Karen Doxey: In Her Own Words

6/16/2022

The pace has slowed but not to a standstill.

There’re meetings to attend, an office to clear, files to sift through, details to wrap up, and well-wishers still to greet.

In a couple of weeks, though, Karen Doxey’s exemplary 43-year career will conclude. The first eight of those years, she served as a field hockey and lacrosse coach and physical education teacher at Norfolk Academy. She arrived on North Mooreland Road in 1987 as a PE teacher and coach, then became assistant athletic director, then associate, then co-AD with Charlie McFall, then AD when McFall retired in 2013.

Her coaching record in hockey and lacrosse is 882-239-40. Her Collegiate hockey teams won 19 League of Independent Schools and eight state titles. Her hockey victory total (641) ranks third on the National Federation of State High School Associations all-time list.

She did it all, and she did it well. She coached athletes, and she coached the coaches. In May, the turf field at the Robins Campus where she spent countless hours mentoring was named in her honor. Diligent, industrious, and unflappable, she guided the department through Covid and into the sunlight after the restrictions lifted, all the while continuing to coach and earning a LIS title in her final hockey season.

Recently, she reflected on her career and the year just completed during which Collegiate teams earned seven league and five state titles, sportsmanship awards in five sports as well as the Prep League sportsmanship award, and a second-place finish in the Prep League Director’s Cup standings.

What’s excited you about coaching?

It’s the kids. Right? Working with kids keeps you young. It’s the relationships. It’s the sheer challenge of it. The highs and the lows. If you don’t have the lows, the highs aren’t very high. It’s the puzzle pieces. It’s not only teaching skills and positions but also, How do I get this kid to believe that they can do it? It’s not always easy, but when you get through it, it’s really rewarding.

You’ve respected for many attributes, not the least of which are your poise, sportsmanship, and integrity. Where did that grounding come from?

I think it’s the combination of things. I watch other people and see what they do, and I try to take the best. That’s what most coaches do. Or seeing things I don’t like, and it just seared in my brain that I don’t want to do that. I can remember trying to envision before a big championship game that if we didn’t win – I literally went through it in my head – How are you going to react? What are you going to say to the opponent? I always try to say something nice to an opponent about a player or how the team played.

Who were your mentors?

I felt like I had great role modeling at Norfolk Academy. I was 23, 24 years old. There were great mentors there. Not all of them were coaches. (AD and multi-sport coach) Dave Trickler (preached) integrity, sportsmanship, do things the right way, don’t take the expedient way, don’t compromise your principles.

And my field hockey coach in college (at West Chester State College). Her name was Vonnie Gros. You just wanted to do exactly what she wanted you to do. She taught. She explained why. She made things fun. It was her passion that came through. That stuck with me. It made the sport really mean something. She had a great way of getting her point across without getting mad. You knew what she stood for.

You’ve accomplished so much and remained humble throughout.

With teaching and coaching, I haven’t done everything perfectly. You strive not to ever hurt a kid. Part of the nature of coaching is some kids don’t always play. That’s really hard. I don’t look at it as any different from what so many teachers and coaches do here at Collegiate and Norfolk Academy too. We have so many teachers helping so many kids. That’s what we do here. I just did it a longer amount of time.

Yeah, but how have you stayed grounded?

I think it’s who I am. I don’t want to be in the spotlight. I don’t think it’s anything special. It’s just an opportunity I had. Look at the kids I’ve had who go on to do great things. I’m a coach. That’s what keeps you grounded: seeing people you’ve coached soaring, doing great things.

After a year-plus of Covid-related challenges, this year actually seemed somewhat normal.

I think the schools, the leagues managed beautifully. We’ve worked around Covid the way we needed to. There were games that had to be moved or canceled, whether it was by us or another school, but not that many. There were some games when you didn’t have everybody there, but we just carried on. That was what most schools tried to do.

How did you manage as the point-person with athletics?

Honestly, it was a day at a time. Whatever was happening, it all got down to keeping kids safe. Everybody in our department just did whatever was they needed to do so we could get the athletes out there on the field with their coaches.

Speak about the on-field achievements this year.

We had a great year because we’ve done some of everything, We won state championships. We had a ton of second places. We’re in strong leagues. We’re faring very, very well (against non-league competition). Just about every coach here is trying to put their teams on the line because you get better by playing better competition. You need to reach so you can see what “better” is so you can get better. It’s rewarding to see how well we’re doing.

Have you had time to catch your breath and reflect on where Collegiate athletics is?

I feel really good about where we’re leaving it. We’ve had a lot of great capable new people come into the athletic department and people taking things on. That’s one of the reasons I decided this year is the year…because we have a great group of people who will carry on.

What do you think you’ll miss most?

It’s a combination of seeing kids every single day. seeing how they progress and how funny and creative they are. That’s one of the rewards of doing this job. That, I’ll definitely miss. And of course, it’s the relationships with a lot of the coaches and other adults. They’ve put a lot of time into things. They have their hearts in the right place. That’s one of the things I love about Collegiate.

~Weldon Bradshaw

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