PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Janelle Benner has been the head field hockey coach at Division III Ursinus College since the 2011 season. During her time in Collegeville, she has led the Bears to five Centennial Conference championships and six NCAA Tournament appearances — reaching the national semifinals in 2011 and 2015.
Benner talked about her career in field hockey on the KYW Newsradio original podcast "1-on-1 with Matt Leon." She spoke about her success with the Bears, how she got into coaching, and her passion for music.
You can listen to the full episode above. Below is a lightly edited excerpt from the conversation.
Matt Leon: Let's talk a little bit about your story. I'm fascinated — and one of the reasons I wanted to have you on — outstanding athlete in field hockey, and also high-level musician playing the violin. Growing up, were they simultaneous interests? Did you start in music and then get drawn to athletics but maintained — how did that come together? Because ... you'll see people maybe excel in one, dabble in the other, but to be at a high level of both is really something.
Janelle Benner: Yeah, I actually started with music, I was three years old, and my mom got me involved in taking some violin lessons really, really early. So I didn't know any better that was kind of what I was thrown into. But I definitely loved it and pursued it and and it stuck with me throughout all through college.
And as I was growing up too, my dad was huge in sports. So we started kind of from an early age to just being involved in softball and lots of different things as I was younger. But I didn't really get into field hockey until middle school.
So it feels like nowadays that feels really late to be starting. But I guess in my time which doesn't feel like that long ago, we really started closer to the kind of the middle school age and picking up that sport and really thriving in that area as well.
But it was definitely challenging, especially at the college level, trying to really focus on high level hockey. I was at a Division I program, so I'm really intense with what that schedule looks like and having to balance that with my orchestra concerts and all of those different things. This was not a typical balance I think for for my coach to have to handle, and also my director and the orchestra director as well.
Always the violin? Or did you play a lot of different instruments young and then kind of settled on the violin? What was your your story there?
Yeah, I started with the violin, as I had mentioned at three. But then I also picked up the piano when I was little as well. I forget how old exactly I was when I picked up the piano. And then that was pretty much it until I got to the college level, and I ended up majoring in music education. So with that major, you have to dabble in all of the instruments. So I was able to kind of pick up a lot of different instruments and found some new interests, nothing that really stuck. So it's really just the violin that that stuck through that all.
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So at that young age, playing the violin, and then the piano. Was it just lessons were you performing? I mean, obviously, maybe school band, stuff like that. But were you performing on a bigger stage than most kids that are playing instruments that young?
Not really. I think we definitely did a ton of lessons. That was a weekly thing, like, for my whole life. And we did have a focus on performing in not just my lesson — we got like groups together. And we were able to do some performing on weekends here and there.
But it was not until really middle school, or I guess it was moreso high school that I was really engaged in the performance element. And that's when I started to be involved in an orchestra. But I guess through middle school, and then into high school, I did like district, district orchestra and county orchestra, things like that. So I was performing kind of at a little bit of a higher level than, you know, some of the other kids that maybe weren't wanting to pursue music.
So that was my new major focus, I guess. And then I also did weddings. And my sister also plays the violin or played the violin. So my sister and I got a little string quartet together when we were in high school, and we were hired out to play at weddings, and it was really cool thing as a high school student to be able to make some money that way too.
What kind of music did you focus on? I mean, play weddings, you know, there's obviously kind of a built-in thing what you're going to hear there, but what did you like to play? Or what do you like to play?
Growing up, it was almost always classical music. Into college, I got a little bit more expanded into different genres. But that was the main thing. And then I now get to play. I don't play as much as I'd like to, but I am involved at least on weekends. Occasionally at my church, I'm able to play on the worship band. And that's very different than like, the classical training that I got. That's a different field.
But I at least get to still play a little bit now. That's one thing, that I am very much into the field hockey world now as a full-time coach. So I wish I could pick up a little bit more music than I do.
So you say field hockey a little later than other sports with — what was the introduction? Was it, you just wanted to try it? Did you have friends playing it? They just look cool to try? How did you get your foot in the door with the sport overall?
I went to a very small middle school, and my cousin actually was the field hockey coach. So I think that was the interest, that she pulled me along too, and my older sister to happen to also be playing field hockey. So I followed in their footsteps to try it and I loved it. I absolutely fell in love with the sport.
I played lots of different sports, especially in middle school. I played three sports, I was doing basketball, and then softball as well. And then in high school, I ended up just kind of paring down to field hockey and basketball for the first couple years and then just field hockey for the last couple of years. So it definitely was my strongest interest once I was introduced to the sport.
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What did you love about it?
It's such a technical game, but you still have to be super-thoughtful. I love the tactics of field hockey and how intentional you can be to just figure out what the other team is doing. I don't know, I just love that element of the game and figuring out how to tactically beat the other the other team.
At the same time, it's a very difficult sport, I think, to pick up because it has a lot of techniques. You're not just running around and I don't want to put down any other sport, of course. But with just stick and ball, hand eye coordination and then the athleticism and the tactical element of the game, there's just so many different elements that intrigued me and I really fell in love with.
You were obviously an athlete. Were you good at field hockey right away, or was there a little bit of a learning curve?
I picked it up pretty quickly. I definitely felt like it took me some time to settle into the sport, but I was I was a quick learner. I'll say it that way. And I started actually, because my cousin was the coach in middle school, I started a year earlier, she let me practice with the team when I was a fifth grader, instead of, you know — you normally have to be in sixth grade.
So I think that year was my learning curve. I was able to practice without that element of performance or being on game day. And then by the time I was in sixth grade, I felt like I had a pretty good handle on the sport.
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