A letter in the Scotch Plains-Fanwood Times newspaper has been warming hearts on Facebook in recent days.
It seems that the Columbia High School field hockey team impressed its opponents from Westfield when CHS not only called out the names of its own seniors on Senior Day but also announced the names of the Westfield seniors — and gave them each bouquets to boot.
“Yes we do it every year,” said CHS Field Hockey Coach Maggie Keenan. “We’ve been doing it for about five seasons now. Years ago the Union team called our players up and gave them a single flower and I thought it was such a nice gesture. We have now made it a tradition for our team. Our seniors handed each of the Westfield seniors a bouquet before being recognized themselves.”
“Who does this? Acknowledge the ‘opponents’ and congratulate them before a game! ” wrote Jodi Jacobs of Westfield. “I just wanted to say ‘thank you’ to the Columbia High School field hockey team for making our girls feel so good and to say, job well done in trying to remind us all that chivalry is not dead yet.”
CHS Field Hockey Seniors 2016
Read the full letter from Jodi Jacobs of Westfield here:
With the current state of affairs in our country and all the negativity and mean-spiritedness being written about, I thought I would share a “nice” story proving there are still good people out in this worlds. This past weekend the Westfield Girls’ field hockey team had a match in Maplewood, N.J., against Columbia High School.
Unbeknown to us, it happened to be their “Senior Day” so there was a brief ceremony, before the game began, to acknowledge the Columbia High School senior players. All this was very typical of a standard “Senior Day.” What made this day unusual was — not only did they acknowledge their senior players by calling their names out, they also called out the Westfield Seniors by name — and all seniors from both tea, received a lovely bouquet of flowers.
Who does this? Acknowledge the “opponents” and congratulate them before a game! wow, what a novel concept — Actually being gracious to the opponent. So I just wanted to say “thank you” to the columbia High School field hockey team for making our girls feel so good and to say, job well done in trying to remind us all that chivalry is not dead yet.
Click on photos to enlarge:
