WARREN – It doesn’t seem that long ago when Warren Regina moved from Harper Woods up to Warren.
That was back in 2008, as the school purchased an old building once own by Grace Church and Warren Zoe Christian School.
That was the same time Regina took over about 10 acres in Warren and the year the school added girls field hockey to its growing list of sports.
Although predominately played only by private schools and schools located in the Ann Arbor area – some Michigan high school programs had teams as far back as the 1980s and 1990 – it has only been in recent years that numerous high schools or unified programs between two or three high schools began to dot the state map in Michigan.
“It really is cool to see it grow,” noted Clarkston coach Cary Exline, who took over the Wolves’ program in 2018 after it competed for two seasons under another coaching staff. “We had a nice growth this season with 24 players and I think around 17 of them are new players.”
Ditto for Regina coach Carolyn Lekki, a physical education teacher at the school who often recruits student-athletes to give field hockey a try. Lekki helped form the program at Regina 17 years ago.
“We are the only program in Macomb County right now,” reminded Lekki. “We would love to see more schools add it east of Dequindre (the county line) or maybe east of Woodward. Just below us in Wayne County, the Grosse Pointe schools (Grosse Pointe North, Grosse Pointe South and Grosse Pointe Woods University Liggett) have had the sport for a long time. So have schools like (Birmingham) Marian, (Bloomfield Hills) Cranbrook, (Bloomfield Hills) Sacred Heart and some of the others. When (Wixom) St. Catherine added a team a couple of years ago, that allowed the Catholic League to have two divisions. But hopefully there will be more schools that add it on the east side in the future.”
The field hockey teams in the state field a wide variety of skilled athletes and several of them are multi-sport athletes that were looking for a fall high school sport. Others had backgrounds in sports like lacrosse or ice hockey.
“We have kids from all different sports – lacrosse, softball players, soccer players,” added Lekki. “I think we encourage girls (who aren’t playing another fall sport) to consider coming out for field hockey.”
Clarkston senior Jenna Brown came from a lacrosse background and decided to pick up a stick and give field hockey a try when she was a freshman in August of 2022. Brown recruited fellow classmate and close friend Claire Champagne to play before the 2023 campaign when the pair were sophomores.
Clarkston’s Anna Duggan (No. 4 on left) tries to swipe the ball away from Warren Regina’s Izzy Jones (No. 24) during Monday’s non-league game on Sept. 8, 2025. (DAN STICKRADT — MediaNews Group)
“I’ve learned a lot from my first game my freshman year until now,” admitted Brown, one of Clarkston’s top players and a senior captain. “I think it’s pretty cool for me to see the sport grow even since my freshman year. We’re seeing more schools pop up. We get to play new teams every year and there are some we play every year. But I think every program is growing and our numbers go up each year. I think this is the biggest team we’ve ever had. This year we have more teams in our area than we’ve ever had. It makes me happy to see a sport that I love growing fast.”
Some of it is simply friends recruiting friends at various schools across the state.
“(Jenna) kind of recruited me a couple of years ago and now I love playing it. I didn’t know much about it,” said Champagne. “But we’re having fun playing it and I think it’s nice to see a lot of schools (adding) the sport.”
This year there are 37 girls field hockey teams in the state – seven which are two- or three-school unified teams – and this is also the first-ever season that the sport is sanctioned by the Michigan High School Athletic Association. Boys volleyball is also joining the MHSAA fold as a spring sport in March of 2026.
Only a handful of leagues across the state have enough to play some type of conference schedule, either this year or next. The CHSL has been playing a league schedule for several years and several other conferences are also adding the sport.
“The Catholic League even has two (league) tournaments, a Cardinal (Tournament) and Bishop (Tournament),” noted Regina coach Carolyn Lekki.
Warren Regina coach Carolyn L:ekki addresses her players during halftime of Monday’s game with Clarkston on Sept. 8, 2025 (DAN STICKRADT — MediaNews Group
A sport small in numbers in terms of less than 40 programs state-wide but truly an up and coming sport – generally played only in eastern states of the U.S. even though women’s field hickey is one of the biggest women’s sports globally ranking well inside the top 10 – girls field hockey is starting to grow at the prep level. It also played at the collegiate level at four different Michigan universities (Michigan, Michigan State, Central Michigan and Rochester Christian University).
The Catholic High School League leads the way with nine programs, while the Kensington Lakes Activities Association has six teams and the Oakland Activities Association (mainly Oakland County) and Ottawa Kent Conference (Grand Rapids area) both have five teams from their league now sponsoring teams. The Macomb Area Conference only has two schools offering the sport, while there are also a sprinkling of independents coming from various conferences in the Detroit and Flint areas.
There are currently no teams from the Lansing, Kalamazoo, Jackson, Battle Creek, Saginaw, Bay City or northern Michigan areas – yet. But that could change in the upcoming years.
‘It might take a few years to really get going. We’ll see,” offered Clarkston’s Exline. “There’s (five) programs from the OAA right now. But I think once it hits Lake Orion, Oxford, maybe the Rochester schools, the usual suspects, it will really start to take off around here.”
Once the regular season is complete, the 37 programs state-wide will be placed into four somewhat evenly-numbered regionals for a state tournament – although hosted by the MHSAA for the first time. Four teams will win regional titles, two will play in the state finals and only one will be crowned the inaugural MHSAA Open Division state champion. Previously, the coaches association was run in recent years through the Great Lakes Field Hockey Association, which helps govern several states as a coaches association.
The four regionals – Clarkston, Rockford, Ann Arbor Pioneer and Grosse Pointe Woods Muriel Field – will be broken down by the Michigan Power Rankings and geographical areas. The state finals will take place Oct. 25.
While some teams are uber-talented, deep and feature numerous college prospects, others are still in their early years and are trying to build up their respective programs. Some schools have just a varsity while some of the other more established programs or larger enrollment schools have varsity, JV-A and sometimes even a JV-B team competing, giving players from a wide range of skill and talent levels a chance to compete.
Clarkston (white) and Warren Regina (blue) battled during a non-league game on Monday, Sept. 8, 2025. (DAN STICKRADT — MediaNews Group)
“I have been playing since my freshman year. I was brand new to the sport that year and over time you see bigger teams (at every school). You see new teams and sometimes we’ll play each other more than once,” said Regina junior Sydney DesMadryll. “We have bigger leagues now, which is really nice to see. It’s nice to go out here and see more teams (competing) and hopefully it continues to grow the next several years. It really is a fun sport to play. And now you’re starting to see some really familiar faces on the other teams. The competition is getting better.”
Opportunities are also Ghere for standout players who wish to play beyond high school.
“There are a lot of opportunities to play in college, too,” continued DesMadryll. “I never would have thought about that when I came to Regina. But now that the sport is growing we’ll see more players (from Michigan) playing in college (in the future).”
MHSAA MEMBERS WITH GIRLS SCHOOLS FIELD HOCKEY:
Ann Arbor Father Gabriel Richard
Ann Arbor Greenhills
Ann Arbor Huron
Ann Arbor Pioneer
Ann Arbor Skyline-Ypsilanti Lincoln Unified
Birmingham Detroit Country Day
Birmingham Marian
Birmingham United
Canton-Plymouth-Salem Unified
Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook-Kingswood
Bloomfield Hills Sacred Heart-Bishop Foley Unified
Bloomfield Hills
Brighton
Chelsea
Clarkston
Dearborn
Dearborn Edsel Ford
Dexter
East Grand Rapids
Farmington Hills Mercy
Farmington Unified
Grand Blanc
Grand Rapids Forest Hills Central-Northern Unified
Grosse Pointe North
Grosse Pointe South
Grosse Pointe Woods University-Liggett
Hartland-Milford-White Lake Lakeland Unified
Wixom St. Catherine
Hudsonville-Grandville-Hudsonville Unity Christian Unified
Northville
Novi
Pinckney
Rockford
Saline
Spring Lake
Warren Regina
West Bloomfield
Three players from Clarkston (white) and Warren Regina (blue) converge on the loose ball during Monday’s non-league game in Warren on Sept. 8, 2025 (DAN STICKRADT — MediaNews Group)
BY CONFERENCE
CATHOLIC HIGH SCHOOL LEAGUE-CENTRAL DIVISION
Birmingham Marian
Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook-Kingswood
Farmington Hills Mercy
Grosse Pointe Woods University-Liggett
CATHOLIC HIGH SCHOOL LEAGUE-AA DIVISION
Ann Arbor Father Gabriel Richard
Ann Arbor Greenhills
Bloomfield Hills Sacred Heart-Bishop Foley Unified
Warren Regina
Wixom St. Catherine
KENSINGTON LAKES ACTIVITIES ASSOCIATION
Brighton
Canton-Plymouth-Salem Unified
Dearborn
Hartland-Milford-Lakeland Unified
Northville
Novi
MACOMB AREA CONFERENCE
Grosse Pointe North
Grosse Pointe South
OAKLAND ACTIVITIES ASSOCIATION
Birmingham United
Bloomfield Hills
Clarkston
Farmington Unified
West Bloomfield
OTTAWA KENT CONFERENCE
East Grand Rapids
Grand Rapids Forest Hills Central-Northern Unified
Hudsonville-Grandville-Hudsonville Unity Christian Unified
Rockford
Spring Lake
SOUTHEASTERN CONFERENCE
Ann Arbor Huron
Ann Arbor Pioneer
Ann Arbor Skyline-Ypsilanti Lincoln Unified
Chelsea
Dexter
Pinckney
Saline
INDEPENDENTS
Birmingham Detroit Country Day
Dearborn Edsel Ford
Grand Blanc
COLLEGE WOMEN’S FIELD HOCKEY TEAMS IN MICHIGAN:
Central Michigan University
Michigan State University
Rochester Christian University
University of Michigan
Originally Published: September 9, 2025 at 12:44 AM EDT