College Field Hockey

Parents vs. Child

HEMPSTEAD, NY--Many athletes growing up have a parent as one of their first coaches, whether it is in Little League, CYO or just in the back yard.

It is not even that uncommon for a parent to coach their child on the high school or college level. There have been many cases in college athletics when an athlete plays for their parent. Press Maravich coached his son “Pistol” Pete Maravich at LSU.  More recently Billy Baron played basketball for his father Jim at Canisius, and Doug McDermott played basketball for his father Greg at Creighton.

But how common it is for a college coach to coach AGAINST their child?

That was the case Sunday, when the Rider University field hockey team traveled to Hempstead, NY to take on Hofstra University.

Since the year 2000, the Rider field hockey team has been led by head coach Lori Hussong and assistant coach Dan Hussong. Between them they have won eight regular season titles and six Conference Championships. Lori has earned Coach of the Year honors five times.

As a player, Lori led the 1981 and the 1983 Trenton State College field hockey teams to the NCAA Division III National Championship, earning All-America honors.

Lori and Dan have a daughter, Colby, who not surprisingly, is a field hockey player. In high school she was her Conference Offensive Player of the Year both her sophomore and senior years, and was selected to the USA Field Hockey Junior Olympics in 2010 and 2011.

“No, I don't think it is hereditary,” Lori said about Colby's talents. “She works really hard at her game. She's been around the game for so long. She was at our practices and games when she was four years old. She watched the Rider players and became a very intelligent player on the field because of that.  She has great field vision.”

Four years old is when Colby began playing field hockey, thanks to her mother.

“My friend and I both had daughters who were four and we started a youth field hockey recreation league in West Windsor,” Lori said. “It grew to over 80 players.  We played indoor, on a gym floor, which made it easier for the young ones to develop their skills. It was fun.”

Colby began playing on the 14 years old and younger club level when she was 11 years old.  “Her skills really got developed in that program,” Lori said.  “Colby did very well in high school. Dan and I would have loved it if she came to Rider and played for us, but I think it would have been too much for her, socially. She wanted to go out and do something on her own.”

Colby went west and played for Miami University of Ohio, helping the Red Hawks win the Mid-American Conference. “She loved the coach at Miami,” Lori said. “She went to a clinic at Lehigh and met several college coaches and she really liked playing under the Miami coach. We got to see her play when Miami came to the East Coast, playing Maryland, American and Virginia. Miami turned out to be a little too far away from home, so she came back east to Hofstra.”

Rider has had Hofstra on its schedule for years.  The two teams even scrimmage each other during the spring. “You try to think that she is just another player on the opposing team, but there were moments in the scrimmage when we were watching her,” Lori said of coaching against Colby last spring, “but that was a scrimmage, when things are more relaxed.  You still want to be competitive but the games don't count. Hofstra is very talented this year so it will be a great game to see where we measure up.”

“She's happy at Hofstra and she's productive on a great field hockey team,” said Colby's father, Dan, before Rider's recent game at Hofstra. “Win or lose, it is okay with us. It is not a conference game, so there is no way for us to lose in this experience. She's having such a good experience there, and we're having a good experience here. In the spring scrimmage, she played on the side, just feet away from us. There were a couple of times I felt like correcting her, coaching her, but I held my tongue.”

On Sunday, Colby played 59 minutes against her parents' team and compiled an assist on the goal that gave Hofstra a 1-0 lead in the 6-3 Pride victory.

“Colby took a great shot that another player tipped in,” Dan remembered. “At first I thought she scored. Usually in that situation I'm very upset, falling behind 1-0 that early in the game. But because it was Colby, I was appreciative. My thoughts were more like, 'that was a great ball in' and I was proud of her. Colby played well.”

“It was nice to see and talk to Colby before the game,” Lori said, “but when the game started Dan and I were focused on our team and what we needed to do to be competitive and successful.  It's very hard sometimes for us as parents when we realize what we are missing, not being able to see her play as we truly love watching her play.  While we were disappointed that our team did not come out on top we were really proud of Colby and her play.  She had an awesome assist on Hofstra's first goal and she had some really nice one-touch passes during the course of the game.  Her team played a beautiful game and are extremely technically skilled, which makes them very tough to beat.  Although we came back from begin down three goal to tie the game up in the second half, we would have been happier if we hadn't broke down and given up three goals in the last 15 minutes of play.”

“Good for her, she played well,” Dan said.

After the game, the two teams shared a post-game party. “We said we'd buy dinner for both teams, win or lose,” Dan said.  “So I guess we were a good guest. We bought them dinner and they got a win over us. But it was actually a good game for us. Hofstra is very good.”

Coaching your child is a natural occurrence. Coaching against your child is not.

“Definitely a unique experience, something we've never felt before,” Dan said. “But it didn't feel bad or abnormal, just a little strange.”

-ru-