You went to the Women's National Championships and you were beyond amazing. When you did your victory lap around the pitch, you were running through a thick rain of socks that had been knocked off.

They smelled funny (as socks are wont to do), but you didn't care. You knew who those socks belonged to: team USA's head coaches. Get ready to wear a red, white, and blue jacket, because you're heading for the World Cup, the Pan-American Games, and the Olympics.

Listen, field hockey isn't a big deal in the States…not like football or basketball. NCAA field hockey isn't even played in some parts of the country, and there's no NFHA. If you really want to play professional field hockey after college, then joining Team USA is your best shot. Pun intended.

So, how easy is it to get onto the team? In a couple words: it's not. You basically need to dedicate your whole life to the sport, and we really do mean your whole life. And on top of that, you need serious natural talent. Team USA has a program called Futures that scouts out the best junior field hockey players in the States from a young age. There are about 5,000 girls in the Futures program at the moment, all gunning to get hand-selected for Futures Elite (source). It's an elite program within an elite program.

Like a turducken.

Over 80% of Division-I athletes participated in the Futures program (source). If you haven't been winning national tournaments since you were in size two children's cleats, you've already set yourself way back.

It's theoretically possible that you'll be recruited based on amazing performance while in the NCAA—it worked for Kayla Bashore-Smedley and Paige Selenski—but the thing about theories is that they're, well, theoretical.

Bashore-Smedley and Selenski both have almost supernatural skills. They're practically part-time goddesses. Anyone without divine DNA is going to want that business degree.