The venue, named after their location on Spooky Nook Road in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, will also host national USA Field Hockey sanctioned events beginning in 2014, with the team to remain at the facility through to 2022.

"We have been searching for a Home of Hockey in the northeast over the last several years and are excited to announce we have found a place the US women's national team will call home in Lancaster County," said Steve Locke, executive director of USA Field Hockey.

"Nook Sports is one of the most spectacular athletic facilities in the country.

"The location is ideal as many of our athletes come from the East Coast, especially the Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland and Virginia area.

"There is no doubt that this is a game changing moment for our sport.

"The Home of Hockey will provide us with a platform to best prepare our national teams for success in international competition and serve as a beacon and centre of excellence for developing athletes of all ages."


Nook Sports, based in an area of the northeast where hockey is particularly popular, will be USA Field Hockey's home base for many elite, junior and development events, including, from 2014 onwards, host of the National Futures Championships, Futures Elite Championship and the National Club Championship.

The indoor centre will become the permanent host of the National Indoor Tournament beginning in 2015.

The venue features state-of-the-art facilities, including two water based turf pitches, six additional artificial surfaces and over 700,000 square foot of indoor space, as well as home and away locker rooms, strength and conditioning facilities, conference and lounge areas and office space for the high performance staff.

As well as hockey, the venue also has multiple courts and fields for other sports, including volleyball, basketball, soccer, field hockey, tennis, and features a family entertainment centre, fitness club, climbing centre, performance enhancement facility and a sports science department.

"Not only will USA Field Hockey's move to Nook Sports ignite even more excitement for the sport within the region, but it will create more opportunities for aspiring young players," said Nook Sports' general manager Steve Goris.

"With local, regional, national and now international games, leagues and tournaments year-round, it will create a multi-million dollar economic impact for Lancaster County."

The US women will relocate from the Olympic Training Centre in Chula Vista, California, to Lancaster upon completion of the new venue, which is expected to be late summer this year.

Chula Vista will remain a national team training centre and the men's squad will continue to train and compete at the Olympic Training Centre just outside San Diego.

Two-time Olympian and women's hockey team captain Lauren Crandall was particularly pleased by the announcement.


"This is a very exciting time for USA Field Hockey as we begin a new quadrennial, but even more so because Nook Sports is creating an impressive home for us in Lancaster," she said.

"I was overwhelmed by the massive size of the building and property and after meeting the owner and staff of the project, I was quickly impressed by the details they were putting into the project - nothing is being overlooked, no detail too small.

"The creative, intelligent minds that are working together on this project give me full faith it will be something special for USA Field Hockey and the far reaching hockey community.

"To have a Home for Hockey so central to the majority of the field hockey population is exciting to say the least.

"We hope it will translate into continual growth and strengthening of our sport in the surrounding areas as well as across the country."

Her words were echoed by the team's recently appointed head coach Craig Parnham who welcomed the news.

"The new facility promises to be an aspiration venue for the whole hockey community," said the Briton, also a double Olympian in the sport.

"Not only will it be home of our elite programmes in which athletes will have access to world class facilities and support services, it will also allow the next generation of hockey players, coaches and officials to share in the environment and take inspiration from it."

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]