Imagine for a moment Shane Battier winning the 2001 NCAA Tournament title in his senior season, being named national college player of the year to boot, and instead of moving on after graduation, replacing his legendary head coach as the leader of the program. The stakes and details aren't exactly the same, but a reasonable facsimile of that scenario just played out in NCAA field hockey.
Erin Matson is regarded as one of the greatest field hockey players in American history. She was ACC Player of the Year five times at North Carolina (COVID year and everything) and national Player of the Year thrice. Her Tar Heels won four NCAA titles during her time in Chapel Hill. She's a member of the U.S. national team. And now, after UNC defeated Northwestern in a penalty shootout on Sunday to win their fifth title in six years, she's a national champion coach.
Legendary Tar Heel coach Karen Shelton resigned in December 2022 after 42 years at the helm of the nation's all-time winningest program. While still a student at UNC (but after her final season) Matson approached UNC athletic director Bubba Cunningham and expressed her interest in succeeding her mentor. To his credit, Cunningham took her seriously, though he admitted in an interview, it was "...an idea that you probably do have to sit with for a while to say, ‘OK, am I really going to consider this?’ After an interview process, Matson was named the head coach of the UNC program in January 2023.
Her teammates (and in one case, roommate) went from friends hanging out on Franklin Street with her to players dealing with her demanding standards. Romea Riccardo (who happens to be nine months older than her coach), said “Right away she did a great job of kind of separating herself from us. We respected her right away. We always respected her as a player. But now obviously it’s a little bit different when she’s our coach and our person that we kind of look up to as a mom figure.”
Kinda mean to do this to your mom, though:
Had to know that was coming 💦 pic.twitter.com/X9CMU1hEWO
— UNC Field Hockey (@UNCFieldHockey) November 20, 2023
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