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She wasn&rsquo;t going to get the chance to play in her first Olympics this summer anyway.
				But for the women she competed against and the athletes who were making plans to head to China, Danielle Grega felt a little forlorn.
				The International Olympic Committee announced Tuesday that the Tokyo Games will not go on as scheduled this summer because of the worldwide coronavirus pandemic, a call Team USA women&rsquo;s field hockey midfielder Grega described as surprising but necessary.
				&ldquo;I try to put myself in the position as if we were going,&rdquo; Grega said Tuesday. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s probably pretty upsetting for the athletes. It was actually pretty shocking to wake up this morning and see they had postponed them, when the Olympics weren&rsquo;t supposed to start for another few months.
				&ldquo;But it needed to be done, for everyone&rsquo;s health and safety.&rdquo;
				IOC officials pushed the start of the Tokyo Games to the summer of 2021, at the latest, but Grega won&rsquo;t be competing in them.
				The United States women&rsquo;s field hockey team missed the Olympics for the first time since 2004, after losing out on a two-game set with India on Oct. 1 and Oct. 2 for the final spot in the 12-team Olympic field. The two teams split the series, but India won 6-5 based on aggregate goal totals over the two games, leaving Grega and fellow Wyoming Valley Conference standout and USA teammate Anna Dessoye from Crestwood shy of reaching the Games.
				&ldquo;It was pretty upsetting when we didn&rsquo;t qualify in October,&rdquo; said Grega, who has 33 caps (international appearances) in her third year playing for Team USA. &ldquo;The winner of that two-game series qualified. For me, it would have been my first (Olympics). Unfortunately, they went by aggregate score and it (the loss) was only by one goal.
				&ldquo;It was kind of hard to grasp.&rdquo;
				Almost like what happened next.
				Team USA captain and former Wyoming Seminary star Kat Sharkey retired from Olympic competition in February, after spending nine years with Team USA and playing a huge role on a United States team that finished fifth in the 2016 Olympics &mdash; leaving former North Carolina standout Ashley Hoffman as team captain.
				&ldquo;She was such a confident person on the team,&rdquo; Grega said of Sharkey.
				And USA women&rsquo;s field hockey coach Janneke Schopman, a two-time Olympic medalist from the Netherlands, was dismissed following the team&rsquo;s failure to qualify for Tokyo and replaced with Caroline Nelson-Nichols.
				&ldquo;She&rsquo;s good,&rdquo; Grega, from Kingston, said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s been hard coming in at such an interesting time, with us not playing and a lot of organizational changes we&rsquo;re going through right now. She&rsquo;s bringing whole team together.&rdquo;
				One of those changes will certainly include Team USA&rsquo;s home venue.
				After United States field hockey moved its base to Spooky Nook in Lancaster &mdash; in large part because a significant portion of its roster has been composed of players from Pennsylvania over the past five years &mdash; the place fell out of favor with the athletes.
				A poor playing surface and cramped locker room and meeting room quarters were among the concerns on a recent petition USA field hockey brought to the United States Olympic Committee.
				Currently, Team USA sits last at 0-5 in the nine-team Women&rsquo;s FIH Pro League and is playing its home games at the University of North Carolina, and spent the last few weeks holding camp in Chula Vista, Calif., while searching for new headquarters.
				&ldquo;The turf at The Nook wasn&rsquo;t FIH-certified,&rdquo; Grega said. &ldquo;We (Team USA) actually terminated our agreement with them at the end of February. All of our home games were moved down do North Carolina. We&rsquo;re looking for a new facility right now. I&rsquo;m just hoping wherever we&rsquo;re based out of in the next four years is somewhere close to home.&rdquo;
				The severity of the coronavirus really hit home a few weeks ago, when the team&rsquo;s camp in California was cut short by a week. Upcoming training camps scheduled for Team USA from March 27-29, April 10-12 and April 29-May 4 were all canceled. And players were sent home, where Grega works out with her cousin, Coughlin senior field hockey all-star Jolene Ulichney, while waiting for the word on when her sport will return.
				Then the word came that the Olympics are off for this year.
				&ldquo;There&rsquo;s a lot of uncertainty moving forward,&rdquo; Grega said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s been challenging, for all of us, to stay connected. All of the (FIH) games until May 17 have been postponed and will be played at a later date. We can&rsquo;t train, with the current situation. I do at-home workouts, work on some stick skills in the living room or outside.
				&ldquo;Obviously, we&rsquo;ve been getting a lot of updates from the U.S. Olympic Committee about what they&rsquo;re going to do with the Olympics,&rdquo; Grega continued. &ldquo;I think we all thought they would make some kind of decision. A lot of us thought they wouldn&rsquo;t make a decision as to what they&rsquo;re doing this quick.&rdquo;
				But then, Grega and the rest of Team USA will have plenty of time before they start figuring out their own Olympic plans. At least four years&rsquo; worth.
				&ldquo;Going to the Olympics is every athlete&rsquo;s dream,&rdquo; Grega said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a dream of mine to play in the Olympics. As an individual, and as a team, we&rsquo;re looking forward to the next four-year cycle. We&rsquo;re all kind of just focused on that.
				&ldquo;I&rsquo;m definitely focused on 2024.&rdquo;

USA field hockey team left out of Olympics shocked they were postponed