Whack.
The composite stick takes a blow to her knee with all the force of the opposing players swing. Blood trickles down her leg as she continues to play the game, holding her team’s defense strong. Its not until her team secures the win that she worries about her gashed knee. She ends up needing five stitches to close the wound.
Slam.
The field hockey stick strikes again, this time making contact with the player’s right hand. Finger broken she once again finishes out the game. She doesn’t worry about the pain of her injury until she steps onto the sideline. Leaving all she has on the field is her first priority.
Injuries are an expected part of the game. Competitive athletes know this and will try and push through the pain to play the game they love. Athletes like Erin Hoag wouldn’t take herself off of the field hockey field for a couple stitches or broken fingers.
“When I’m playing, my adrenaline is pumping so much that I’m only focused on winning the game,” says Hoag, a former field hockey player for Monmouth University.
Driven from the age of 10 when she initially picked up a field hockey stick, Hoag constantly trained to better herself in the game. From summer camps, competitive leagues, and playing on her school teams she never saw a break from the sport.
During her high school career Hoag played for coach Danyle Heilig at Eastern Regional High School. During her four years playing she assisted her high school team in attaining a 104-3 record. She collected four state championships along with three NJ Tournament of Champion crowns. Finishing up her high school athletic career Hoag racked up South Jersey first-team honors in both 2011 and 2012, along with defensive player of the year honors in 2013.
This continual success in field hockey is what led Hoag to go on to play for a Division I collegiate field hockey team at Monmouth. Looking towards her future athletic career, further success was expected.
But unforeseen injuries took her athletic career elsewhere.
Starting her freshman year for the Hawks in 2013 Hoag would go on to start six games while playing a total of 17 games in the season. Throughout her rookie season she saved six goals, had one assist and one goal. She felt confident with her freshman campaign.
“It was a lot of work but all worth it all when I got the opportunity to play on the field,” says Hoag.
But this opportunity instantaneously changed after suffering an injury that left her with a fractured wrist. Unable to bend, move or rotate her once dominant hand Hoag saw herself facing an injury she could not just play through.
According to the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) only 13.1 percent of all injuries result in an athlete missing 21 or more days of play. The majority college sports injuries result in a shorter time of missed participation lasting between three to five days. With her fractured wrist, Hoag was looking at an extended period off of the field to recover from her injury.
“When you suffer an injury playing at the collegiate level the stakes are just so much higher, “ said Hoag.
Hoag received an athletic scholarship that covered half of the upwards of $50,000 cost to attend Monmouth University. With a scholarship on the line, Hoag was concerned about her recovery and staying in shape to the standard that her coaches anticipated from the team.
Training at the Division I level already proved to be challenging enough when she was at full health and capable of working out daily. With her lengthy time off of the field due to her injury, Hoag was apprehensive about staying in shape.
“During my first season I was already scheduled for extra daily cardio workouts to adjust to the level that the rest of the team was at,” said Hoag.
On top of the team practices every day, Hoag was waking up at the crack of dawn to complete individual workout routines before the start of her classes. From early morning training to full days of classes then to team practice Hoag was overworked as a student athlete to say the least.
Furthermore facing an injury that kept her from this daily training she knew she would be facing even more training sessions to get back on the same level with the rest of her team.
“My schedule prior to my injury was already demanding for me. I was balancing the coarse load of pre-med classes on top of two-a-days. It quickly became clear to me how the level for both sports and academics is so much more intensified in college than it was in high school,” said Hoag.
After suffering from her injury Hoag came to the conclusion that she would not be able to continue with her field hockey career at Monmouth while upholding the academic goals she had set in place for herself. However her injury and her successful athletic career spurred a direction in the career path she would later pursue.
Always planning to go to medical school post undergraduate, Hoag realized now that she wanted to specialize as a doctor for sports related injuries. Knowing the feeling of being taken from the sport she loved, Hoag wants to be able to help athletes get through their recovery process and back into the game.
“It just kind of hit me one day,” said Hoag. “Sports have been such a large part of my life and I know they always will be. To be able to integrate what I want to do for a career and be able to help athletes overcome their injuries at the same time would be ideal for me. I’ve been on the other side as the athlete so I know how much is at stake and how badly these athletes want to get back playing the game.”
After graduating from Monmouth University Hoag was accepted to the Rowan School of Osteopathic Medicine for the following year. In the fall of 2017 Hoag started her first year of medical school and her journey to become a doctor specializing in sports injuries.
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