This is the first in a weekly five-part series profiling the head coaches of the BU fall sports teams.
It’s July 1. Seagulls and children circle the New Jersey Shore’s sandy boardwalk while the sound of the rolling waves slowly starts to beckon beachgoers to its warm waters.
The sound of Skee balls shooting down small wooden lanes and the smell of a smoking grill drift through the air in a sweet summertime concoction, prompting nostalgic flashbacks of a time when summers were more about catching waves than catching up on work.
But for Sally Starr, the head coach of the Boston University field hockey team, July 1 isn’t about sand, surf and sun. It hasn’t been for almost 24 years.
July 1 means open season for recruiting, meaning the closest beach Starr will get to includes some sidewalks, a busy highway and Marsh Chapel right next to it. In other words, at least it sounds like a beach.
Since taking the job as the top dog of the BU field hockey program back in 1981, two years before the Terriers debuted as a Division-I team, Starr – like most college coaches – has had little time to enjoy her summers. With every year, the success of her team during the fall relies on what she does during the summer, whether that means calling recruits, making trips or preparing notes for the upcoming season.
“When I first started coaching, I remember going into it, quite honestly, because I could have my summers off,” Starr said with a laugh. “Really, I’m a beach bum. I love the beach. I love having the summers off. I would probably say in the last 15 years, at least, I’ve just laughed at myself, because it really is just a 12-month job now.
“I grew up on the Jersey Shore where the ocean gets up to 75 degrees in the summertime,” she continued. “I always say I’m going to get a wetsuit and my Boogie Board and fins and find more time to get in the ocean.”
Unlike other 9-to-5 jobs, though, coaching is one occupation that Starr certainly doesn’t mind giving up a little face time with the sun for. She attributes that to the fact that, like the rising and falling tide, no year is like the last.
“In coaching, everything changes. Team dynamic changes, the game changes,” Starr said. “I am continually a student of the game. There is a lot about being a coach that allows you to stay fresh and excited about the sport because the dynamics are always changing.”
One thing that has rarely changed with Starr at the helm, though, has been the team’s success. With a 268-175-19 career record at BU, four America East Coach of the Year awards, seven NCAA appearances and four conference titles (plus one more in the ECAC) to her credit, the Camp Hill, Pa. native has little reason to regret her lack of time in the Atlantic.
She credits most of those W’s to the fact that she tries to avoid being that one “professor that has the old yellow notebook, going to the same game plan every year.”
“She keeps up with the trends in field hockey. She’s not old school,” said Starr’s assistant coach Tracey Paul. “Her passion for the game is 24/7, and she is also very passionate about winning so it keeps her current. That’s the freshness with her and every year she has a new challenge.
“She’s BU, bred and blood,” she added.
For a short time, however, it looked as if Starr would be taking her summers off – as a high school gym teacher. While majoring in physical education at Ursinus College, she said she tried the student-teaching gig but it just “didn’t inspire” her. So she decided to fall back on the next thing she excelled at: athletics.
At Ursinus, Starr played field hockey, lacrosse and basketball, earning varsity letters in all three sports while leading the field hockey team to three consecutive Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women Division-I championship matches, good enough to earn her an induction into the school’s Hall of Fame in 1994.
After graduating and spending time on both the U.S. field hockey and lacrosse teams, she took a graduate assistantship at the University of New Hampshire, acting as an assistant coach in both her premier sports. One year later, she took the head-coaching job for the Bucknell University field hockey team.
While she did enjoy her two years at Bucknell, Starr craved something more (“Lewisburg, Pa. wasn’t the most exciting place in the world,” she explained), so after putting out a few feelers, she received offers from Brown University, Boston College and her eventual choice, BU.
“At that point, I really felt that Boston University was going to grow the fastest,” Starr said. “And I think I was right in that choice.”
More like dead-on. In only a few short years, a young Starr led a team with no superstars all the way to the Final Four, before bowing out to eventual national champion, the University of Connecticut. For the next 15 years, the Terriers suffered only one losing season while finishing the season ranked in the Top 20 13 times.
While the last three years have proved unkind to BU’s postseason hopes, the team has endured a number of setbacks, most notably its eviction from Nickerson Field. Before landing a definite deal for a home field at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Jack Barry Field, Starr did more than enough to keep the team on track during a chaotic time.
“She tried to keep a positive outlook and it kind of rubbed off on us,” said Lindsay Domers, who played under Starr from 2000-2003. “She just tried to keep it positive. She would say things like ‘We don’t really have to go that far’ and ‘It isn’t going to change us too much.’ She just kept us together.”
That connection with her team, however, has been one of the main reasons for her longevity within the Terrier system. As Erin Prediger, the sophomore goalkeeper for BU, explains, there were no gimmicks when it came to Starr’s recruitment tactics.
“She was definitely one of the reasons why I came to BU,” Prediger said. “The other coaches that I was dealing with, they took more of a harder, business angle in the whole recruiting process. She was more welcoming and open, and I just felt really comfortable around her. I knew that she was going to be an amazing person to play for.”
For Starr, who always is looking for a challenge, this year may prove to be one of the toughest in recent memory. With 10 freshmen on the roster and a 1-3 record to start, this campaign will certainly keep the coach busy.
But when field hockey is what you love, then life is just a beach. Only Starr’s has the initials ‘BU’ in front of it.