COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - USA Field Hockey is making Lancaster County its home for the foreseeable future.
USA Field Hockey has announced it will make Nook Sports its home base for the U.S. Women's National Team through 2022.
Nook Sports, named after its location on Spooky Nook Road in Manheim, will be the nation's largest indoor sports complex and will also host national USA Field Hockey sanctioned events beginning in 2014, according to the organization.
"We have been searching for a Home of Hockey in the northeast over the last several years and are excited to announce we have found a place the U.S. Women's National Team will call home in Lancaster County," said Steve Locke, Executive Director of USA Field Hockey in a statement. "Nook Sports is one of the most spectacular athletic facilities in the country. The location is ideal as many of our athletes come from the east coast, especially the Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland and Virginia area. There is no doubt that this is a game changing moment for our sport. The Home of Hockey will provide us with a platform to best prepare our National Teams for success in international competition and serve as a beacon and center of excellence for developing athletes of all ages."
USA Field Hockey officials will be in Lancaster on Friday for an official announcement. The U.S. Women's National Team will relocate from its training center in Chula Vista, Calif. to Lancaster upon the completion of the new venue in late summer of 2013.
USA Field Hockey's believes creating a home of hockey in the northeast, where field hockey is most prominent, coincides with the organization's mission to promote and grow the sport.
Nook Sports will be USA Field Hockey's home base for many elite, junior and development events, including, from 2014 onwards, host of the National Futures Championships, Futures Elite Championship and the National Club Championship.
The indoor center will become the permanent host of the National Indoor Tournament beginning in 2015.
Nook Sports promised to have state-of-the-art facilities, including two water-based turf pitches, six additional artificial surfaces and over 700,000 square feet of indoor space.
The area designed specifically for Team USA will feature pristine home and away locker rooms, strength and conditioning facilities, conference and lounge areas as well as office space for staff members.
"Not only will USA Field Hockey's move to Nook Sports ignite even more excitement for the sport within the region, but it will create more opportunities for aspiring young players," said Steve Goris, General Manager of Nook Sports in a statement. "With local, regional, national and now international games, leagues and tournaments year-round, it will create a multi-million dollar economic impact for Lancaster County."
"This is a very exciting time for USA Field Hockey as we begin a new quadrennial, but even more so because Nook Sports is creating an impressive home for us in Lancaster, Pa.," said Lauren Crandall, 2008, 2012 Olympian and U.S. Women's National Team captain in a statement. "I was overwhelmed by the massive size of the building and property and after meeting the owner and staff of the project, I was quickly impressed by the details they were putting into the project - nothing is being overlooked, no detail too small. The creative, intelligent minds that are working together on this project give me full faith it will be something special for USA Field Hockey and the far reaching hockey community. To have a Home for Hockey so central to the majority of the field hockey population is exciting to say the least. We hope it will translate into continual growth and strengthening of our sport in the surrounding areas as well as across the country."
