Aug. 5, 2008
Old Dominion University head field hockey coach Beth Anders will be live on "HearSay" with Cathy Lewis on WHRV FM 89.5 Wednesday at 12 noon. She will talk about the four Lady Monarch field Hockey players who are on this year's US. Olympic squad as well as her past Olympic experiences.
The USA Field Hockey Women's Olympic Team, including former Lady Monarchs Tiffany Snow, Angie Loy, Dana Sensenig, and Caroline Nichols, opens competition in Beijing against 2007 Pan American Games champion Argentina on Sunday, August 10th. The match will be broadcast live on MSNBC, paired with a simulcast on Universal HD.For Old Dominion head coach Beth Anders, winning has been a tradition for over a quarter of a century.
Anders has cemented her status as one of the greatest in field hockey in all facets of the game. As player, she has participated at every level possible, including World Cup and Olympic events and as a coach, her coaching achievements are nothing short of impressive, including nine national collegiate titles, a bronze medal at the Pan American World Cup Games, and the distinction of being the winningest Division I field hockey coach in the country. Considered by many to be a pioneer of her sport, her resume is dotted with a long list of incredible achievements and monumental firsts.
At Old Dominion, Anders has mentored the field hockey team for over 25 years and has led her teams to perennial appearances in the NCAA tournament. Under her tutelage, the Lady Monarchs have achieved more honors than any other field hockey program in NCAA history. Among the most prestigious, Anders and her teams have brought the NCAA Championship trophy back to Norfolk an unprecedented nine times. In addition, the Lady Monarchs have won the CAA crown 13 of 17 times since joining the league in 1991 and remain the only team to make all 27 NCAA Tournaments dating back to 1981.
In national coaching records, Anders has coached more games than any other active Division I coach, having been on the sidelines of 591 games over her 25-year career. She became the first Division I coach to reach the 400-career victory mark, a milestone only reached by seven other coaches in the sport, and is moving closer and closer to becoming the first Division I coach to reach the 500 victory milestone with a 492-92-7 overall career record. Anders posts an amazing .838 winning percentage and her 492 overall wins are the most of any Division I coach in history. Anders' coaching experience has not been limited to the Old Dominion sidelines. Internationally, Anders guided the 1991 U.S. National Team to the bronze medal and masterminded the qualifying campaign for the 1994 World Cup. In the summer of 2003, Anders was asked to take over the U.S. National Team and prepare them for the Pan American games in the Dominican Republic, where the team finished second.
The love affair between Anders and field hockey, however, goes well beyond her immediate reign in the coaching ranks. In 1980, Anders made the first of two Olympic field hockey teams as co-captain, but was forced - because of the boycott in Moscow - to wait four more years to realize her dream of winning a medal. In 1984 though, nothing stood in the way of Anders and her teammates as they cashed in on a bronze medal at the Los Angeles games. Anders, whose strong penalty corner was consistently clocked in the 90 m.p.h. range, nearly single handedly lifted the US team to victory, scoring eight of her team's nine goals in its five-game performance for an Olympic record that still stands today.
Throughout her international playing career, Anders played in over 100 international matches, was a participant in every World Cup from 1971-84, was on the National team from 1969-1980, and was the high scorer for the United States every year she was on the team. Anders participated in the first World Cup field hockey event to have both men's and women's competition at the same venue. She was one of just 24 field hockey coaches from around the world to be in attendance for a clinic during the 1998 World Cup in Holland.
After three NCAA titles as coach of Old Dominion and a bronze medal as a player and two-time captain with the Olympic team, Anders was named Olympic Athlete of the Year and Virginia Coach of the Year in 1984. Bringing the two realms of the sport together, Anders was recognized for her many contributions with an induction into the United States Field Hockey Coaches Association Hall of Fame.
Anders' love for her sport is infectious, as many former Old Dominion student-athletes have grown into respectable players and coaches in and around the world's field hockey family. A total of 15 former Old Dominion players coached by Anders have participated in the last four Olympics, which include a bronze medalist in NCAA all-time leading scorer Marina DiGiacomo for Argentina and a silver medalist for Maacha van der Vaart of the Netherlands at the Olympics in Athens, Greece in the summer of 2004. The list grew over the summer of 2008 as four Lady Monarchs - Tiffany Snow, Angie Loy, Dana Sensenig, and Caroline Nichols - were named to the U.S. Olympic Team for the 2008 Beijing Games.
Anders challenges her teams to not only excel on the field, but in the classroom as well. Since 1989, the Lady Monarch teams have had a G.P.A. of 3.0 or better. Last season, her team was named a 2007 ZAG/NFHCA Division I National Academic Team Award winner after compiling a 3.68 cumulative grade point average as a squad, the highest GPA among all Division I field hockey programs. Additionally, 18 members of the Lady Monarch field hockey team were named to the 2007 ZAG/NFHCA Division I National Academic Squad, the most of any Division I field hockey program. Certainly the epitome of Anders' student-athletes is Samantha Salvia, the school's first ever Rhodes Scholar who graduated in 1996 with a 4.0 GPA in environmental and civil engineering.
The key to Anders success on and off the field hockey field seems to be her love for and dedication to the game. Her development of the Futures Program during her national coaching stint in 1993 and her active mentoring of the field hockey youth are just two examples of her will to succeed better than anyone in her vocation. A fine all-around athlete herself, Anders was a four-time All-College field hockey and lacrosse player before graduating from Ursinus College with a B.S. degree in health and physical education. The Norristown, Pennsylvania Native was also selected to the national collegiate basketball team and won the intercollegiate squash championship in 1970.
Anders is the daughter of Stanley and the late Alice Anders. She has one brother and enjoys fitness, golf, tennis, reading, and creative teaching tools. She also has authored three books, Field Hockey: Steps to Success originally published in 1999 and updated for a 2008 release and Lessons in Field Hockey released in 1996.