Merrimack College Field Hockey Quietly Making Noise

This week I had the chance to chat with Megan Shea, Head Coach of Merrimack College Field Hockey. Coach Shea is in her 2nd year at the helm of the Warriors. This is her first stint as a head coach. She was previously an assistant at UNH, Columbia, & Northeastern. Megan’s journey has taken her from star player at Melrose High School Class of 2006 to an All-American at the University of New Hampshire Class of 2010 and now as one of the rising stars in the NCAA coaching ranks. The Warriors are undefeated in league play so far this season, have only one loss to their name, and are riding a 13 game winning streak. Merrimack and Coach Shea have a game this coming Saturday November 3 at Pace University. Pace is undefeated as well and sits a game ahead of Merrimack in the standings.

Megan and I discussed numerous topics about the sport of field hockey, from her beginnings at Melrose High, how she got into coaching, to her involvement with USA Field Hockey, and Merrimack’s jumping up to Division 1 next year.

Me: OK so I would say that tomorrow is a big game?

Megan: It is! Yeah. I think it's probably the biggest one we have coming up because we're both undefeated.

Me: You’re playing for seeding right?

Megan: Yeah pretty much. Actually I guess if we lost our last two games after this, if we end up losing the last three you know that might shift a little bit but I think if we lose the last three we’re still in the top 3.

Me: For you, this being your second year, last year you made it to the playoffs. You were hired in June, the season started in September, you only had a couple of months to get ready, that’s pretty impressive.

Megan: Yep just got straight to work.

Me: I would say that you rely on your three Seniors a lot this year?

Megan: Yeah I did a lot. It started as soon we ended last year, they have a little bit of a break and then we got to start back up again. I need those three captains right away, which I won’t necessarily always do but I just felt like you know what a transition after losing five seniors last year, and these three are really fantastic people and leaders, it was the right thing to do so we hit the ground running. I feel like this season is a true reflection of last January to right now. It really isn't just August to right now, it's been a huge transformation that’s taken us a little bit of time so it’s pretty cool.

Me: Even going forward, not to get too far ahead from this year, but you have 10 freshman and that sets you up very well for the future.

Megan: Yes for them, they're great addition they’re all going to be impactful in their own way. It’s a really good class. Very respectful girls, a lot of them aren’t playing which sometimes can get a little bit dicey and you know however the dynamics end up going from there with people being upset that they're not playing, they’re emotional. I think that I made sure that they knew their roles pretty clear in August. It’s been great regardless of minutes here and there. Everyone has been super into it so it’s been nice.

Me: Who have been the players that have stood out more than you expected?

Megan: Lindsay Nolte, she was a sophomore last year and she's a junior this year. You can tell when people work hard over the summer and they develop new skills and they are able to just look different as a player, it takes that much dedication, focus, and work and she definitely came back this fall a totally different player than last fall which is really cool. Her and I had a conversation last spring before she left from school. I basically said “if a couple things don’t really change and you really don't put in the effort, I really don't see you playing much” and she just took that and ran with it. She made extreme strides. Samantha Bartush, she’s one of our seniors. She's kind of what exemplifies a true athlete, that has worked their way up from her freshman year. I Know that I wasn't with her but she started out barely playing her freshman year, sophomore year getting some minutes, junior year was my first year with her. She played a significant amount and then she's kind of just exploded ever since. Through hard work not through anything else. Her commitment to academics, working out hard in the summer and just wanting to understand, appreciate, and love the game and she’s completely transformed. Jessica Palmer definitely has made some really good strides for us. She worked really hard this summer, she was a part of our high-performance training team. She was the only Division 2 player to be a part of it. She came back extremely fit and you could tell she played hockey all Summer.

Me: In doing my own research I've seen a lot of highlights of your goalkeeper, Katharina Ohmen…

Megan: Yeah Katharina, we can’t forget Kiki. We call her Kiki. I can't say it any other way but she is unbelievable! Out of all the goalies I've coached in my career, she definitely is one of the top and she has this really unique style, she’s fantastic. She definitely helps us get on the other side. She's another one too that, when I came in and trainers say "she hasn’t run a mile in her life, she doesn’t do this or she doesn’t do that." And I said “well she will start!" and she struggled. I have a text message of hers from last year that says “I can’t do this. I can never do this.” And two weeks later she did it. And then she got a new confidence, and a new way. She became really fit last winter and stronger last year. She’s awesome for us.

Me: So it sounds like conditioning is a big part of your overall philosophy?

Megan: Yeah for sure. I think that you know field hockey’s a hard game in itself. I think that if you have that fit over-all way and you’re strong and you’re agile and you’re quick I think that any coach would just love somebody like that to be able to mold into a really good field hockey player. So I think if you have at least that going for you you've definitely, in my book, can be coached to be as good as you want to be.

Me: Do you find it hard to juggle recruiting and coaching at the same time?

Megan: No, probably because I have been doing it for so long and at some of the highest levels. I love recruiting, it’s fun, it’s fun to get out there and learn and meet people and talk to different people. It’s been cool to kind of put Merrimack on a little different map. I know being young in the coaching world, and knowing a lot of people from this region, and this is where I’m from, it’s been cool to get people to come to school and check it out and all that so it’s been fun.

Me: Do you have a Middlesex League bias?

Megan: I loved the Middlesex League! My hometown was in the Middlesex League but yeah I'm a product of a hard-working Mass kid that went to UNH, Division 1 on a scholarship and became an All-American so I think that we have so many of those people and kids around here that I love to find them and explode them and make them really good. It’s a great region for that.

Me: What is your involvement with USA Field Hockey?

Megan: So I coach the “Futures.” I always have. We actually ran the first site Merrimack’s ever had this winter. It was great, we had almost 100 kids. That was awesome, some exposure for Merrimack. Then in the summer I work with our high-performance training teams and practices in Boston, that was the team that Jessica played for. It was coached by all different Division I coaches. Every one just kind of takes an area of practice or a different time slot. The kids get to be coached by all different coaches. And that’s the pipeline for our US team. So that's really kind of where it stops for me.

Me: What age group is that?

Megan: College players.

Me: How did you get into coaching?

Megan: Do you want the real story or the fake one? So you know in college, super busy, playing all the time and on the weekends my coach had coached for a club program. I'll never forget it. I hear at the front of the bus Robin (Balducci, UNH Hall of Fame Coach), one of my great friends and mentors still to this day. She said “I’ll see you guys at 6 AM tomorrow. You’re helping me coach field hockey every Sunday this winter.” And we said “OK sounds good.” That’s really how it all started, with club field hockey all through college on the weekends. Then sophomore and junior year I really got into it at the summer coaching camps at Northeastern, BC, Harvard. It was just a cool way to obviously make some money for the summer, be around hockey all summer, play, workout, train. It was just a kind of the ideal thing.

Me: I would say that your time at Columbia was quite different from Merrimack? The kind of person you are scouting?

Megan: For sure. I mean Columbia, very highly academic. It brings a good diversity to me as a coach that I was able to see. Some people see moving to different schools as not something they would do, and for me personally it was a really big positive and that being at UNH almost 4 years and then going to Columbia and experiencing a whole different animal and I will get an athlete a whole different atmosphere and then to a different region and everything and then going back to Boston and to Northeastern and a very different population, one that I know. Now I try to get a little bit of everything in Merrimack because I think they have that possibility to have all different kinds of kids.

Me: Merrimack certainly has a standard of academic excellence that they are trying to uphold, that’s not to say Northeastern doesn’t.

Megan: Right!

Me: Northeastern’s kind of funny because they actually play in Dedham instead of on campus. How was that?

Megan: The set up for me was easy, we had an office out in Dedham so you know it wasn’t taxing on me but it was a little but tougher on the girls I think. But I don’t want to speak for them right now, but yeah I know, it is what it is. They chose to do that. Even when I was at Columbia the girls took shuttles about 20 minutes. You kind of have to see the positive in it and say have a snack, call your parents, call your boyfriend. You still have a little time to chill out a little bit, go online before you have to go out on the field.

Me: Are you looking forward to jump to a new conference next year?

Megan: I am! Its funny I was just starting to get used to this one and all these teams. It’s obviously a fantastic Division 2 world, but Division 1 is where I played and where I coached, so I did have to get used to recruiting Division 2 athletes, and I wanted to get to know all the coaches in the Division 2 world and form those relationships so, I felt like I was just getting my seat warmed up. But it’s ok it will just add more depth to me as a coach. I’m definitely excited to jump back into my world. And it is a bit of a different game I think in a sense. So it will be interesting, we play very Division I style game right now as it is so I think that we'll have an easy transition. I don't want to say its going to be a breeze but it’ll be manageable.

Me: So you kind of prepared for it? Did you know when you took the job that they were moving?

Megan: I had heard rumors, if you will, like everybody else I guess. You know I will suck it up if you would for Division 2, you know I'm from Melrose, 20 minutes from my parents, 45 minutes from Boston where I live. It was just I was familiar with Merrimack. My brothers played hockey there. I used to go when UNH played there. It just kind of felt like a really good fit for me, as far as a head coaching job. Really that's it for me regardless of what division it was. I knew that was strong support from the Athletic Director and that was important to me.