Field Hockey

[OkieBilliken]

So....St, Joe's just beat #1 North Carolina 2-1 and will play for a national championship on Sunday.    St. Joe's beat SLU 1-0 last month.    How exactly is this possible?  I think its been over a year since SLU has beaten a Div 1 opponent.    Is our defense better than the #1 team in the nation?   This sport is baffling.   Not bad if the A10 can win a natty.

[Lord Elrond]

1 hour ago, OkieBilliken said:

So....St, Joe's just beat #1 North Carolina 2-1 and will play for a national championship on Sunday.    St. Joe's beat SLU 1-0 last month.    How exactly is this possible?  I think its been over a year since SLU has beaten a Div 1 opponent.    Is our defense better than the #1 team in the nation?   This sport is baffling.   Not bad if the A10 can win a natty.

I went to a few games at the new field, but I have to tell you I couldn’t figure out the details of what the heck was going on, so based on all of what I know,

I do know it was commented that our defense was better than our offense, and I was there that day and St Joseph’s outshot us by some truly ridiculous number, but our goalie just kept all of them out. Defense looked really good to me (not that I know much) but on offense we couldn’t do a darn thing. Again, no idea of the details of it, but that’s just what I saw, so I will guess great goalie work and overall defense. In looking at the box score, they had 22 shots, 13 on goal, our goalie, freshman Abby Schalow, got 12 saves. I guess I saw a great goalie performance. We only had 2 shots all game, 1 on goal and it was saved. 

[OkieBilliken]

According to Stu, Coach Adkins resigned.   Probably not a huge loss, but a little late to find a replacement

[billikenfan05]

2 hours ago, OkieBilliken said:

According to Stu, Coach Adkins resigned.   Probably not a huge loss, but a little late to find a replacement

I mean this is wash rinse and repeat over a handful of coaches at this point. 

Unless anything changes monetarily. It’s still a poverty program. It’s the second lowest priority sport budgetarily speaking in the AD. A Midwest based program playing in a sport dominated by the east coast private schools, in an east coast private scgooo league. It’s honestly not even worth discussing what kind of loss she is because this is going to happen again in 5 years or less. Young coach comes in from being an assistant willing to take any D1 head coaching job. Realizes after a few years it’s a near impossible task and decides their time is better spent as a higher paid assistant elsewhere or they burn out and leave college coaching altogether. 

SLU field hockey head coach is an almost impossible job. 
 

That being said, perhaps the new stadium can attract at new coach with at least a marginally better resume. You could also probably drop Tennis and allocate that money to getting field hockey to respectability within the conference. Aka mid pack. Below SJU and Richmond. Competitive with VCU and above Davidson, Lock Haven and La Salle.

 

[thetorch]

How much money would it take to make this program competitive?  A10 title worthy?

[billikenfan05]

8 minutes ago, thetorch said:

How much money would it take to make this program competitive?  A10 title worthy?

A10 title worthy is probably not ever in the cards. Realistically, the aim should be to be right in that middle pocket where Volleyball sat under Kent Miller, IMO.

[Pistol]

The top of the A10 has been very, very good in field hockey lately, but UMass is leaving and that's a big loss. It's now a 7-team league with one of the perennial top performers out. You could probably get to the top 3-4 with a modest commitment of ongoing resources. The facility is a huge first step.

[OkieBilliken]

Its almost July.   We have not hired a coach yet?  The school year will be starting soon.  We don't have a published schedule.  We will be playing road games at Davidson, St Joes and Richmond.    Sad.  

[billikenfan05]

3 hours ago, OkieBilliken said:

Its almost July.   We have not hired a coach yet?  The school year will be starting soon.  We don't have a published schedule.  We will be playing road games at Davidson, St Joes and Richmond.    Sad.  

https://slubillikens.com/404-1.aspx?url=%2fcoaches.aspx%3fpath%3dfhockey%26view%3ddefault
You can still find Zoe's page via google search but the Coaches Page triggers a 404. 

[Lord Elrond]

4 hours ago, OkieBilliken said:

Its almost July.   We have not hired a coach yet?  The school year will be starting soon.  We don't have a published schedule.  We will be playing road games at Davidson, St Joes and Richmond.    Sad.  

I have found the job listing on line, shows it’s been up for 23 days. They do need to find a coach soon

[billikenfan05]

30 minutes ago, Lord Elrond said:

I have found the job listing on line, shows it’s been up for 23 days. They do need to find a coach soon

I applied. 

[Lord Elrond]

So if we don’t hire a field hockey coach, does Janet Oberle automatically assume the role of acting head coach?

[MusicCityBilliken]

They do have 5 freshmen coming in. I would think if they selected SLU, Field Hockey was not the primary reason for coming here.

Seems like they are pretty smart group:

https://slubillikens.com/news/2025/6/30/field-hockey-six-billikens-named-academic-all-district.aspx

Geez, hire a darn coach.

[OkieBilliken]

Well we are now a little over a month before the season starts.   I guess you need a head coach before you can actually release your schedule.   

Here are the games that I have found so far...

August 31 at Ball State

September 6 home vs Ohio

September 12 at Bellarmine

September 19 at St. Joe's

October 3 at Richmond

October 26 home vs Lock Haven

October 31 at Davidson

The cool thing is for those of us coming back home for Bronze Boot weekend, SLU will be hosting a VB tournament and a FH game as well!   

Now CM, hit pause on the podcasts and HIRE A DARN COACH.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[thetorch]

Hearing that we will have a Player/Coach.  She will be the only one on the team allowed to eat in the Champions Center.

[RollBills82]

 

Well we are now a little over a month before the season starts.   I guess you need a head coach before you can actually release your schedule.   

Here are the games that I have found so far...

August 31 at Ball State

September 6 home vs Ohio

September 12 at Bellarmine

September 19 at St. Joe's

October 3 at Richmond

October 26 home vs Lock Haven

October 31 at Davidson

The cool thing is for those of us coming back home for Bronze Boot weekend, SLU will be hosting a VB tournament and a FH game as well!   

Now CM, hit pause on the podcasts and HIRE A DARN COACH.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Any thoughts on why has this been such a difficult hiring process?

[billikenfan05]

 

Any thoughts on why has this been such a difficult hiring process?

Because nobody wants to be the redheaded step child of the department. Nobody wants to be a Title IX filler. Nobody wants to be paid peanuts to work in that environment either. It's been a career killer. It's an impossible job as it's currently set up. 

Look at what happened with Tennis. They hired some guy who was working in corporate America, teaching tennis on the side as a club pro, who had no head coaching experience, no D1 experience and hadn't coached any level in 2ish years. Why? Because they can't afford to pay a qualified coach or pay to adequately support a coach. Stuckey bailed immediately, Haliburton bailed on Swim/Dive to be an assistant at Wash U, have less responsibility and get paid the same or more. 

If SLU would have nixed Men's and Women's tennis they would have reached the floor of sponsored sports for D1 Membership and there would have been money to allocate for a reasonably qualified field hockey coach and the institutional support necessary to run a program that isn't a joke. 
 

[cgeldmacher]

I don't know really anything about SLU's field hockey team or the coaching situation.  However, I have a hard time saying that the Athletic Department isn't prioritizing or investing in the Field Hockey team when they just built them a brand new facility in a town where there are not many field hockey facilities.

[billikenfan05]

 

I don't know really anything about SLU's field hockey team or the coaching situation.  However, I have a hard time saying that the Athletic Department isn't prioritizing or investing in the Field Hockey team when they just built them a brand new facility in a town where there are not many field hockey facilities.

Building an on campus field hockey facility is a nice step. But much like the Champions Center, it's just table stakes. 

It's pretty easy to say the Athletics Department isn't prioritizing Field Hockey, because they haven't and likely never will. And you know what that's kind of okay. It's okay for FH to be mid pack given it's history. 

But when you don't have a head coach or published schedule as of July 23rd, which is a month and week ahead of the normal start of a season after your head coach resigned in the middle of May, it's easy to say that something has been completely butchered along the way. 

[MusicCityBilliken]

 

. It's okay for FH to be mid pack given it's history. 

 

Isn't mid-pack kind of generous? Have you seen the FH record the last 3-4 decades.

[RiseOfTheBillikens]

 

Isn't mid-pack kind of generous? Have you seen the FH record the last 3-4 decades.

Think he's saying it would be ok for them to be average because they have been legitimately one of the worst teams in the country for years.

He's not saying they have been mid pack.

[billikenfan05]

 

Think he's saying it would be ok for them to be average because they have been legitimately one of the worst teams in the country for years.

He's not saying they have been mid pack.

Ya, if you look at Field Hockey the last 5-10 years they've been able to beat teams like Lindenwood and Maryville, they will hang with the bottom half of the conference in matches but lose more times than not. LaSalle, Lock Haven, Davidson. VCU sits a step above those three but a step below Richmond and Saint Joes. I think getting to a point where you're challenging VCU at home(giving them all they can handle), where you're beating LaSalle, Lock Haven at home and sometimes on the road. Beating Davidson at home, losing on the road. Now you're sitting at 4th or 5th in the conference. I think that's completely reasonable.

[Lord Elrond]

So when will Field Hockey have a Coach? First game is a month away, first practice should be any day now, still no Coach.  Will Janet Oberle be forced to act as head coach?  Will Chris May accept @billikenfan05’s offer to be head coach and try his best Ted Lasso impression?  This gets more interesting by the day.

[OkieBilliken]

 

So when will Field Hockey have a Coach? First game is a month away, first practice should be any day now, still no Coach.  Will Janet Oberle be forced to act as head coach?  Will Chris May accept @billikenfan05’s offer to be head coach and try his best Ted Lasso impression?  This gets more interesting by the day.

Its just embarrassing and sad at this point.   

Adding one more game to the upcoming season schedule

Sept 28 at Webster

VCU and LaSalle also have not released their 2025 schedules yet.   

[billikenfan05]

 

Its just embarrassing and sad at this point.   

Adding one more game to the upcoming season schedule

Sept 28 at Webster

VCU and LaSalle also have not released their 2025 schedules yet.   

As far as the schedule goes, it didn't come out until last minute last year. And as you mentioned LaS and VCU haven't publicly released a schedule. So no tea leaves to read there. 

The lack of a coach 3 weeks from the start of pre-season is astounding.