The situation did not look promising. The new field hockey coach was barely older than the girls she was coaching. She was an athlete herself, but her sport was basketball, not field hockey. The previous coach retired after establishing "A Tradition of Excellence." Could the new coach fill her sneakers? What Sue Butz-Stavin remembers most about her first day on the job was being nervous.
Fast forward 50 years. Twenty-three field hockey players sit in their cars in the parking lot of Emmaus High School waiting for the coach to arrive for the first day of pre-season. It is still dark out. The girls know better than to be late. The coach has scheduled a team meeting for 6:00 a.m. Paperwork is collected, practice shirts are distributed, and goals are reviewed by 6:15. As the sun peeks over the horizon, the players move onto the turf and begin warming up, hoping they can live up to the high standards of the woman who has become the most successful field hockey coach in the country.
Sue Butz-Stavin is not nervous. She is not thinking about all the records she and the Hornets have set in previous years. A new season has begun. There are new challenges to be met.
This anniversary edition of All In recaps how Sue and the Hornets dealt with the restrictions and uncertainty of the COVID season five years earlier and reveals what has happened since.