The United States Coach of the Year: 2011
Lillian Shelton, Severna Park (Md.)
The real story of Lillian Shelton's 37th and final season as field
hockey
coach at Severna Park (Md.) started close to the end of her 36th.
On October 25, 2010, the Falcons lost 2-1 to Glenelg (Md.) in what is
known as the Region V championship game, which pits the champion of
Howard County against nearby Anne Arundel County.
The day after the game, comments attributed to Shelton
appeared in the newspaper. Her words, spoken in the team's normally
private post-game
talk, were forwarded all over the Internet.
For the first time in her career, Lil Shelton went viral.
The reaction was overwhelmingly negative. Taken out of context, the
comments made the coach seem petty and bitter, even though the aim
appeared to be to take focus off the loss to Glenelg and put it back on
winning the state championship final.
The Falcons' 2010 loss to Westminster (Md.) in the state tournament was
an exercise in schaudenfreude,
even amonst people who called her friend.
For the following nine months, the field hockey community in the state
of Maryland was roiling with questions. Had the game passed Shelton by?
Had she stayed too long? Should she have stepped aside when she retired
from teaching in 2001?
But fast forward to November 12, 2011, on the turf of Washington
College.
One of the participants in the 4A championship game was Severna Park
(Md.). The Falcons were playing Bethesda-Chevy Chase
(Md.), a team which, six years before, had broken the hearts the team
with a double-overtime loss.
And for the last decade, B-CC and Severna Park met one another in the
Sally Nyborg Invitational in Baltimore, so the two programs have been
intimately acquainted with each other's successes and failures.
But Severna Park won the championship in the twilight of the day at
Washington College. And, as it turned out, the Falcons won their 20th
state championship in the twilight of Shelton's career.
Five days after the team's 3-1 victory, Shelton announced her
retirement from coaching.
For winning a 20th state championship -- more than any other field
hockey coach in National Federation history -- and restoring the legacy
of a true legend in scholastic field hockey, Shelton is the TopOfTheCircle.com
United States Coach of the Year for 2011.
The last decade or so, the game of field hockey changed around Shelton
-- everything from the sticks to the artificial grass on the floor of
the campus' stadium turf facility to the uniforms the team had worn for
a quarter century.
Yet, the coach was able to process all of these changes and changes in
skill level. Shelton also benefitted from having U-19 indoor national
team player Marissa Balleza, who may turn out to be the finest player
the program has ever produced -- and that's saying something. Balleza
understood how important a victory was.
"We worked all year to get this title for her," Balleza said after the
season ended.
Shelton, in 37 seasons, won 544 matches, drew 10, and lost 60. It is a
number which could easily be 800 if the state of Maryland did not have
the shortest regular season in the United States -- just 12 regular
season games, plus one in-season tournament.
It took Shelton, pulling strings, to get the Maryland state legislature
to add the in-season tournament.
"I wrote up the recommendations, and gave it to the Board of
Controllers," Shelton said in a 2000 interview with this site. "The
thing is, if you do something for field hockey, you have to do it for
all other sports, which includes buses and officials. These are all of
the unseen factors."
Shelton's impact, however, is not unseen. The program she built with
found sticks in a broom closet is a successful one in sending athletes
to high-performance duties, and will surely contend for championships
for decades to come thanks to the youth leagues she helped start, and
the traditions she kept going.
ALSO CONSIDERED:
Sarah Bottorff, Mechanicsville Hanover (Va.) — Team’s appearance in the
VHSL Class AAA tournament was the first time any team from the Capital
District had ever made it past the regional semifinal round
Lindsay Breen, North Reading (Mass.) –Took a program that had won one
game in the previous two seasons and made its first state tournament
appearance
Nancy Cox and Tia Sutton, Ann Arbor Huron (Mich.) — The duo with
University of Michigan ties have made Huron into more than just a
worthy opponent for cross-town rival Pioneer; they won the state final
in 2011
Janelle Kern, Harrisburg Central Dauphin (Pa.) — Led her team to what
could be a program-defining season, beating rival Hummelstown Lower
Dauphin (Pa.) twice in the postseason, and losing only to powerhouses
like Lititz Warwick (Pa.), Mount Joy Donegal (Pa.), and Millersville
Penn Manor (Pa.)
Tina Moon, Farmville Sachem East (N.Y.) — The Flaming Arrows had never
won a championship of any kind before this year, but through the
guidance of the former Centereach (N.Y.) product, the team swept
county, Long Island, and state championships in 2011
Theresa Napolitano, Milford Lauralton Hall (Conn.) — Fourth-year
varsity team got within an overtime goal of winning the Class S state
championship
Kate O’Connell, St. Louis Lafayette (Mo.) — After so many years of
trying as both a player and a coach, the Lancers won the Midwest Field
Hockey Tournament; the first for a public school since 1988
Kelly Rose, Maple Shade (N.J.) — The school’s lacrosse coach, she
propelled the field hockey team to a 15-3-1 record through improvements
on defense. The Wildcats conceded 28 fewer goals this season than last
Jennifer Sponzo, Flemington Hunterdon Central (N.J.) — Turned around
last year’s 3-12-1 season and bounced back from a 3-6 start to win the
Group IV North 2 sectional championship
Brittany Tolan, Louisville duPont Manual (Ky.) — Assembled an oddment
of music, drama, communications, technology, and math students to bring
home the first state championship ever won by a magnet school
Wendy Wilson, Yorktown Tabb (Va.) — Beat a very good Virginia Beach
Frank W. Cox (Va.) team to start its season, then shut out every single
opponent the rest of the way