UNC hires 22 year old field hockey star player as next head coach!?!?
Posted: Wed Feb 01, 2023 1:05 pm
I know no one here particularly cares about field hockey, and many here do particularly dislike all things about the baby blues in Chapel Hill, but I found this story interesting and thought I share with others interested in college athletics.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/c ... 157438002/
UNC replaced the recently retired 42 year veteran field hockey coach Karen Shelton by hiring 22 year old star player Erin Matson. Matson just graduated from UNC a month ago and finished her final season playing for the Holes two months by winning her 4th national championship in 5 seasons.
Obviously, this would never happen in a sport like basketball or football or another high profile sport with any form of professional level. But field hockey only has the national team (for which Matson has played since she was 16), so most stars only have coaching as a career path to keep them in the sport. Matson is arguably the most decorated field hockey star of her generation and was very early to embrace the NIL system - my youngest field hockey obsessed daughter has an Erin Matson t-shirt she purchased about 2 weeks after NIL went into effect.
My question is how common is this? Has anyone ever heard of a school hiring a star player so soon after their playing days end? Especially at a powerhouse program like UNC? It seems odd to me for a defending champion in any sport to hire a head coach with no coaching experience.
To add an App St angle, I had long suspect our prior FH coach Meghan Dawson, a former UNC player, had a career goal of taking over the Heels and was biding her time in Boone until the chance arose. She left App, essentially retiring from coaching, a few weeks after Shelton retired. I wonder if she knew UNC was planning on going this route and decided to hang it up?
https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/c ... 157438002/
UNC replaced the recently retired 42 year veteran field hockey coach Karen Shelton by hiring 22 year old star player Erin Matson. Matson just graduated from UNC a month ago and finished her final season playing for the Holes two months by winning her 4th national championship in 5 seasons.
Obviously, this would never happen in a sport like basketball or football or another high profile sport with any form of professional level. But field hockey only has the national team (for which Matson has played since she was 16), so most stars only have coaching as a career path to keep them in the sport. Matson is arguably the most decorated field hockey star of her generation and was very early to embrace the NIL system - my youngest field hockey obsessed daughter has an Erin Matson t-shirt she purchased about 2 weeks after NIL went into effect.
My question is how common is this? Has anyone ever heard of a school hiring a star player so soon after their playing days end? Especially at a powerhouse program like UNC? It seems odd to me for a defending champion in any sport to hire a head coach with no coaching experience.
To add an App St angle, I had long suspect our prior FH coach Meghan Dawson, a former UNC player, had a career goal of taking over the Heels and was biding her time in Boone until the chance arose. She left App, essentially retiring from coaching, a few weeks after Shelton retired. I wonder if she knew UNC was planning on going this route and decided to hang it up?