These are the talking points which were provided to the Temecula Valley school board which were kindly shared with us:
click here to read a counter point to each of the issues raised below
Here is the memo from the “Friday Updates”
CHS, GOHS, and TVHS Athletic Administrators and Principals met with Field Hockey coaches and teams to convey the news that we will be phasing out Field Hockey programs in TVUSD. Please note: Both GOHS and TVHS still plan to have a varsity field hockey team for the Fall 2025 season. CHS will not.
We have had very little parent pushback about the decision, almost all of it from 4 parents at GOHS. There is very good fiscal, transportation, and instructional justification for the decision to phase out field hockey and add girls’ flag football and girls’ beach volleyball; we are growing opportunities for girls in athletics, not diminishing them.
Here are a couple talking points if you are engaged by any families in the community:
• The #1 issue-There is no field hockey league/conference in Riverside County/Inland Empire. Our Temecula teams must travel to Orange County to compete or have OC or San Diego teams travel to Temecula.
• Transportation costs are high to travel to schools like Huntington Beach and Westminster and buses must leave early in the day to transport our teams that distance.
• Lost instructional time is a concern when buses leave at 11 am for a 3:15 game.
• The landscape of CA high school athletics is shifting and enthusiasm around girls flag football and girls beach volleyball in Riverside County is on an uptick. The Rams and Chargers are marketing and even offering grants to start up girls flag football programs all across southern CA. There was even a commercial during the Super Bowl promoting high school girls flag football.
• TVUSD provided a fall sport interest survey to every current 8th-11th female student in the district and overwhelmingly, flag football was the most popular fall sport of choice for female athletes. Here are some highlights of the survey:
• Facilities impact: Girls flag football is a CIF fall sport, and so is field hockey. With only one turf field on each HS campus, Football, Band, and Field Hockey already struggle to share that space when B/G Soccer, B/G Lacrosse, & Track/Field have year round practice expectations. By phasing out field hockey in place of girls flag football, we “wash” the facility impact.
• Girls Beach Volleyball is a CIF spring sport with their own facility. Teams at TV and GO have already started practicing but won’t compete formally until spring of 2026.
• Finally, girls flag football and girls beach volleyball will have many local high schools and districts with teams to compete against keeping travel and competition close to home. Next fall, Lake Elsinore USD, Perris USD will field flag football teams.
• CIF hosted its first ever Girls Flag Football Championship. Here is a video if you are interested. There will be fans and excitement for GFF and an educated guess is that field hockey athletes will switch over to GFF when they see the excitement around this new athletic opportunity.
I am sad to see Field Hockey leave but I do understand the dilemma. My daughter started Field hockey her freshman year under Tiffany Huisman and like most of the girls she had no idea to play. Thanks to Tiffany and the 79ers she learned quickly and ended up getting a scholarship for this sport. It is hard for kids to get scholarships so we are very thankful for Tiffany and all she did for this program. I do understand the frustration of having to go far to play games. It is unfortunate Murrieta never picked up the sport. I think they would have loved it and we would have been able to play closer teams. I do know the parents helped pay for a lot and Jennifer Nguyen helped get us a lot of funding so the school would not have to be out of pocket. Sharing the football field was tough which is why we started off on the baseball fields and moved our way up to the football field. I would assume flag football will have most of the same struggles at the beginning. After all the work put into getting the program going it will be sad to see it gone. Too bad we can’t have both.
Hi Kelli – I’m still not at all convinced that a good argument has been made to eliminate the sport. If it’s “simply” a matter of sharing field access, then I would put my money on the affected coaches being able to work it out amongst themselves rather than seeing a sport eliminated. It just doesn’t make sense. I’m glad your daughter had such a great experience in the program!
My granddaughter has chosen this sport. This decision to cancel makes absolutely no sense to me. This sport has taught her about teamwork and respect. She has worked so hard to improve her skills and it has been a light on the hill for the community by getting them involved by helping the needs of others. I would hope that whoever made this decision would step back and look at the harm it would cause if they don’t support these young people. So much positive has come from this program.