North_Carolina_Tar_Heels_field_hockey

North Carolina Tar Heels field hockey

North Carolina Tar Heels field hockey

American college field hockey team

The North Carolina Tar Heels field hockey team represent the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in the Atlantic Coast Conference of NCAA Division I field hockey.

Quick Facts North Carolina Tar Heels field hockey, University ...

History

Players, coaches, and support staff of the 2007 Tar Heels, winners of the Atlantic Coast Conference and NCAA championships, honored by U.S. President George W. Bush at the White House in 2008

Field hockey has been played at the University of North Carolina since the 1940s, but it only became a varsity sport in 1971 when the school was a charter member of the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW). The team won several state AIAW championships and finished second twice in the AIAW Southern Region II tournament before joining the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) for the 1982 season.

Stadium

Originally operated as Navy Field, it was redeveloped as a multi-use stadium, Francis E. Henry Stadium, primarily for the use by field hockey. The stadium, with a 1,086 seating capacity, was opened on April 24, 1999. It was heavily renovated in 1999, with a private donation to UNC. The Francis E. Henry Stadium was demolished in 2017.[3]

In August 2018, the Tar Heels inaugurated a new stadium complex dedicated solely to field hockey and named in honor of their head coach, Karen Shelton. Karen Shelton Stadium is a modern 900-seat stadium with additional standing-room space with a total capacity of 1,000. The stadium includes fan amenities (e.g., concessions and restrooms), three-level press and scorers boxes, and LED sport lighting and an LED video scoreboard. The Polytan field surface is considered rare among collegiate field hockey and has been described by USA Field Hockey as "top-of-the-line".[4]

The stadium complex also includes a 10,000 square foot team building with home and visitor locker rooms, an area for team meals and functions, theater, sports medicine space, a players' lounge, meeting space and coaches' offices.[5]

Karen Shelton Stadium has been described by the international field hockey press as the best field hockey facility in the United States and "one of the best facilities anywhere in world hockey".[6]

All-time record

More information Year, Head Coach ...

Individual honors

More information Name, Year(s) ...

Kit number seven (honoring Leslie Lyness), number nine (honoring Rachel Dawson) and number thirteen (honoring Cindy Werley) have been retired.

See also

References

Citations

  1. [1]
    GoHeels.com. "Erin Matson named field hockey head coach". University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
  2. [2]
    "Primary Identity" (PDF). Carolina Athletics Brand Identity Guidelines. April 20, 2015. Retrieved March 4, 2024.
  3. [3]
    "Field Hockey Stadium". ramsclub.com. Retrieved 2018-03-24.
  4. [4]
    "Get to Know FIH Hockey Pro League Venue, Karen Shelton Stadium". USA Field Hockey. Archived from the original on September 27, 2020. Retrieved May 11, 2021.
  5. [5]
    "Karen Shelton Stadium". Ram's Club. Retrieved May 11, 2021.
  6. [6]
    "North Carolina hockey 'has best facilities in the US'". The Hockey Paper. 28 February 2020. Retrieved May 11, 2021.

Bibliography

Media related to North Carolina Tar Heels field hockey at Wikimedia Commons
Share this article:

This article uses material from the Wikipedia article North_Carolina_Tar_Heels_field_hockey, and is written by contributors. Text is available under a CC BY-SA 4.0 International License; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.