MH News: A Truly Wide World of Sports - Alison Hersey Risch

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Note: This article was written by senior field hockey player Peggy Wefald and originally appeared in the November 19 issue of the MH News.

SOUTH HADLEY, Mass. (Nov. 19, 2009) – As the NCAA Division III Field Hockey Tournament draws near, some esteemed field hockey alumnae prove that their passion for the game is as strong as their passion for their alma mater. Alison Hersey Risch is one such alum. Alison has seen the game of field hockey and lacrosse evolve into the sport we have today, both Varsity sports at Mount Holyoke.

Daughter of a class of '27 alum, Mount Holyoke was an automatic choice for Alison’s college career. Alison recalls, "It was a good fit even though it took an extra year of academics to get the big acceptance letter."

During that post-graduate year at the Northampton School for Girls, Alison played one year with Hampshire Association Field Hockey. In that short year, Alison made the Northeast Team and National Tournament. For the next five years, Alison continued to play with Hampshire Field Hockey as it brought her exposure to a high level of coaching and game play. When she entered MHC in 1955, field hockey was only offered as a club sport and Smith was the only intramural competition.

A year later, Alison represented the United States Field Hockey Association touring team to South Africa and Rhodesia. There, Alison traveled with both the Springbok and Scottish teams, playing each other and other provincial teams. Alison remembers that her time with the South African teams was before they were banned from international play and held the reputation of being "the finest Field Hockey players in the world." This would be the year Alison would learn "what fitness meant." In 1959, Alison took a leave of absence from her second semester of her senior year to once again represent the USFHA again on the Touring Team to the International Conference in Amsterdam.

After graduating, Alison found herself at Tufts earning a M.Ed in preschool education and became fascinated with Lacrosse, a sport that she wasn't competitively exposed to at Mount Holyoke. She began playing with the Boston Women's Lacrosse Association and was "hooked by the fastest game on two feet." She would go on to travel to Great Britain and Ireland as captain of the United States Womens' Lacrosse Association team. However her passion for field hockey never faded.

In 1962 she was invited to play England in Wembley Stadium and tour the British Isles. She recalls the event, "we played before 52,000 rabid school girls who could match the noise of any Red Sox/Yankees game." They tied England that year for the first time in history. The next year, The USFHA hosted the International Conference at Goucher College and she played left wing for the team. In 1967, she played internationally again in Germany. Her final tour came in 1969 when she traveled with the Great Britain Pioneers Lacrosse Team to Australia with the goal of modern lacrosse to the Aussies. That year she went to New Zealand on to Honk Kong, Tokyo and back to Amsterdam "introducing our sport to the world." However, only a year later Australia would come to the US and defeat them. Alison recounts, "I think we taught them too well."