Tomorrow, the NCAA Division I field hockey national semifinal round commences, with two teams from the Atlantic 10, and one each from the Atlantic Coast Conference and the Big Ten Conference.
There are great players, and current/future Olympians on all four teams, as well as plenty of good foreign talent likely to make their mark on the games.
But for the purpose of throwing a light lens on this championship weekend, I’d like to focus on the coaching boxes. All four of the head coaches of these sides are former members of the U.S. women’s national field hockey team, and have turned their international experiences into success.
Massachusetts is coached by Barb Weinberg, who had 19 caps as a goalkeeper in the outdoor game. She served as an alternate for the U.S. at Beijing 2008, and also played for the U.S. in the buildup to the 2006 FIH World Cup in Madrid, a tournament where the U.S. finished sixth.
Hannah Prince played with the women’s national team in 2013-14, winning seven caps. However, she cut a larger profile in the indoor game, winning Pan American Games gold in 2017, and was on the roster for the U.S. in the 2018 FIH Indoor World Cup.
UNC’s head coach is Erin Matson, who has represented the United States in field hockey since the age of 11, when she was capped for the senior women’s indoor national team. She developed over the years to the point where she joined the senior women’s national team at the age of 17. She was on the U.S. team which won its FIH World League semifinal tournament in 2017, and earned 79 caps for the United Eagles until she left the national team pool to coach on Tobacco Road.
Tracey Fuchs was a U.S. player who was celebrated in her day with about as much fervor as Matson was during her career. Fuchs made 268 international appearances over the years, but no one appearance meant so much as an afternoon in Manchester, England on June 25, 2002. There, at the Cannock Hockey Club, the United States met India in the last of a three-game qualifying playoff series.
During the competition, Fuchs led the United States with four goals. But the two most important were in the second half of the final game. Fuchs had a penalty stroke in the first minute after halftime, then knocked in a penalty corner in the 49th minute to seal the series with a win and two draws against the Eves.
All four of these players have been proud United Eagles in their day, and have taken their lessons to four high-level sides competing for a national championship this weekend. It will be interesting to see how the tactics and countermeasures play out over the weekend.
