I wanted to write and talk about black African Americans as field hockey players. As a young African American girl, I really had no one (as the same color) to look up to; besides my sister that is. I went into Google one day and looked up “African American Field Hockey Players”, thus falling upon the great Mimi Smith.
It’s not uncommon and certainly obvious that there are not many black women who participate in field hockey and that it is said to be a “white” sport. I definitely beg to differ and am for the change of incorporating more field hockey into black schools and neighborhoods. And the reason I say this is possible is because of people like Mimi Smith.
Picking up a field hockey stick by accident one day, and realizing that she loved the sport is something that most field hockey players share in common. But the fact that she was only the second African American women to receive “All-America first-team selection and received the Honda-Broderick Award for field hockey; the nation’s most prestigious award given to the top field hockey player in the country,Yogi as her predecessor,” (Yogi was her field hockey coach) is something that most African American field hockey players do not share in common.
Mimi is and was special. “Mimi played on the USA National Field Hockey Team from 1999 to 2004. Smith’s 2002 season involved scoring the tying goal in the championship game of the International Atlantic Cup to give the United States an eventual 3-2 extra time victory over Ireland. She also played for the U.S. World Cup Team and scored a penalty stroke to help the United States defeat Japan in the ninth/10th place game, 4-2, in strokes at the World Cup. On October 14, 2001 Mimi scored her first career international goal in a game against South Africa. In 1999, she won a silver medal at the Pan American Games. She was also a member of the U.S. team that won the 4 Nations Tournament in Canada in June of 1999,” all according to her biography on Reach Field Hockey’s website.
Playing at one of the top colleges in the country, Old Dominion University, Mimi made a name for herself that stood for years to come. The defensive back led Old Dominion to a National Championship, named Defensive Player of the Year and Rookie of the Year; her honors go on and on with her most decorated honor as being the second African American women to receive the 1999 Honda Award Winner of being the top Field Hockey Player in the country, coupled with being inducted into the ODU Hall of Fame.
Her career is most impressive, and unfortunately, not many people or hockey athletes know about her. She is one of the few African Americans who was able to play on the US National Field Hockey team and travel the world, all the while playing the sport she loves. Her story is amazing and encouraging; she inspires me. See as an athlete, and typically being the only black field hockey player on the team, I really had no one to look up to. Everyone that I was amazed by did not look like me. I always had this stigma that since I was not white, I could not play good, or someone automatically thought I wasn’t good. I do not want other generations below me to feel this way. I thank Mimi Smith for being so inspiring to me and to other black athletes out there.
Today, Mimi owns her own field hockey organization called REACH Field hockey. She works to fulfill all fundamental skills during her time with the athletes, and she pushes the importance of love for the sport. WHAT AN INSPIRING STORY!
Sports Life! 