has a similar schedule. There is now also an 8thgrade football team, which has a nine-game schedule, playing a host of teams that are not the usual Jefferson District suspects.
The Fluvanna High volleyball team has its normal extensive schedule, with 18 regular season matches lined up plus an invitational. The girls play scrimmages away on Aug. 10, 17 and 21, before beginning their regular season at home on Aug.27 against Broadway High.
Golf is a fall sport that is limited by the hours of daylight available. Once we are off daylight savings time, the golf team’s season is over due to how early darkness sets in. Like football and volleyball, the golf team starts its 2019 season on the road. On Aug. 8 they travel to Spotswood High on Aug. 12 they are at Nelson County. On Aug. 14 there is a District meet at Orange County.
Cross country is a sport in which the Flucos have consistently been pretty strong, especially on the girls’ side. The teams start the season with the big Ragged Mountain meet on Aug. 27. They travel to Goochland High on Sept. 4 and to William Monroe on Sept. 7. They then host a meet against Jefferson District opponents on Sept. 18.
The Competition cheer squad has only three meets on its schedule, and all are away. The first is not until September when they travel to Spotswood.
