The Northport Junior Travel League was created in 2009 by Mike & Lora McGinley and Kathy Smith. It came out of a brainstorming session looking to give our girls a new sport for the Fall. Many of the girls played lacrosse in the spring and we thought this would be a great compliment to that and hence the idea was born. The first team, in the fall of 2009, fielded eighteen 5th grade girls. With a tremendous amount of help and support from Patty Gardiner and the Northport Field Hockey Booster Club, the then Athletic Director Drew Cronin and the High School coaches and players, our first year was most successful. All the girls LOVED this new sport.
In 2010, our second year, we fielded one 5th grade and two 6th grade teams and in the Fall 2011 we were proud to have two teams in each grade. In 2013 we added 4th grade and in 2016 we added 3rd grade as the league continued to grow.
The future of field hockey in Northport is really looking bright. We are sending highly skilled field hockey players into the middle schools and the high school. These junior league kids are breaking high school records and winning more games then ever before. Time has a way of flying by because the very first group of girls from 2009 are now in college and a few of them are playing field hockey. To date the high school has had 6 “All-State” varsity players which we like to think is in part because of this little idea we had back in 2009.
Read the first article written about us in the Observer on October 22, 2009.