JV field hockey players asked to remove psych shirts

Mia Senechal, Thomas Chan, and Angela Park
September 26, 2013

Members of this year's junior varsity team were asked to conceal or remove shirts featuring a controversial play on words. "The shirts don't involve an actual swear, and it boosts the team's spirit, so I think they should be allowed to wear them," one athlete said.

On Monday, members of the junior varsity field hockey team wore neon shirts with the phrase “Fhock Yeah” written across the front as part of a psych for their game against Concord-Carlisle.

“Hard to miss those bright neon field hockey shirts with the message FHOCK YEAH isn’t it?” wrote principal John Ritchie in an email sent to faculty Monday morning.

After multiple teachers approached Ritchie concerned about language displayed on the shirts, members of the team were asked to either cover the phrase or change clothes. Many of the athletes covered the words up with their bandanas or turned their shirts inside out.

Five members of the JV field hockey team expressed disagreement with the administration’s decision to have the shirts covered.

“The shirts don’t involve an actual swear, and it boosts the team’s spirit,” one athlete said.

However, as principal, Ritchie felt it was a situation that required action on his part.

“I don’t go immediately to what my personal reaction would be,” Ritchie said. “I think, ‘I’m the principal. I have to make the right decisions.’ What I have to focus on is not how I will react but how other people will react.”