If there was a sports dictionary, you might find the definition of the term “lifer,” a descriptive noun for someone who a person who spends a long time in a particular field of endeavor when it comes to a particular sport, game, or activity.
I’d like to think that, next to that definition, you’d find a picture of Jun and Richard Kentwell. Yesterday, the two announced their decision to leave their positions coaching and managing the U.S. women’s indoor national team after a decade of dedication to improving the lot of the indoor side.
The couple, who started the W.C. Eagles field hockey club back around 2007, has built a brand name as well as trained a number of game-changing athletes in the game of field hockey. The club, through hard work, advanced coaching and training, and the construction of an indoor field house and outdoor turfs which are the envy of many European clubs, have altered the trajectory of the sport in the United States.
Time was, especially in hockey-mad Pennsylvania, players on a high school team were obligated to play for an off-season club. If you walked through the halls of an indoor tourament, you’d know the high school by the name of the team — Firestyx meant Emmaus (Pa.), Sutter’s Mill meant Lititz Warwick (Pa.), the Barracudas meant Hummelstown Lower Dauphin (Pa.).
But the Kentwells were able to attract numerous players to their facility in Spring City, Pa., winning tournament titles as well as dominating pool play in national tournaments. The pale blue and yellow shirts dominated National Festival, National Indoor, and National Club tournaments. If you looked at the group photos of medal winners, the pictures of players in the Eagles’ distinctive pale blue and yellow uniforms were omnipresent.
What the club did best was develop players. Record-setting players like Ryleigh Heck, Erin Matson, Meredith Sholder, Hope Rose, and Charlotte de Vries played for the club. And think of this: 39 current or former W.C. Eagles players were selected to some sort of U.S. national team last year.
Yep, 39. That spreads across indoor, outdoor, senior, and junior national sides. It’s a staggering number, considering the usual size of field hockey clubs in the U.S.
A decade ago, Jun and Richard Kentwell turned their attention to improving the fortunes of the U.S. women’s international side in international competition. The U.S. team, earlier this year, won the Rohrmax Cup in Austria, then maneuvered through treacherous waters in the FIH Indoor Women’s World Cup to its highest-ever finish, seventh.
And now, the couple are leaving their positions. New faces will be on the sidelines of the indoor game. But will they have the same kind of mindset and expectations?