Penn State Sports Magazine
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5 2 A P R I L 2 0 2 3 W W W . B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M B y her own admission, Char Morett- Curtiss had a bit of a temper back when she was a young field hockey coach at Boston College in the late 1980s. She spent only three seasons with the Eagles at the start of her head coaching career but can still easily recall a clash with an official over what she considered an egregiously blown call. "The stories are true," she confessed recently. "I threw my shoes off. I ran to the middle of the field and had a confron- tation with the official. I was this young maverick out there thinking I was right." Morett-Curtiss mellowed in the de- cades that followed, but never to the point where her desire to compete at the sport's highest level started to ebb. Her last game as head coach at Penn State was, fittingly, at the NCAA Final Four. The Nittany Lions fell to eventual na- tional champion North Carolina last No- vember 3-0, but the season as a whole was among the best in Morett-Curtiss' 36 years as head coach at her alma mater, a 17-4 finish in which the team claimed a share of the Big Ten's regular-season crown. On Feb. 15, Morett-Curtiss announced that she was stepping down as head coach. She had won 541 games at Penn State, guided the Nittany Lions to 30 NCAA Tournaments and developed 43 first-team All-Americans. She was en- shrined in five halls of fame. Her resume is glittering, yet for a num- ber of reasons, the time was right for her to retire. The program was in good shape on the field and off, and the field itself was in good shape, too, with a $12.8 million renovation of the Penn State Field Hockey Complex slated for completion ahead of the 2023 season. When the Nittany Lions take the field in their upgraded home this fall, they will be under the direction of Lisa Bervinchak- Love. Just five days after Morett-Curtiss announced her retirement, Penn State promoted Bervinchak-Love, a former Penn State All-American and a member of the PSU coaching staff for the past 29 seasons. The presence of a veteran coach who was ready to take the reins, coupled with the return of assistant Laura Gebhart, helped put Morett-Curtiss at ease when she mulled whether to step down. "My decision was really based on what is best for Penn State field hockey and what is best for Char Morett-Curtiss," she said. "It was something that I really thought about, knowing that I have two incredibly talented coaches in LB and Laura, who I was hoping would take over the program. "They have a very experienced team coming back. I just felt like giving them the opportunity to get this team under their guidance this spring, that they would be ready to go this summer and into the fall." Bervinchak-Love first came to Penn State in 1986 after transferring from Vil- lanova. She was a three-year letterwinner and a team captain, playing her last two seasons for Morett-Curtiss. When Morett-Curtiss was looking to fill a staff vacancy in 1994, she brought in Bervinchak-Love, and the two worked side-by-side in the decades that fol- lowed, winning seven Big Ten regular- season championships, reaching the NCAA semifinals three times and twice playing for the national championship. Bervinchak-Love was later named as- sociate head coach, a role that came with enough responsibility to keep her from se- riously considering other coaching oppor- tunities. Morett-Curtiss "always involved me in all the decision-making and gave me a lot of responsibilities," she said, "so I felt like I never really needed to go to another university to validate my coaching. "I feel like Char's trust and belief in me allowed me to take the lead in a lot of ar- eas, and it made me feel like I didn't need to look for a job elsewhere. I also have two beautiful children, and State Col- lege is a great place to raise them. I just never felt the need to leave Penn State. I bleed blue and white, and it's been a great experience." While Morett-Curtiss is leaving the sideline, she's looking to stay involved with Penn State in an advisory role. She wants to help promote women's athletics at PSU, citing programs at UCLA, North Carolina and Louisville as models of the kind of work she wants to do. She also plans to cheer on Bervinchak- Love in the seasons to come, confident that the program's success will continue as it transitions to a new era. "She knows what's going to make Penn State field hockey remain successful," Morett-Curtiss said. "The core values that we've talked about with the team are values that she and I and Laura have de- veloped over the years. I don't think there are going to be that many changes. "But it's going to be LB's program, and she's got an amazing assistant in Laura Gebhart. I think the team is in great shape. That's exciting." ■ Char Morett-Curtiss Steps Down As Field Hockey Coach Longtime assistant Lisa Bervinchak-Love takes charge of Penn State's program M AT T H E R B | M A T T. H E R B @ O N 3 . C O M Morett-Curtiss enjoyed a 39-year head coaching career. She spent the last 36 of those seasons at Penn State, where she compiled a 541-223-8 record. PHOTO COURTESY PENN STATE ATHLETICS