PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Hannah Prince recently took over as head coach of the Saint Joseph’s University field hockey team. They are 1-1 this year, with her Hawks defeating eighth-ranked Rutgers 5-0 on Sunday to give Prince her first win as a head coach.
She comes to Hawk Hill after two years as the associate head coach at Louisville, helping lead the Cardinals to the 2021 Final Four.
Prince also spent a couple of years as an assistant with the Hawks under former head coach Lynn Farquhar, whom she is now replacing. They took the Hawks to their first-ever NCAA Tournament bid. Prince said that familiarity with the Hawks’ program has greatly helped with her return to Saint Joseph’s.
“This transition was smooth,” said Prince in the latest KYW Newsradio 1-on-1 with Matt Leon podcast.
“In terms of recruiting, in terms of familiarity with campus, and even some of the current players on the team I helped recruit. And then just had some interactions with some of even the freshmen. So it's really great that I had that [previous] relationship with them, as well as knowing Jill [Bodensteiner], our athletic director, and really my administrators.”
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She also assisted at Princeton, and helped lead them to the 2019 NCAA Championship Game.
Her time as an assistant coach, particularly the last two or three years, has taught her the importance of preparation for her teams, especially in challenging her players to become leaders on the field in game situations.
“The more prepared I can make them, the tools I can give them to be leaders on the field to problem-solve,” Prince said.
“The better I train them, the better they're going to be able to perform on game day. If they don't ever see situations at practice that are realistic to a game … if they're never put in pressure in practice, why should I expect them to be able to perform on game day in that situation? So I put a lot of emphasis on making sure they're prepared in those ways.”
In addition to coaching, Prince was an elite-level player, spending time with both the U.S. outdoor and indoor national teams.
Matt speaks with Prince about her new gig, passion for the sport, playing career, and how she decided coaching was the right career path for her. Listen below in your podcast player.