Examining Kutztown field hockey’s performance last year involves peeling back many layers that ultimately show how the Golden Bears claimed the program’s first-ever NCAA Division II national title.
They entered games with a mindset to earn a certain number of penalty corners. They held one another to a higher standard. And, they reflected on the lessons learned in each contest.
“And, that’s what I love about them,” Kutztown Head Coach Marci Scheuing said of last year’s champions. “They were blue-collar, work horses. They maybe didn’t get the opportunities, like some of those kids in Division I. They all come from different backgrounds, different things, but at the end of the day, they all wanted to do it for each other.”
Kutztown had a hard game on Sept. 18. The Bears played Shippensburg, which won the game 2-0. It was a non-conference game. Both teams play in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference. PSAC teams start conference games next week.
“This group was so special, and I did know, the whole season, that we could make a run,” Scheuing said of last year’s champions. “As long as we got in, because we didn’t get in (in 2022) and I thought we should have. So, as long as we could get in, we said, right when we got in, we’re not just here to have fun, we’re not just here to have a good time. We’re here to win this thing.”
There’s no general formula that magically makes a championship team. Scheuing, when hired by Kutztown, joked with her husband that she wanted to have a national championship trophy within five years.
“We wanted to start to build this culture,” she said. “I knew. I told my husband, we had a bet, that I was going to win a national championship in five years. I said, listen, ‘I’ve been at Bryn Mawr. I’ve been at Cedar Crest. And, I built both of those programs up.’ And, I’m like, if I can do it at a women’s college that costs $60,000 a year, I know I can do it at a state school.
“But, what I failed to realize when I made that bold statement was how good the other teams were. They weren’t just going to let some new coach come in and kind of take that over. So, it was a big learning curve for me, realizing, not only that I had to bring in good athletes, but we also had to bring in athletes good enough to beat East Stroudsburg, and Shippensburg, and West Chester, which was different than what I was used to before. So, figuring that out slowly, but surely, we’re now on nine-straight winning seasons. It took time to get to the culture of winning, but to get to the culture of winning a national championship is a whole different scenario. We had to get the right pieces in place.”
So, instead of five, it took 10 years. One way to change the culture was allowing more than one player to be a leader. Kutztown had 14 players score last season.
During its 2024 campaign, 10 athletes have scored six goals each throughout the six games they’ve already played. That kind of depth allows for nearly any player to step up in pivotal moments.
“It’s nice to have a clutch player that you know can put the ball in, but it’s also nice to know you have 10 players who could potentially score and be those big players,” Scheuing said. “We’ve been building those pieces, like bringing in Sarah Gatehouse from Wilson High School, and Jules DeNado from Schalick High School. They’re two of the best players in the country. And that has significantly helped. We had a graduate transfer from Bucknell that really helped us this past year, Mackenzie Kile. She was incredible, kind of like a quiet leader. But so skilled, so smart. Having her really helped with the maturity aspect of being in some of those bigger games and stuff. She ended up scoring the stroke against Shippensburg to win the national semifinal.”
PSAC teams saw the shift in Kutztown’s elevated play when the team started to gain momentum from year-to-year, Scheuing said.
“I always say the PSAC is exhausting but exhilarating,” she said. “So, it’s kind of like, you know every game you have, you have to show up because whoever shows up last in the PSAC is still good. It’s still a good hockey team. You do not have a cupcake game on your schedule in conference. And, that’s hard, that’s challenging, but I also like it because it keeps you on your toes at all times.”
The Golden Bears have returned nine starters out of 11 from last season. They were picked as the No. 1 team to beat in the National Field Hockey Coaches Association preseason poll, and they maintained the position in week one of the Division II poll.
They have been smashing goals in every game until they played Ship in their latest contest. It’s a reflective point early on, and a similar theme to last year. East Stroudsburg and Ship beat Kutztown in the regular season in 2023. Kutztown later saw Ship in the national tournament semis and then faced ESU in the finale.
“ESU early in the season last year, we were undefeated, controlled the game, outshot them, and ended up losing in overtime,” Scheuing said. “That loss brought us back down to reality. We said this is exactly what we didn’t do, and this is what we have to do in the future. And, that’s why we beat them. We fixed the things we needed to do.
“Ship beat us at home 3-2. I’m not gonna lie; they’re a really good team. In the championship, we outshot them, but without that loss, we learned so much more, which helped us to win the national championship. The captains took ownership in a positive way. They did an incredible job of that. We are a serious team that doesn’t break.”
In the national championship game, Kutztown versus East Stroudsburg, when her bet was about to become a realty, Scheuing said she nearly passed out. She said from the first day of preseason in 2023, she and her assistant coach, looked at each other and knew it was going to be different.
“We just knew it,” Scheuing said. “A few times in your life you work so hard and everything just actually falls into place. The last 8 minutes of the game, we were winning the national championship. I didn’t speak. I blacked out. I was like, this might actually just happen.”
The addition of an assistant coach helped. The extra set of hands to recruit, to juggle schedules, and commitments allowed Scheuing to offer more individualized time with her athletes and fundraise, which is how scholarships are paid. Kutztown University also added more funding to the field hockey program, which Scheuing said is a no brainer in Division II field hockey.
“I’m on one of the (NFHCA) field hockey sport development committees, and we’re just trying to move the sport forward,” she said. “Every time we introduce people to the sport, they love it. They fall in love with it. It’s an addictive sport. I just don’t know how good of a job at the younger levels we’re doing as a whole, nationally, of introducing the sport. And, I think if we can continue to do that, to boys and girls, I think it will really help. I personally hope we can really grow Division II because we are the smallest division. And, it has a ton of room to grow, and I think the NFHCA has done a good job of figuring out who could add programs.”
Division II is also a desirable spot for top-tiered athletes. The mutual hope among coaches is to keep the game going and growing.
“Tara (Zollinger), from Ship, and I, we always say we’ll talk to anybody about the sport,” Scheuing said. “We’ll tell them how great it is. Our athletes do really well academically, and they don’t get in trouble. Some other sports do. It is such a great sport to add in so many ways – community service hours, all of those things. Retention, academically, those things, field hockey players are at the very top of all of those lists on the NCAA’s numbers.”
While the chip on Kutztown’s shoulder for not making into the 2022 national tournament has been temporarily removed, the squad isn’t planning on resting on their laurels, Scheuing said. She hopes Kutztown sets a positive example of why Division II field hockey is a wise investment, and for now, the Golden Bears are focused on making sure others realize the 2023 season wasn’t just a fluke.
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Photo: Kutztown Athletics
By FAN – US
