Game Lets Him Stick and Move : Butcher Enjoys Travel With U.S. Field Hockey Team

MOORPARK —  Just call Nick Butcher a happy wanderer. At the tender age of 20, the Simi Valley resident has been to five of the world’s seven continents, excluding Africa and Antarctica.

He has witnessed the pastoral beauty of Great Britain, the monsoon rains and stifling heat of India, and the uninhibited exuberance of Argentina’s sports fans.

“It’s great to meet other people and learn about their cultures,” Butcher said. “I’m a very sociable person.”

Butcher isn’t some jet-setting playboy. He credits most of his travels to field hockey.

As a member of various United States national teams, Butcher has enjoyed the luxury of trotting around the globe. His sport is unfamiliar to most Americans but has proved rewarding for a select group of athletes who have embraced its unique blend of soccer and hockey skills.

Butcher, like many of the nation’s top male field hockey players, is a product of Ventura County’s Field Hockey Federation, which will play host to the 25th annual California Cup starting today at Moorpark College. A field of 94 teams representing six countries is scheduled to participate.

The four-day tournament includes 10 age and skill divisions, with the top men’s teams competing for $3,000 in prize money and the women’s teams playing for $2,500. Games conclude Monday with the Super Women’s Division final at 1 p.m. and the Super Men’s final at 2:30.

Butcher will play with the U.S. under-21 national team in the Super Men’s Division. That’s not the regular squad for the Royal High graduate, who is a starting midfielder on the Olympic team and last week helped the U.S. to one of its best showings in an international tournament.

Playing in Barcelona, Spain--site of the 1992 Olympics--the U.S. won the championship of a tournament that included Ireland, Argentina and Spain. The Americans went 2-0-1, tying Ireland on Sunday after defeating Spain, 3-1, Saturday thanks to two goals by Butcher, the youngest member of the Olympic team.

“It was the most positive outcome for a U.S. team in an international event in at least 20 years,” said Mark Whitney, director of communications for the U.S. Field Hockey Assn.

The triumph in Spain figures to give the Americans an emotional boost as they prepare for the Olympics this summer. The U.S. men’s field hockey team has never won an Olympic game, posting an 0-19-3 record in five Olympics. The last time the U.S. fielded an Olympic team was in Los Angeles in 1984, when the squad finished last among 12 teams.

As in ‘84, the only reason the U.S. is competing in the Atlanta Games is because it gets an automatic berth as the host nation.

Butcher, though, feels that this could be the year the American men end their Olympic winless streak.

“It’s a great opportunity for us because we have nothing to lose and everything to gain,” he said. “We’re playing really well and we expect to do well at the Olympics. . . . We’re starting to gain in the world.”

America’s improvement in field hockey, at least among male players, can be attributed in large part to the strength of Ventura County’s youth leagues. The Field Hockey Federation, which has been in existence for 15 years, has 450 boys and girls ages 6-18 playing in six divisions during a season that runs from February to May.

“We rely heavily on Ventura County leagues,” said Jeff Woods, an assistant coach with the Olympic team who will coach the under-21 team in the California Cup. “It’s been a great source of young players, the guys we’re relying on for the future.”

Butcher started playing in the Field Hockey Federation when he was 15, after his family moved to Simi Valley from Pasadena. He was encouraged by his mother, Ingrid, who played field hockey growing up in Trinidad. His mother and younger sister, Camille, a Royal sophomore, play on teams in the FHF.

Butcher has always enjoyed playing field hockey, but he had to make a big decision concerning his future in the sport when he graduated from Royal in 1994. A competitive soccer player for most of his life, Butcher was weighing scholarship offers from several schools until deciding to postpone college in order to train full time with the national field hockey team at its headquarters in Chula Vista.

Field hockey got the nod over soccer because of the perks.

“You get to travel all over the place for free,” Butcher said. “It was the best opportunity for me.

“Ever since I was a kid, I wanted to be in the Olympics.”

Tom Harris, founder of the California Cup, predicted in 1993 that field hockey would provide Ventura County athletes with a golden opportunity to participate in the 1996 Olympics because of the small number of American men who play the sport.

Of the 11,000 registered players in the U.S. Field Hockey Assn., only 15% are males.

“This is the greatest Olympic opportunity that any young boy living in the area will ever have,” Harris said in 1993.

His words proved prophetic. Six of 16 members of the U.S. Olympic team are from Ventura County, as are all four alternates. Twelve of the 21 players on the U.S. under-21 national team are from Ventura County.

“It’s safe to assume that the highest concentration of male field hockey players in the United States [is in] Southern California,” Whitney said.

Shawn Hindy, 20, of Westlake Village is a member of the under-21 national team and an alternate for the Olympic team. He played every sport from soccer to baseball while growing up, but says he enjoys field hockey the most.

“It’s my favorite because of the nonstop action,” Hindy said. “People think it’s like soccer, but it’s much faster than soccer. It’s fun. When you get acquainted with the stick, that’s when you get good.”

Field hockey has a strategy similar to that of soccer, but is played with hard balls about the size of baseballs and sticks about three feet long. Goals are four feet wide by seven feet high, and goalies are well-padded to protect them from blistering shots. Shin guards are the standard protective equipment for field players.

“Some people can hit the ball 120 miles an hour,” Butcher said.

The game got considerably faster in Ventura County when the artificial-turf Field Hockey Sports Center was built at Moorpark College in 1994.

The facility is used by the FHF and has helped local players get a better feel for the way the sport is played internationally.

“We needed it badly because the rest of the world plays on Astroturf,” Butcher said. “Playing on Astroturf and grass is completely different. It’s quicker [on artificial turf] and there’s less margin for mistakes. You have to be that much more precise.”

The artificial-turf field has helped make the California Cup more attractive to foreign teams. Canada, Malaysia, India, Germany and Taiwan are represented in the tournament. Teams competing in the Men’s Super Division include Quebec, the Punjab Olympians from India and Breakfast Club, a team of U.S. Olympians.

Butcher, who has played in several California Cups, said a highlight of the tournament is meeting players from other nations. He said Taiwan’s youth teams have always been popular with local players because of their playing prowess and because they give pins and miniature flags to their opponents.

“They always bring really good teams, so everybody thinks they’re great and awesome,” Butcher said. “Everybody wants their autographs.”

Butcher admitted he wasn’t one of the signature seekers.

“After they beat us, I was too mad to get autographs,” he said.