Ranchi, Jan 18 (PTI) It’s not everyday that one hears an American athlete complain about the lack of a professional set-up back home but that’s the reality for the US hockey players who are driven to take up the sport primarily for free college education.

Unlike India where crores our showered on the players for major achievements at the international level, besides the presence of a robust league and good infrastructure, hockey is not even a professional sport in the US.

All it offers to its practitioners there is the incentive of scholarships in college. Little wonder then that the US women’s team, competing in the ongoing FIH Olympic Qualifiers here, has a mechanical engineer from no less than the Stanford University in its ranks — the player in question being goalkeeper Kesley Bing.

“Our hockey culture is in the US in not that great. We have a collegiate system. We play for our colleges. There is no professional structure post collegiate. But we are certainly trying to grow our hockey culture,” captain Amanda Golini told

Source: PTI News