UNC has always had an influential field hockey program. From winning multiple national and ACC championships to having back to back undefeated seasons, UNC is certainly considered one of, if not the greatest college field hockey program in the country. They have not only grown the sport in the southeast region but also have brought more attention to it throughout the United States.
There are multiple reasons for this repeated success. One of the reasons is former head coach Karen Shelton and her ability to recruit talented players, many from Pennsylvania. Many of the most recent wins were because of these players, including Cassie Sumfest and Ashley Hoffman.
By far, the most influential player to the program was Erin Matson. In her five years at the program, she won four national championships, five ACC championships and was deemed the Michael Jordan of field hockey. Her speed, skill and shots earned her this reputation and even earned her a spot on the U.S. women’s national team. At 22, she was extremely accomplished and many expected her to go on and have a very successful career either as an international player or as a member of the national team, which at the time had relocated to Charlotte and was regaining strength. What many didn’t expect was Karen Shelton to retire and for Matson to take the head coaching position, at the age of 23.
Besides the fact that Matson is so young (actually the youngest college field hockey coach in history), she is also viewed by many people as unqualified. Before becoming a head coach, typically one would be an assistant coach or a member of the national team until a reasonable age for retirement. Though Matson was a national team member, she was only a member for about five years, while many national team members play for close to 10 years. All five of those years, Matson would have been balancing playing for the national team with either playing high school or college field hockey.
For some of these years, the national team was based out of Chapel Hill, allowing for Matson to balance playing for the two teams easier. The issue with this is that the national team has to travel, often for weeks at a time while playing internationally. While Matson was spending this time playing, she was missing valuable time with her Tar Heel teammates. There were also times when playing for the national team interfered with her ability to play for the Tar Heels. Once, while coming home from playing abroad with the national team, the airline that the team flew on lost some of the luggage aboard that plane, including Matson’s stick. This was only a few days before the Tar Heels had to play in a big game, resulting in a lot of rushing around to try and find where the missing luggage was. All in all, it was evident that Matson often put playing for the national team above playing for the Tar Heels, showing that maybe she wasn’t focusing on the Carolina team as much as some of the other potential head coach candidates.
Matson also does not seem to be mature enough for a head coaching position. While playing for the Tar Heels, her instagram was littered with pictures of her drinking while underage. While many of these photos have either been deleted or pushed to the bottom of her account, for those that have seen them, it has been hard to shake the image of Matson smiling with a friend while holding a red solo cup.
Nowadays, Matson has cleaned up her account, mostly posting about the team or activities around the university, but there is still one thing not stereotypical about the way Matson carries herself, her outfits. Often, head coaches can be spotted wearing clothing like any of their athletes would- running shorts, leggings, and sweatpants topped with sweatshirts and t-shirts and wearing running sneakers. All of this clothing is often provided by the school that they are coaching for, one of the perks of being both a collegiate athlete or coach. On the contrary, Matson is often pictured wearing baggy pants or formal shorts topped with “hip” shirt choices and wearing the newest, most fashionable Nike Dunks or Air Forces. Oh, and don’t forget the chunky sunglasses, excessive jewelry and claw clip. Matson continuously wears streetwear to practices and games, showing that she may be a little bit too concerned about her appearance just to go coach a game of field hockey in hot and humid North Carolina. Her outfits are evidence of her youth, and possibly her immaturity for the job.
Yet another problem that must be addressed is that there were more qualified people that applied for the job, most notably Jackie Briggs. Briggs not only won two national championships and one ACC championship with the Tar Heels, but she was also a member of the national team for nine years. Briggs also won the U.S’s first Pan American gold medal and led the team to win bronze in the Olympics. She then became an assistant coach at Carolina before becoming an assistant at Wake Forest, another ACC school. At Wake, Briggs could often be seen recruiting, including many girls from Pennsylvania in order to build the school’s program.
Seeing all of this, Briggs was obviously the clear choice for head coach. So why didn’t she get the job? Briggs was a goalie, and while many goalies go onto be head coaches, many disagree with this, saying that goalies don’t see enough of the field play to coach field players effectively. This is an opinion that may have pushed Briggs to the sideline and instead pushed Matson towards the job. However, there are many benefits of having a goalie as a head coach. The goalie is seen as the backbone of teams. They are mostly in charge of leading and communicating out of the backfield, specifically directing defenders. Goalies also can coach offensive players on how to beat the goalie, making the offensive line more dangerous and oftentimes more successful. Though they would not have been able to help directly with specific skills that field players need to be successful, that is what they hire assistant coaches for, just like how Matson has a coach that specifically helps with the goalie’s skills.
Matson recently got a lot of national attention for the Tar Heels winning both the ACC and national championships this year, but logistically how much did she actually have to do in order to achieve this? Though some of UNC’s players transferred when Matson was named the head coach, the majority of the players stayed. These are girls that are some of the best field hockey players in the nation, and they were already part of a national championship and ACC championship team. Most of the team, besides the freshmen, would have played under Karen Shelton, and all of them would have been recruited by Shelton and her coaching staff. Matson would not have really had to do anything, and during games she cannot be heard or seen coaching from the sidelines, showing that the players know what they are doing from their training with Shelton. This is not to say that Matson doesn’t coach in practice, but to the naked eye, during games it doesn’t look like she’s doing much on the sideline.
It will really be telling in the coming years if Matson is fit for the job. The first class that she has had to recruit is the class of 2025, so once these players get to college, the real test of how good of a coach she is will begin. Until then, we can all sit back and watch the lasting legacy of Coach Shelton play out and possibly win another national championship or two.
