As Jonathan St. John stood in the gymnasium of Rancho Buena Vista High School a few years ago, he saw a girl with a field hockey stick repeatedly hitting a ball against the wall.
“I thought, 'Dang, there's field hockey here?'” he said.
St. John, now the field hockey coach at San Marcos High, moved from England to America in 2001. With a master's degree in Arabic and Middle Eastern studies, St. John had attempted to get a job with the U.S. government as a translator but couldn't get the necessary security clearance. He ended up working as a custodian and substitute teacher at RBV.
It was there that the lifelong field hockey player noticed the young girl with the field hockey stick.
“Outside of the United States, field hockey is a predominantly male sport,” St. John said. “It was kind of a shock when I got here. It took a while to get adjusted to it.”
But it didn't take long for St. John to start coaching; the Longhorns had an immediate opening for a field hockey coach. While working toward his teaching degree, St. John took over a team that had struggled mightily in the previous season. With free reign over the squad, St. John cut several veteran varsity players during summer tryouts.
“I didn't intend to coach. I had no coaching experience,” St. John said. “I think most people assumed I knew nothing about the game.”
The native of Bath, England, (author Jane Austen's hometown) began playing field hockey when he was 8 years old in a place where it was primarily a club sport, although he had played in college. In America, things were entirely different.
“I know nothing about how high school sports work here,” he said. “Calling scores into the paper, dealing with fans, dealing with parents – it was a mystery.”
So was dealing with the refs. During one of the games in 2002, his inaugural season, St. John disagreed with a call against his team. He ran out onto the field to protest the call, getting in the face of the official.
“Can you imagine the ump reacting to that? He didn't take very kindly to it,” St. John said. “So I learned quickly.”
As did his team. St. John brought the squad to a 10-6-2 record in his first season, just missing the playoffs. The next season, his team went 19-7 and made it to the Division 1 CIF Championship, where the team fell to La Costa Canyon in two overtimes.
After that season St. John had some decisions to make. His wife, Rachel, was pregnant, and St. John needed a full-time teaching job to stay at RBV. After months went by with no job offer, St. John went looking elsewhere.
He found an opening, as both a teacher and a field hockey coach at San Marcos High School, and despite later being offered a position by Rancho, St. John took the San Marcos job in 2004. He believed, at that time, that the San Marcos school district was in a better financial state.
“Field hockey had to not be the decision,” he said. “It was horrible.”
St. John's field hockey teams have struggled, as have many Knights sports teams since the school split with Mission Hills. This season, the team has won just one game and St. John has just one player who has played hockey for more than two years.
This is something St. John, as well as former JV coach Kaci Bronson, now head coach of RBV, are trying to change. Since field hockey is not offered at the middle schools in San Marcos, unlike in other North County school districts, the two have been operating a club team during the summers called Club Fierce. It offers off-season training for field hockey players.
St. John also works with the California Futures team, which took third at the national tournament this summer, the highest placing for a California team.
La Costa Canyon goalies Molly Cassidy and Haleh Nourani, both on the Futures team, light up when talking about their English coach.
“He knows his hockey, and he knows how to coach us,” Haleh said. “He was always really cool.”
Kim Elmore, coach of the defending champion LCC field hockey team, agrees.
“It was a great loss for (Rancho Buena Vista). He helped develop that program,” she said. “I think (St. John) does a great job.”
And for the 30-year-old father of two who didn't even know field hockey existed in America, his new life is quite a pleasant surprise.
“I don't know where I saw myself, but I love it here,” St. John said. “Coaching is a challenge, but I'm a teacher, right?”
Emily Werchadlo: (760) 752-6758,
emily.werchadlo@tlnews.net
