USA Field Hockey News

USA Field Hockey's Sue Butz-Stavin Named Finalist for
USOC Developmental Coach of the Year

Sue Butz-Stavin

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – Emmaus High School coach and USA Field Hockey Developmental Coach of the Year Sue Butz-Stavin (Fleetwood, Pa.) has been named a finalist for the United States Olympic Committee's Developmental Coach of the Year award.

Butz-Stavin will join fellow finalists Jay Benner of USA Swimming, Tammy Gambill of U.S. Figure Skating, Jimmy Jang of U.S. Speedskating and Maureen O'Toole Purcell of USA Water Polo when the developmental award is presented June 23 during the USOC's Night of Champions event at the U.S. Olympic Assembly in La Jolla, Calif. The USOC will also present National and Volunteer Coach of the Year awards at the event.

As USA Field Hockey's Developmental Coach of the Year, Butz-Stavin was selected as a finalist from a field representing all U.S. Olympic and Pan American sports organizations. Five finalists in each category were selected by a panel of former coaches and officials.

As the 30-year field hockey coach at Emmaus High School, Butz-Stavin crafted one of the sport's most enduring high school dynasties. The coach and her team capped the 2005 season with a perfect 28-0 record, an 8th Pennsylvania State Championship and an incredible 600th milestone victory for the venerable coach.

While her 2005 squad may have been perfect, Butz-Stavin's record for producing top field hockey athletes has been nothing short of phenomenal. Her athletes have gone on to compete of the USA at the Olympic Games (Cindy Werley '96) and World Cup (Kristen McCann '02) and two of her athletes (Werley 1995-96 and 1996-97 and Autumn Welsh 2001-02) have earned the Honda Award as the most outstanding player at the collegiate level.

In 2005, she coached three athletes to high school All-America honors and her program's graduates currently continue their field hockey careers at 18 colleges and universities.

Preparing teams for USA Field Hockey's most prestigious events, Butz-Stavin led her FireStyx club team to the gold medal at the 223 team National Hockey Festival to add to a collection that included five pool championships in the last six years.

With the USA Field Hockey 2005 Developmental Coach of the Year honor, Butz-Stavin adds the award to a collection of honors that includes an induction into the National Field Hockey Coaches Hall of Fame and honors from the Women's Sports Foundation.

In addition to Butz-Stavin, USA Field Hockey honored Tracey Fuchs (Ann Arbor, Mich.) as its 2005 National Coach of the Year for leading the U.S. Under-21 team to a best-ever seventh place finish at the Junior World Cup and awarded Karen Alecxih (Medford, N.J.) as its 2005 Volunteer Coach of the Year for her work with the Medford Youth Athletic Association Field Hockey program.

www.usfieldhockey.com