COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – January 31, 2020 – USA Field Hockey’s women’s Junior High Performance staff is pleased to announce the appointment of three-time Olympian and former U.S. Women’s National Team athlete Rachel Dawson from assistant coach to head coach of the U.S. Women’s National Development Team.
"I am very thankful to USA Field Hockey and the Junior High Performance program for the opportunity to continue serving the U.S. Women's Development Team in the role of head coach,” said Dawson. “Over the past few years, a great foundation has been built by the collective work of Marc Hardy, Jun Kentwell, Roz Ellis and Mark Atherton as well as the members of the team. The post-collegiate segment is critical to USA Field Hockey's mission of succeeding internationally. We need to keep talented athletes in the game by continuing to provide training opportunities and exposure to high-level international competition."
"In my experience on Team USA, the strength of the USWNT program isn't in who is named to the group, but who is left out of the group," continued Dawson. "The role of the Development Team is to expand competition for the USWNT and prepare athletes for a seamless transition to international competition."
Dawson was named assistant coach of the U.S. Women’s National Development Team in July 2019. She also currently serves as assistant coach at the University of Virginia. She retired from the USWNT in 2016, after representing at the Beijing 2008 and London 2012 Olympic Games, and helped lead USA to a fifth-place showing at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. Dawson competed in 298 international caps with Team USA and won five golds in international competitions, including at the 2011 and 2015 Pan American Games. She also helped USA to a bronze medal at the 2016 Champions Trophy in London.
Dawson graduated with distinction from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2007. She earned the 2007 Honda Award as the National Player of the Year for field hockey and was selected as one of the five finalists for the Honda-Broderick Cup as the nation's top collegiate female athlete. With 19 goals that season, the midfielder was the top scorer for the No. 1 offensive team in the nation while also being named the 2007 Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) Defensive Player of the Year and 2007 ACC Tournament MVP.
Earlier this month the Junior High Performance staff confirmed the roster for the 2020 U.S. Women’s National Development Team. The team will train in Berkeley, Calif. from February 28 to March 2 before heading to the East Coast to train from March 27 to 29 in Chapel Hill and Durham, N.C. Their first international competition of the year is scheduled from April 16 to 22 when the team will tour in Scotland.
For more information regarding the U.S. Women’s National Development Team, continue to follow usafieldhockey.com.
Please join USA Field Hockey on congratulating Dawson as the newest head coach of the U.S. Women’s National Development Team.