Humble to a fault, Jen Averill wasn’t about to tell the players on her Wake Forest field hockey team about an impending milestone.
So, on a cloudless, 75-degree Sunday at Kentner Stadium, Averill quietly went about her business of winning another game.
This win was really no different than so many others as the Demon Deacons rolled past UMass Lowell, 9-1, for their fourth straight win as they head toward ACC play.
The 20th-ranked Demon Deacons have been a constant contender in the ACC and on the national level for mostly all of Averill’s 34 seasons in Winston-Salem. She’s the longest tenured coach at the school, hired in 1991 by then-Athletics Director Ron Wellman.
As her players hugged her when somebody mentioned the 450th win, she smiled. It wasn’t about the number but more about the way her players continue to enjoy the journey that Averill is on.
“Look at their faces,” she said, casting an eye toward her players. “They don’t even look tired. I think that’s what I love the most about this job, are the relationships you build each and every season.”
Wake Forest has won 11 team national championships, and three of them belong to Averill, coming in 2002, 2003 and 2004. In addition, she has won four ACC championships with the last one in 2014.
She’s been national coach of the year three times, and her victories put her in the top 10 all-time in NCAA history. She’s also been the ACC coach of the year eight times.
In her 36 years combined as a head coach, her record is 450-278-6, and at the age of 60 shows no signs of slowing down.
Players had no idea
Maybe if her band of star recruits had known about the milestone, a sign could have been made for the post-game celebration. But because Averill didn’t give a hint of the accomplishment, junior Mia Schoenbeck was among the players who were surprised.
“She didn’t tell us anything about it,” said Schoenbeck, who had two goals and is the team’s leading scorer. “She probably didn’t even know herself, but that’s because she’s just so humble.”
Schoenbeck, who is from LaGrange, Kentucky, was second-team All-ACC last season and playing for Averill is something she wanted to do from a young age.
“It’s been my dream since I was probably 8 years old to play for her,” Schoenbeck said. “It’s great coming in and she’s just one of those coaches you can be friends with. You can go to her for anything and it’s like family and she just treats us with respect, which you don’t get a lot from coaches.”
Averill and her staff, which includes associate head coaches Pietie Coetzee-Turner and Jackie Briggs, as well as assistant Rox Coetzee-Turner, have been consistent. The Demon Deacons have been to 10 NCAA Final Fours. The ACC is one of the best, if not the best, field hockey conferences in the country.
Her dreams are their dreams
In front of only about 50 fans on Sunday, the public address announcer informed the crowd of Averill’s feat. The crowd was mostly parents and friends of the players.
Even in the news release about the game written by Wake Forest, there was just once sentence about the accomplishment. No quote about the milestone or anything other than the number.
“It’s a reflection of the student-athletes who come here with so much passion,” Averill said. “And, quite honestly, they have big dreams, so I love to be the facilitator of young women’s dreams.”
It’s no secret that college athletics, even non-revenue sports, are going through plenty of transition. Some believe that eventually the non-rev sports might be reduced to being club sports.
To her credit, Averill has blinders on and is continuing to push the education aspect of Wake Forest as well as the competition that field hockey provides.
“I think it’s how you drive the narrative,” Averill said. “So, for us, I’m going to stay consistent in my mission, which is to have short term and long-term goals. The short-term goal is hockey, and the long term is their education and what they do with the rest of their life.
“So, things are going to come about and we will adapt, because that’s a great life lesson. But if you go ‘the sky is falling,’ then you’re going to be a victim, and then your program is going to display that.”
It wasn’t that long ago when Skip Prosser, who hadn’t been at Wake Forest for long as the men’s basketball coach, was hoping to keep up with the bar that Averill’s field hockey team had set.
In 2003, when the Demon Deacons reached the men’s basketball’s Sweet 16,l Prosser said: “We are just trying to build a basketball program that the field hockey program can be proud of.”
During that run of three straight NCAA championships, Wake Forest was by far the best program in the country.
“We keep our eye on our principles, which are our core values, that we’re based on relationship and not chump change,” Averill said. “We appreciate this more than anything else, and the opportunity to be with one another so you can throw money around (in college athletics), but we’re going to keep grinding and finding the joy.”
Best memory involves a player
It would have been easy for Averill to talk national championships when it comes to her favorite memory, but she’s not wired that way. Instead, she recalled the ACC championship match with Maryland in 2006 just after a former player lost her battle with cancer.
Maria Whitehead was just 25 when she died, and it’s something that has stuck with Averill ever since.
“We were playing a very talented Maryland team in the ACC championship game, and after that game, we had to go and bury one of our fallen teammates who had died from melanoma,” she said. “And I couldn’t talk, I couldn’t coach. So, that’s my best memory, because everything that I would hope for in these relationships, that the students were there for me. They were there. Every single one of them was there for me. You don’t need to say a word, just go out to the field.”
Star player to star coach
When Averill was a student at Northwestern from 1983-1987, she played on the national team and is one of the best athletes in school history. She’s in the Northwestern Hall of Fame and went to two Final Fours as a player.
Averill began her coaching career as an assistant at Dartmouth then went to Bucknell as a head coach in 1989 before coming to Wake Forest.
“She was a killer athlete at Northwestern and probably nobody knows that,” Schoenbeck said.
A highly recruited player from high school is graduating early and coming this spring so she can get a jump start on her career at Wake Forest. That’s the luxury Averill has: she can recruit the best players that fit with her priorities.
What keeps Averill going, according to Schoenbeck, is her drive. On Sunday, she wore a boot after suffering an injury while running and had to sit on a stool during the game. Averill has been an avid runner since her days at Northwestern.
“I think what keeps her going is the belief in the program and the drive to always be better,” Schoenbeck said. “I think the belief she has in us keeps her going and it keeps us going.”
Averill was asked how long she expects to coach. She didn’t hesitate with an answer.
“As long as I’m having fun,” Averill said. “And I’m still having fun doing this.”
jdell@wsjournal.com
336-727-4081
@johndellWSJ
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