Members of Odyssey Charter School’s first field hockey team (back row, left to right): Agana Davis, Payton McLaughlin, Kaylee Lagarelli, Dominique Frederique, Jocelyn Yost, Ella Smith, Chloe Barone; (front row, left to right): Marianna Gatta, Sofia Cano.

For the first time in its history, Odyssey Charter School has a field hockey team.

Middle school social studies teacher Melissa Daly “came out of retirement” from coaching field hockey and decided to coach Odyssey’s team as the school started the new program this fall.

Daly has plenty of experience with field hockey; she played four years of varsity field hockey at St. Mark’s High School, was an assistant coach at St. Mark’s for 10 years, and also assisted at Delaware Military Academy for six years.

“The biggest challenge of being the coach is starting a new program and having a low number of players on the team,” said Daly.

Odyssey’s team fielded just nine players this year, seven eighth-graders and two 10th-graders. The team played a JV schedule.

Eighth-grader Kaylee Lagarelli said that she had never played field hockey before this season but wanted to try it to get better at softball.

“The trickiest thing is keeping the ball away from your feet,” said Lagarelli, “because if it hits your feet it will be considered a foul and the other team will get the ball.”

Marianna Gatta, another eighth-grader on the team, said that this was her first time on a team but that she had played before at a camp at Tower Hill High School. She said she wanted to play because her cousin was also doing it and she wanted to try a fall sport.

“One of the trickiest things is keeping control of the ball,” said Gatta. She also said it was difficult to learn how to control the hockey stick and learn specific stick movements.

Both players said they saw improvement from all of the Odyssey players.

The team played three games this year. Two weeks ago the Owls faced Concord High School twice and lost 4-0 both times. Last week they lost to Padua Academy 5-0.

In one game, goalie Dominique Frederique, an eighth-grader, recorded nine saves for the Owls.

Other players on the team were 10th-graders Jocelyn Yost and Sofia Cano, and eighth-graders Chloe Barone, Agana Davis, Payton McLaughlin, and Ella Smith.

“I was just telling the refs at our last game I wished people had seen us on day one and then on our last day,” said Daly. “We went from not knowing how to hold a stick to almost scoring in a game. The improvement was immeasurable. It was amazing to watch.”