Once he made a national team, Austin Pile figured it was safe to come out with it.

He'd been playing field hockey.

Pile, a Fort Collins High School graduate and assistant coach for the Poudre School District Fire field hockey team, got into the sport when he was 13. He'd suffered too many concussions in football and rugby to continue in either of those sports when his older sister, Phoebe, prodded the whole family into going with her to play field hockey.

"We all went and played field hockey, and I loved it from the first day," said Pile, who just returned from a trip to Cuba, where the Under-21 U.S. National Field Hockey Team competed in the Junior Pan-American Games.

"I thought it was just a girls' sport, but there was like eight or nine other guys playing. They took me in and showed me how to play."

Pile wasn't overtly covert or anything. He didn't sneak around. He simply didn't brag about his field hockey exploits.

"Especially when you're a freshman, field hockey doesn't really sound like an acceptable sport to be played," Pile recalled, laughing at the thought. "It was kind of a secret until I made it onto the (U.S.) Under-16 team my sophomore year. Then, everybody found out.

"Now I totally laugh at that because it was foolish to think like that. I've done so much with field hockey that I never would have done with any other sport. I've traveled all around the world, gone to all these countries for free. Now I'm playing on a college team, coaching a high school team and, hopefully later on, I can go over to Europe and play for a team over there."

If Pile, a freshman playing on Colorado State University's coed club field hockey team, does want to continue playing, he'll likely have to move away from Fort Collins. As he pointed out, 14 of the 18 players on the U-21 team are from California, where they train and play together in Moorpark.

"They all get to play together and practice together all the time," Pile said, "and for the rest of us, it's kind of like, `do your own thing, fend for yourself and hopefully, you'll still be good enough to make it on the team.' "

So far, Pile has managed to stay good enough.

"He's at an immediate training disadvantage being in Colorado," said Nick Conway, Pile's coach on the U-21 team.

What helps Pile overcome said disadvantage?

"He's one of the hardest- working guys on the team," Conway said. "He may not be the most talented - he doesn't have every trick in the book - but he's such a hard-working guy and he has a brain on him, which he puts to good use. He's a thoroughbred in his work ethic and he's got good character. He's just a good guy to have on the team."

Pile keeps on top of things by playing four times a week and working out three or four times a week. He plays Tuesdays and Thursdays with CSU and twice on the weekends. He plays in a pickup game on Saturday mornings at Rifffenburgh Elementary and again Sunday mornings in Denver, with adults and other high school coaches.

"That's the one that really keeps me on top of my game because it's a lot higher level of competition," Pile said.

As is the case in rugby, the sport of field hockey has a fraternal, family-like side to it. That's given Pile relationships he's held since beginning the sport - ones he plans on keeping for a lifetime.

"It's not just a sport, it's a family," Pile said. "When you play field hockey, everybody else you play with is like a brother.

"Jeremiah (Armold) and Garrett Best are pretty much like my older brothers; we hang out together, play together, go to tournaments together."

It's a combination of that family tie, Pile's work ethic and his love for the game that landed him at a tournament in Arizona a few weeks ago with his CSU club team.

Upon returning from his trip to Cuba at 4 a.m. on a Tuesday, he planned on taking some time to rest and recoup. That is, until he went to practice on Thursday.

"I really had no intention of going (to Arizona)," Pile said. "I went to practice and they convinced me in the last hour that I really did want to go. So I packed up some clothes and went to Arizona."

Austin Pile: have game, will travel.

V. Richard Haro/The Coloradoan

HOOKED ON HOCKEY: Austin Pile can't get enough field hockey. The 19-year-old Fort Collins High School graduate helps coach the Poudre School District Fire team when he's not traveling with the U-21 U.S. National Field Hockey team, or playing on the coed club team at Colorado State University, or playing pickup games on Saturday morning, or playing pickup games on Sunday moring, or . . .