UNC field hockey is supported by family

For the third consecutive weekend the No. 1 North Carolina field hockey team will load up the bus and hit the road.

The Tar Heels spent last weekend in New York and will take on Delaware and Villanova in Newark, Del., this weekend.

But these away games won’t be played in unfamiliar territory. For 14 Tar Heels, the weekend will be a homecoming of sorts.

More than half of coach Karen Shelton’s squad is from a mid-Atlantic state, and they savor the opportunity to play in front of friends and family in venues closer to home.

“I do like to go to the Philadelphia region because we do have a lot of kids from the Pennsylvania region,” Shelton said. “It’s just the central location for a lot of our fans and supporters.

“It’s a bit of a homecoming, and it’s also a great recruiting opportunity for us to have exposure to what’s considered the hotbed of field hockey.”

The games are often played on the same fields where players’ field hockey careers began.

“I played on that turf in high school for state championships,” senior Delaware native Caitlin Van Sickle said. “So it’s just a home atmosphere. It just makes it that much better to play in front a lot of people that I know.”

While en route to the games, the Tar Heels often make pit stops at players’ homes. Rachel Magerman’s family hosted the team for a home-cooked dinner last Thursday night on the way to Syracuse.

“It was kind of surreal to have everyone from my team get to see my home and where I grew up,” Magerman, a junior forward and Pennsylvania native, said. “It was really nice, though, to be home and have a big dinner with the entire team before we had to go play.”

Because the games in New York and Delaware are so much closer to many players’ hometowns, family and friends jump at the opportunity to see the Tar Heels compete.

“It definitely (feels like a home atmosphere),” Magerman said. “Especially because this weekend we’re going to Delaware, and most of us are from Pennsylvania or New Jersey on the East Coast, so at Delaware there are more parent fans than there are at any of the other games here.”

The Van Sickle family will host this week’s Thursday night dinner on the road.

This will be the Van Sickles’ first time welcoming the entire team. In previous years the dinners for trips to the Delaware area were hosted by the family of National Player of the Year Katelyn Falgowski, who graduated.

“That’s a tradition that’s been carried on,” Shelton said. “For four years we went to the Falgowskis’ home on that Thursday night after that long trip up to Delaware, so it’s really nice.”

The family atmosphere is unique to UNC field hockey, Magerman said.

“I definitely think that it’s more family oriented than a lot of other sports,” she said. “I don’t know many sports other than us at Carolina that has a tailgate after almost every game that is provided by just our parents.”

Contact the desk editor at sports@dailytarheel.com.