‘Women
on Walton’
& other tales of female coaching at Haverford
In sports, an oft-used saying is “hindsight is 20/20.” But
nobody ever talks about foresight. In the case of Haverford’s women’s
soccer coach Wendy Smith and softball coach Jen Ward their foresight,
the vision for the future of their teams, was pinpoint: Before coaching
their teams and leading them on to unprecedented success, Smith ’87
and Ward ’04 were students. And though separated by a generation,
each helped move Haverford’s women’s athletics up a whole
level.
At a college with an honor code that asks students, teachers, athletic
personnel and staff to treat each other with modesty and humility, winning
can be tough—Modesty and Humility are kind of opposite qualities
to those aggressive ones usually associated with “winning.”
That’s why the X-factor in coaching that creates a chemistry between
Haverford coaches and athletes has to do with former students leading–they
already know to balance “positive aggression” with the Haverfordian
M & H factors.
It was Smith—who will give up her coaching duties in July 2007 when
she becomes Haverford’s new Director of Athletics—who exhibited
such foresight as a freshman when she was instrumental in the creation
of a varsity soccer team, on which she starred as a player later in her
college career. Ward’s role as a groundbreaker occurred more recently,
when she became the first full-time softball-only coach (there had previously
been a joint softball-basketball coach) in the nine-year history of the
women’s softball team, where she’d played as an undergrad.
Ask either about their soon-to-be historic roles in the annals of Haverford
sports, and their responses are M & H succinct: “Who, me?”
All part of the Haverford mind-set that has helped these coaches lead
their teams upward.
The tale rightfully begins in 1972, when Congress passed Title IX, which
proclaims: “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of
sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or
be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity
receiving Federal financial assistance.” This legislation paved
the way for equal financial support for women’s sports at colleges
and universities across the country.
But at Haverford the story opened nearly a decade later, before Ward was
born and Smith was even thinking about applying to college. As current
Dean of the College and former Athletic Director Greg Kannerstein ’63
recalls, launching women’s athletics at an all-male school was a
slow and painstaking process. Women student-athletes who transferred to
Haverford played at Bryn Mawr, in particular on their field hockey team,
an arrangement approved by the pre-NCAA Association of Intercollegiate
Athletics for Women. “As the Bryn Mawr team with Haverford players
improved, the local AIAW chapter began to question the arrangement, and
the ability of Haverford players to play on Bryn Mawr teams might well
have ended in the fall of 1980,” Kannerstein points out. However,
1980 was also the year that Haverford began admitting female students,
and with that innovation came the establishment of three new intercollegiate
teams, women’s field hockey, lacrosse and basketball, with participation
of transfer students and about 140 new females.
Wendy Smith arrived in 1983, a member of one of the first pioneering coed
classes, having graduated from New Rochelle High School, where she discovered
soccer in her senior year. “When I got to campus, it was the first
time all four classes had been fully admitted co-ed. So for me, it didn’t
feel like one of the first co-ed classes,” says Smith. However,
she noticed Haverford lacked its own women’s soccer team (she and
her freshman roommate played on Bryn Mawr’s bi-college club team).
After spending a semester at Colgate, she returned to find that soccer
was now a club sport, although still not a nationally recognized varsity
team. She and a group of like-minded students determined to change that.
“They were a very committed group,” says Kannerstein. “I
admit that both the turnout and success of the early teams was greater
than I would have guessed, in large measure because of Wendy’s leadership,
which combined good humor, integrity and intensity.” With characteristics
like that, it was obvious to Kannerstein and others that Smith was a coach-in-the-making.
Kannerstein describes Wendy Smith on the soccer pitch as “a player
with speed, feel for the game, and intense determination. Her tendency
was to go right to the goal, running past or through her opponents—and
often enough she succeeded.” Though the Athletic Department gave
the team the green light in 1985, they were nevertheless relegated to
the Class of ’22 Field, an inferior playing surface in comparison
to the beautiful Walton Field. After Smith and the team delivered an impressive
9-6-1 record in 1986 (which included matches against tough Division I
opponents), they staged a protest, pushing to play on the same field as
the men did. “Playing on Walton became a big issue. We had shirts
made up: ‘WOW’ (Women on Walton), and put up slogans everywhere,”
Smith recalls. “Everywhere” included the men’s locker
room. When the athletic administration saw the students’ determination
and commitment to the sport, they decided to send them to the main field.
“Actually playing on Walton was a highlight,” Smith says.
She’d gone through her opponents, right to the goal—and won.
* * *
In just two years on the team, Smith’s name is still in Haverford’s
record book, in the top 10 in career points, goals, points-per-game and
goals-per-game. In addition to those achievements, Smith was also a valuable
part of the women’s lacrosse team, leading them to a 14-0 season
in 1987. She is currently 12th on the squad’s all-time career points
list. Her personality off the field matched her intensity on it: She graduated
from Haverford not only a decorated athlete but also one of the school’s
first female mathematics majors.
Wendy Smith left Haverford and, after a few stops along the way, came
right back. She coached at a high school and then enrolled in the M.B.A.
program at the University of Rhode Island, where Kannerstein met up with
her and was once again impressed by “her seriousness of purpose
and strong commitment to a career in coaching and athletic administration.”
She earned her M.B.A. in International Sport Management and was then hired
by Haverford as an assistant coach in lacrosse and soccer. After the resignation
of the women’s soccer team coach, Kannerstein thought Smith might
be a good fit for that squad’s opening. And he knew as well that
if the soccer team got a full-time employee (the other coaches had been
part-time), the program would grow and flourish. In 1995, Smith became
head coach of a team with a combined 46-82-9 record over eight seasons.
There was work to be done.
* * *
While Smith and others were laying the foundation for a women’s
athletics program at Haverford, Jen Ward was growing up in Orange County,
New York, and, like Smith, was an all-around natural athlete. “I
tried swimming, cheerleading, a year of middle school soccer, and a day
of middle school volleyball, but softball’s the only sport that
stuck,” she says now. After receiving a letter from then-coach John
Kelly, Ward came to Haverford and joined a team mired in season after
season of mediocre records. She made her mark on the mound, amassing a
4.33 career earned-run average, good for third on Haverford’s all-time
list. She is also in the top eight in wins, opponent batting average,
complete games, innings pitched, and appearances. With 82 “fans,”
she is second on the career strikeouts list. Most importantly, she was
a great teammate, according to Lindsay Grant ’04, a classmate, friend
and fellow softball player. “Jen has always had a very level-headed
and laid-back personality, which helped to bring calmness and stability
on the softball field to what was a very young and inexperienced team,”
says Grant. “She always had the mentality that you should do what
you’re capable of, and the rest will fall in place.” Grant
also believes her friend’s calmness rubbed off on her teammates,
as she remembers that on those rare occasions when she made errors, “a
joke was never far behind.” Despite a few losing seasons, Ward brought
some humor and peace to a frustrated team.
While Ward’s fondest college memories and her closest friends came
from playing softball, she also began to pull away from the experience
and understand what Haverford softball needed in order to win more consistently:
a full-time coach. “The team was small and we didn’t win a
lot, but we all believed that our team had the potential to do more,”
she recalls. “I realized the difficulties and limitations of part-time
coaches. It takes more time to plan practices and seasons, recruit, and
develop team camaraderie.” Kannerstein saw the same thing, and began
to view Ward and current assistant coach Caitlin Kimura as “the
strong and spirited leaders of the team.” Never having had a full-time
coach in the short nine-year history of the team, Haverford lacked any
long-term solution, as there was no one who could recruit talented players
and convince prospects that the college was committed to winning.
That someone ultimately turned out to be Jen Ward, who started as an assistant
coach in the fall of 2004, three months after she graduated. Interestingly
enough, this came just as the team was searching for a full-time replacement
for a vacancy that had just opened at the top—the current part-timer
was leaving. Kannerstein understood that having someone familiar with
the program and the school, equally committed and determined to turn things
around, would be the perfect candidate for the new job. While he searched
for this ideal replacement, he started to consider Jen Ward as a strong
possibility. “I was becoming more and more convinced that Jen could
do a fine job as head coach despite being only a year or two older than
her players, and having been a teammate of many of them,” Kannerstein
says. After asking the opinion of some of her former teammates who were
still active, he promoted Ward to first full-time head coach of women’s
softball. Once again Kannerstein had found a final piece in a puzzle to
solve another female sports dilemma, and turn the burgeoning ’Ford
women’s athletics program into a powerhouse.
* * *
The first thing Coach Smith’s soccer players mention about her coaching
style is her tough pre-season training program, a determination to get
her team to sweat. “Sometimes we resented her for those three-a-day
practices and running hills,” remembers Alice Cartwright ’04.
“But as I gained experience, I was able to see that she asks you
to be ready to give all you’ve got. She wants you engaged and committed.”
Lindsey Dolich ’06, a forward and midfielder, remembers Smith as
“hands down, one of the most organized coaches I've ever played
for. Always wrote out detailed practice plans and encouraged us to keep
mental tabs on our goals during and after the season.” But Dolich
also pointed out that Smith never raised her voice once in the four years
she was on the team. Level-headedness and quiet intensity get her message
across.
After she became coach in 1993, Smith instantaneously braced the team.
“The program immediately improved. She taught the players a kind
of teamwork previously lacking, and Haverford soon seemed the better-conditioned
team in almost every game,” says Kannerstein. She was also just
as adept at recruiting players who wanted to win without exerting any
kind of pressure. “Wendy is not the kind of person who will force
anyone to keep playing soccer if they are not enjoying it,” says
Cartwright. “She wants you there to succeed, to be there because
you really love to play.” Since her debut, Smith has compiled a
135-106-20 record.
In 2005, ’Ford soccer reached a pinnacle. Haverford finished its
season with 14 wins, then lost in the semifinals of the Centennial Conference
tournament to Johns Hopkins. But the story doesn’t end there. The
following Sunday, Dolich and her twin sister Caryn, captain of the squad,
were enjoying a late Sunday brunch in the Dining Center and reminiscing
about what they thought was the conclusion of a banner year. The team
had been asked to turn in their equipment the next day. So the Dolich
sisters were flabbergasted to see Smith bounding across the dining hall
toward their table. “Out of nowhere, she comes running up with a
mile-wide grin, bouncing like a giddy kid,” Dolich recalls, smiling.
The team was on its way to the NCAA Division III tournament, anyway. Given
the results of the Centennial Conference, this was the last thing anybody
expected. The Fords ended up losing to the eventual champions, Messiah,
in the second round, but not before taking down Arcadia at home. After
13 years of hard work, Smith had finally hit the top.
* * *
Coach Ward, too, was excited and more than ready for the challenge of
building a softball dynasty from the ground up. But it was still daunting.
“Coaching is an intimidating profession, especially at Haverford,”
she says. “Athletics is a large part of student life here and there’s
a lot of responsibility in leading an athletic program that meets and
represents Haverford’s high standards.” Ward pauses to gather
her thoughts, and in her hesitation reveals her maturity and understanding.
She’s learned a lot in just a couple of years, now knows what it
takes to recruit, coach and win here. “Change, growth, and development
are all processes, and of course they require patience. I don’t
think patience is a particular strength of mine, but when I think about
how much these girls give me, how much energy and time they put into the
program, there’s no reason not to be patient.” An admirable
philosophy, but she didn’t need to be patient for long.
Ward spent the summer of 2004, before being named Head Coach, recruiting
the very players she’d need in 2006. “Jen was indefatigable,
attending showcases and tournaments on scorching hot weekends and finding
students who could qualify academically, and would want to come here,”
says Kannerstein. The wheels were in motion as she began coaching the
2005 season with a slew of impressionable young players eager to work
with a coach who knew what they needed. But she didn’t put pressure
on the players. “My goals, from the beginning, have been to create
a positive and rewarding experience for the team and an environment that
brings out [its] best,” she explains. Mirroring her own player attitudes,
Ward stresses the “F” – fun—in softball. “The
atmosphere [here] has changed a lot. We try to keep things in perspective
and focus on the simplicity of the game,” she says.
After an 11-26 record in 2005, Ward and the ’Fords came out of nowhere
in 2006 and immediately jelled, taking the Centennial Conference by storm.
They ended the regular season 26-17 with a conference championship as
well as the Holy Grail of Haverford teams—a berth in the NCAA Division
III tournament. As the seventh seed, they faced a challenging match-up
against Moravian, which had lost only eight games in the entire season.
Despite scoring a run in the first inning, they lost 3-1 in a tough game.
“I’m proud of all the softball team has accomplished,”
she says. “We took a lot of people by surprise, which makes victory
sweeter.” As for Kannerstein, who made the decision to hire a full-time
rookie coach the year after she graduated, he wasn’t surprised at
all: “I had no doubt she would succeed,” Kannerstein, who
can sometimes seem sphinxlike, remarks. “However, the extent of
her success in just two years is a very remarkable achievement.”
* * *
Two coaches have brought their respective teams to a new success in a
relatively short time. Can their secret be quantified? Besides their work
ethics, what seems to be their most important coaching attributes are
their abilities to create cohesive units on the field – a function
of their student apprenticeships at Haverford. “Without a doubt,
Wendy’s experience made her understand the daily grind,” says
Dolich. Cartwright agrees: “She encouraged us to find a balance
between academics, sports commitments, and our social lives.” Only
a former Haverford student can understand what a student-athlete is going
through on and off this particular field, having experienced it herself.
“I try to stress the academics first, including the positive aspects
of the honor code, the students, and the opportunities that a Haverford
education would provide,” Smith explains. “I try to sell the
school before soccer. I feel I have a strong attachment to the school,
and the success of all its sports, because it is my alma mater.”
Ward concurs, especially because “being a young alum and former
player has been such an advantage. We work well together, I think, because
our perspectives are similar. It’s very easy for me to identify
with and relate to [my] team.”
And all of this at a school that stresses a code of humility. No bragging
rights here. How refreshing it is, in a world where professional athletes
and coaches practically morph into spotlights. ’Fords seem to hear
“we,” not “I,” and to put personal success aside
for team achievement.