University of North Carolina Athletics
Gettysburg Visit Adds To Tar Heel Travels
September 5, 2013 | Field Hockey
Coaches say there's much to be learned from their team's opening game, from finally getting a squad out on the field. But en route to its season opener at Lock Haven last weekend, the UNC field hockey team took time out for a completely different sort of lesson on a completely different sort of field.
During the course of the eight-hour bus ride from Chapel Hill to Lock Haven, Pa., last Thursday, the team stopped off at Gettysburg National Military Park for a history lesson. "It was great to get off the bus, but it wasn't just getting out at a rest stop," said Tony Yount, the team's academic counselor and a former high school history teacher. "It was a break that had some education to it, too."
Yount, who taught history in the Chapel Hill school system for 30 years before joining the academic support staff at UNC, has visited Gettysburg more than 25 times and has taught a class on the Civil War, so the team had the perfect built-in tour guide. "We started at the North Carolina monument at Seminary Ridge, got everyone off the bus and told the bus driver where to meet us," he said. "I gathered them and we talked for 15-20 minutes about the big picture of the Civil War and why Gettysburg was so important."
Then the team walked the path of Pickett's Charge, the largest single frontal assault in American history, learning along the way that a UNC alum, General Johnston Pettigrew, helped to lead the charge. Pettigrew's North Carolina troops managed to advance further than those of any other Southern state.
After the walk, it was back onto the bus. The following day, UNC opened its season with a 2-1 win at Lock Haven. The team spent the next day with another activity - this time an amusement park trip that has become an annual tradition - then played Villanova on Sunday in Delaware, winning 10-0, before busing back to Chapel Hill. Overall, it was a successful opening weekend, with the Gettysburg stop a highlight.
"We want to make sure that our players are getting a great college experience at UNC," Tar Heel coach Karen Shelton said. "That includes academics, athletics and social life - and we believe we have a great balance there. But it also includes helping them to become more aware of the larger world around them, and travel is a big part of that. One of the great things about athletic competition is that it takes you to places that you might not have had the opportunity to go otherwise - that was the case in my playing career, and I want it to be the case for my players, too. So, whenever we travel, we try to make sure that we're not just going between the field and the hotel, but that we're taking advantage of the trip as a learning experience and a fun experience whenever we can.
"As we planned our trip to Lock Haven, we decided to make the stop at Gettysburg. It's such an important place in our country's history. Some of our players had been there before on school field trips, but we also have six international players who maybe aren't as familiar with American history. So we spent about 90 minutes there, and Tony led us on a great tour. It was really educational for all of us, myself included. My hope is that this is the kind of thing that sticks with the players as they get older, and that things like this help to round out their college experience and give them a broader world view. If we can provide our players with that, at the same time we give them an outstanding academic and team experience, then I believe we're achieving our goals as coaches."
