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Jana Withrow’s years of dedication, passion and proven commitment to the game of field hockey will strengthen Longstreth’s team.

Longstreth Sporting Goods is extremely pleased to announce Jana Withrow will be returning as Director of Field Hockey. She will lead the field hockey team with a focus on Longstreth’s sales efforts, and will coordinate equipment and uniform/apparel product offerings to build a cohesive experience for our college, team, and club customers. Longstreth co-owner John Schaefer says, “We are very happy that Jana is returning to Longstreth to lead our Hockey team, and believe that she and Alli Lokey together will offer the best customer service available by combining true hockey expertise with our great selection of hockey products, including from our core brands TK, Gryphon and Ritual.”

Jana has an extensive field hockey background as a top-level goalie and coach. She was an All-American and National Champion at the University of North Carolina. After college, Jana earned a goalkeeper position on the USA Women’s National Team – where she was a member of the team during the 1998 World Cup and 2000 Olympic Qualifier games. Keeping her hand in the game, she spent a few years coaching at the University of North Carolina and became head coach of Columbia University in 2009. She joined Longstreth Sporting Goods in 2010 as Field Hockey Manager where she managed our hockey business to develop the best equipment and bring it to the U.S. market. Jana has spent the last six years managing hockey sales for Harrow Sports.

“I am thrilled to be joining the Longstreth team,” states Withrow. “I share their values, their focus on innovative products and passion for the game.  With my knowledge of the marketplace, and Longstreth's history in women's sports, I know we can offer customers a great experience.”

Longstreth’s retail store is second to none. As a forerunner in the female athlete industry, our company and the retail store are “the go-to shop” for many field hockey, lacrosse, and fastpitch softball players. Being part of the local community for almost 40 years, Longstreth’s retail store has been a place where generations of women shop for their gear.

This year, we believe we’ve met one of our ultimate super fans. Kayla Miller became a Longstreth shopper when she started playing lacrosse in middle school and continues to be a patron and brand ambassador today as a high school coach. Kayla is lucky enough to live close to our retail store and has visited many times per year to purchase the latest women’s lacrosse gear. Along the way, she began to collect our yearly lacrosse catalog and keeping them in a special binder. This summer, she brought them all along with her to the WPLL games to get them signed by the featured athletes. That’s where we met Kayla and learned just how dedicated she is to Longstreth.

It’s always a pleasure for us to meet teams of athletes, families, and players - young and old. Many families make Longstreth a destination stop to visit during summer vacations. Teams bring busloads of their players for special shopping days. Mothers who were once shoppers and athletes themselves, bring their daughters to carry on the Longstreth tradition. And fans like Kayla continue to share our mission in being dedicated to the female athlete and growing the girls’ game.

Are you a Longstreth Super Fan? Share your story with us on our facebook page (@longstreth.sporting.goods) or email us at [email protected] using the subject line #LongstrethSuperFan .

Ali Froede, a Longstreth Sporting Goods sponsored player, recently did a Q&A session with us on her experience at FIH Hockey World League Semi-Finals. Froede has been a member of the USA Field Hockey Women’s National Team since 2015, where she plays defense. She attended Miami University of Ohio, and while there, was awarded First-Team All MAC twice, as well as NFHCA All-West Region Second Team in 2014.

First things first, we had to know what her top three favorite moments on the trip were in regards to hockey, and playing in the tournament. She replied that her favorite memory was, of course, winning! She elaborated and said, “This was the first time we have ever won a quarterfinal game – let alone make it to the finals and win.” Her second favorite moment was the thrill of her first major tournament. She said that South Africa was a lot of fun to play in, and that the environment itself was great. Lastly, she recalled that one day at practice two boys were standing at the fence watching them. She said that the team then invited them to play around, and also gave them USA pinnies and sticks, which the boys were super excited about.

We were also curious as to how the team moved past the losses to Argentina and South Africa. We wanted to know if it made things more difficult, or if it made them work even harder. Froede explained that losing to Argentina was not as bad as losing to South Africa. She gave her reasoning when she said, “One, they were the host nation so with that brought a huge supportive crowd that made themselves heard. Two, we felt that we could have definitely won that game, but let exterior factors inhibit us from playing our game – like the refs and the crowd.” In order for the team to get back on track, Froede said, “As a team, we came together and got back to our basics. We are constantly focused on ‘doing our jobs’ – a staple we often remind ourselves to do, and we started playing UN1TED, which ultimately started us in the direction of the finals.”

Many new players have been added to the USA Field Hockey Women’s National Team, and we were curious how that affected their game. Froede said, “A focus of the tournament was learning how to play together with new faces. As one of the newer players, it was a great experience to play so many games and gain confidence in myself and my skills on the field.”

There are a bunch of neat things to see in South Africa, that you can’t typically see here, so we wanted to know what fun adventures the team went on while they were there. Froede said that on the last day they were in South Africa, they got to go to a lion park. “My favorite was playing [with] and petting the baby lions!” said Froede. “They were so cute and fluffy, and it was amazing getting to touch an animal you normally don’t get to see that close! We also got to feed giraffes, see zebras, wild dogs, and wildebeests. It was a great way to end the trip.”

As the Pan American Cup approaches, we wanted to know what the team has learned from this experience in order to have further success in Pan Ams. Froede graciously responded, “We learned that we perform our best when we focus on our individual jobs, and play together and UN1TED. Going into the PAC we are going to take one game at a time and focus on our jobs for the moment.” Although playing in South Africa was fun, Froede is looking forward to playing in front of a home crowd for the Pan Ams.

Jake Longstreth - Particulate Matter, 2014