Freshman Kim Goh, shown here in earlier action, represented her country as a member of the United States Under-19 women’s field hockey team earlier this month. Goh started all 17 games for Harvard as a rookie.
When most people skip classes, it usually isn’t because they are doing something productive.
But freshman Kim Goh played hooky to play hockey.
Goh recently returned from Argentina, where she played for the United States Under-19 women’s field hockey team.
The squad played four games against Argentinean field hockey clubs during its tour, which lasted from Apr. 6 to Apr. 10.
Though Goh has been on the U19 team for two years, this was her first trip to Argentina with USA Field Hockey. In 2009, in the wake of the Beijing Olympics, the tour was cancelled for budgetary reasons.
After being chosen as one of the final 21 players looking to make the travelling team, Goh earned an official roster spot in February.
“I was really excited, because I really wanted to go to Argentina the first year,” Goh said. “They did a really wonderful job getting us around [Buenos Aires]. It can be sort of a daunting task taking a team of young Americans to a foreign country.”
The U.S. team played four games against various Argentinean field hockey clubs.
The Americans split two games against Argentina’s U18 team, winning the first game, 2-1, before falling by the count of 3-0 the next day.
Against field hockey club GEBA U18—some of whose players, according to Goh, “[are] on the brink of going to the 2012 Olympics”—the US team lost, 5-0. In the final match of the tour, the squad defeated Banfield U18, 5-0, to finish the trip with a 2-2 record.
“I think that over the course of the four games, we saw some different styles and different levels, but it bodes very well for us towards the end of the tournament,” said Diane Madl, the coach of the American U19 team during the tour.
Madl is currently the head field hockey coach at Providence College. The U19 team she led through the Argentina trip had not played together before February and only began its serious practices in the few days before leaving, according to Goh.
The freshman, who started every game on defense for the Crimson this fall, also earned Madl’s praise for her play during the exhibition tour.
“Kim was ‘Steady Eddie,’” Madl said. “She played very consistently and was a solid member of our defensive unit.”
But beyond the games themselves, Goh noticed a difference in attitudes between competitors before and after the matches.
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