Today’s announcement of the retirement of Char Morett-Curtiss as head field hockey coach at Penn State is just the latest retirement of long-serving servants of the game the last few years.
Add up just five of the collegiate coaches who have retired recently — Nancy Stevens of UConn, Enza Steele of Lynchburg, Karen Shelton of North Carolina, Lori Hussong of Rider, and Morett-Curtis, and that’s 2,959 wins.
It’s a huge hole in the fabric of the collegiate game, which constitutes the highest-level competition in the U.S.
Morett-Curtiss has lived the experience of playing in World Championship and Olympic competition. She was one of the members of the national team pool who gave the U.S. women medals in the 1979 world championship and 1984 Olympics. Her quickness made her an attack and transition engine for the United Eagles.
As head coach, she moved over from Boston College in 1987 and she gave the Nittany Lions even more of a winning attitude than before.
Mining the rich Pennsylvania field hockey culture, she was able to, year over year, recruit many of the best players in the country. The Nittany Lions had remarkable and consistent success over the years, finishing under .500 only three times in 36 years and being in the postseason most every year.
An all-time roster of Morett’s players reads like an all-time all-star team: Mackenzie Allessie, Sophia Gladieux, Moira Putsch, Tracey Larson, Christine McGinley, Traci Anselmo, Laura Gebhart, Kelsey Amy, Becca Main, Jill Piersall, Heather Gorlaski, Sonje Volla, Neilye Stoner, Jen Long, and Brittany Grzywacz are among her stellar alumnae.
But for all of that talent and what they brought to Happy Valley, Morett never won a national championship as head coach. The closest she came were on two occasions. In 2002, the Lions were tripped up by Wake Forest, and five years later lost to an undefeated North Carolina side.
Despite all of the changes occurring in field hockey the last two decades, Morett coached the game on her terms. In an era when assistant coaches don’t stay very long, she developed a long-time coaching relationship with Lisa Bervinchak-Love and the two worked together on the sidelines for 29 years.
And now, as of today, Morett is leaving the coaching box on her terms.
