Everts isn't simply some boy athlete trying a girls' sport on a whim. He has experience, having played boys' field hockey in the Netherlands before emigrating a year and a half ago.
He is in a new country on a new continent, playing an old sport that has dealt him a new twist, and excelling.
"He's very hungry in the circle," Conestoga coach Karen Gately said. "I started him off at mid and occasionally I'll put him in the midfield, but he loves to score goals. You'll see occasionally forwards like this, that just when they see the ball, they attack it. That's Oliver. . . . And he's so strong that his shots are unpredictable and hard to stop."
Everts (pronounced EH-verts) and his family left their home near Amsterdam because his father relocated for his job. His father works for Elsevier, a publisher of science and health information that has its headquarters in Amsterdam and an office in Philadelphia.
Before moving, the family researched U.S. field hockey online and learned that it was a girls' sport here. Everts is allowed to compete with the girls' team because boys' field hockey isn't offered.
"I wasn't used to playing with girls, but it's fun," said Everts, who speaks with only a slight accent. "It's the same thing."
Well, not exactly.
In the Netherlands, he said, he played on turf fields. Conestoga's field is grass, a slower surface, although some Pioneers opponents have turf. Teams also sent the ball across the field more in the Netherlands when progressing toward the goal, he said, whereas here, teams move mostly forward.
There's one difference, though, that trumps all that. Like all boys who play field hockey - and there are few - Everts has to wear a kilt during games.
