Wiles Seeking Edison Dynasty

For the past three seasons Edison’s field hockey team has been favored to win the Sunset League title and the Tournament of Champions. Each year the Chargers have fallen just short.

This year, behind the leadership of senior captain Ann Wiles, the Chargers are again hoping to claim both titles.

Wiles has been a starter on the team since her sophomore year and believes this is finally the Chargers’ year.

Edison had its glory days just prior to Wiles joining the varsity. The two years before she joined the team, the Chargers won consecutive Tournament of Champion titles. In her sophomore year, they won the Sunset League title, but stumbled in the tournament.

Wiles has tired of her team taking second or third and is looking to win both titles and returning Edison to the top of the pack.

“I was a little disappointed in our finishes in the past,” she said, “but this year I think we’re going to do good. We have a lot of skilled players and our goal is to win both titles.”

Wiles, a forward, was the team’s leading scorer last year, with 16 regular-season goals.

This year, after a summer of playing field hockey in a summer camp that included players from schools all over the district, Wiles says she has improved.

“My conditioning is better I think,” she said. “And I’m moving my feet a lot more. A lot of people benefited from the camp.”

Wiles’ decision to play field hockey came after talking to her cousin, Gretchen Brinegar, a former field hockey player at Edison. A soccer player before high school, she decided it was time for a change.

“I played soccer all my life and I just got sick of it,” Wiles said. “I was unsure at first, because [field hockey] is so different, but it’s a lot of fun and a lot more people are getting interested in it.”

Although her field-hockey career is probably coming to an end at the end of the season, Wiles hopes that interest in the sport continues to flourish.

In recent years schools such as Edison, Marina and Newport Harbor have had to cut dozens of girls from the squads. And some schools, such as Woodbridge, are considering adding the sport.

“I’d really like to see the sport grow,” Wiles said. “I’d like to see more people play and maybe get some club teams started. You just have to try it.”