Big Shoes to Fill

Following a legend, after all, is a task not for the faint of heart.  

 

Kelsey Smither is ready, though.

 

She knows the X’s and O’s of field hockey as her résumé as a player and coach attest.

 

She knows Collegiate and its culture, although she’s been on campus less than a year.

 

She knows, too, that directing young people in the athletic arena is as much about winning their hearts and minds and teaching life lessons as it is about the technical and strategic aspects of the sport.

 

So, yes, Kelsey is ready, which is why she will succeed Karen Doxey as Collegiate’s field hockey program leader and head varsity coach.

 

“Kelsey understands people,” said Doxey, who retires in June after coaching hockey for 43 years, the last 35 at Collegiate, whose victory total (641) is third on the NFHS all-time list, and whose Collegiate teams won 19 League of Independent Schools and eight VISAA championships. “With her, it’s not win at all costs. She totally understands what we’re trying to do. It’s getting people to progress from where they are.”

 

Kelsey joined the Collegiate Family this past July as an assistant athletic director and assistant varsity hockey coach.

 

A 2011 graduate of Lakeland High School in Suffolk, she was a three-time Southeastern District player of the year and a Group AAA all-state selection. Her senior year, she led the Cavaliers to a 24-0 record and the state championship. Her 124 career assists were at the time the national high school record.

 

Heavily recruited, she chose Old Dominion University where she started all 86 games during her career, a stretch during which the Monarchs won two Colonial Athletic Association titles, earned top national ranking, and competed in NCAA Final Four (2011), Elite Eight (2012), and Sweet Sixteen (2013).

 

A center midfielder who twice served as team captain, she earned numerous post-season honors including CAA and WomensFieldHockey.com national rookie of the year, first-team All-CAA (once) and All-Big East (twice) and first team NFHCA All-South and Longstreth/NFHCA Division I All-American in 2013 and 2014. A Dean’s List student, she earned a BS in physical education (sport management major, exercise science minor) in 2014 and an MS in education (sport and recreation management) in 2016.

 

Her coaching journey before Collegiate included stints with the Saints Field Hockey Club based in Tidewater as well as at Ball State and Georgetown.

 

“It was always a goal of mine to lead a program,” she said. “You never know when that time will come or what it will look like or where it will be.”

 

Receiving the keys to Collegiate’s program caught her a bit by surprise, however.

 

“In all honesty, I thought it would be a few years down the road,” she said. “This opportunity came a little bit sooner than I anticipated. but I feel confident that Dox and M.H. (Bartzen, Doxey’s long-time assistant) and all my mentors along the way will help guide me. There’s a lot of tradition and culture that I want to keep. There’re huge positives that created the longevity.”

 

Kelsey’s intention is to continue the time-honored traditions while adding some touches of her own.

 

“I’ve never truly coached a team that felt more connected than the group we had,” Kelsey said of the 2021 Cougars. “They enjoy being around each other. They’ve done a lot of really cool things (pre-Covid) like the overnight trips. They do a Program Day where Cub, JV, and varsity have a playday where they intermix.

        

“They have a Grapefruit Day which is competition-based. The kids so look forward to that one day of the season where they get to do that, and they’re rewarded with a grapefruit. And Karen has focused a ton on the history of field hockey and made sure the girls aren’t just learning the skills of the sport but understanding where it all started.

  

“That’s something I want to continue. It’s important that they know what came before them.

 So it’s more than just playing the sport every day. It’s the tradition that Karen and M.H. worked really hard to uphold throughout the years.”

In the coming weeks, Kelsey will meet with her returning players, complete her coaching staff, and get to work charting her own course while perpetuating the culture.

 

“I feel honored that Karen felt confident enough to pass it (the mantle of leadership) along to me,” she said. “The term that comes to mind is ‘big shoes to fill.’ I very much want to do the absolute best that I can to live up to the legacy that she left, and I’ll do the best that I can to make her proud.”

    ~Weldon Bradshaw