Coach Behrens came to right Rams

There is no debate: VCU’s field hockey program has been struggling to find a way to win for more than a decade. Shelly Behrens came to change that.

Thirty-three wins later, she has piloted VCU to more success than the team had in the preceding seven consecutive seasons.

Just five years into her tenor, she has largely transformed the way field hockey is played here. And this success comes despite competing in the always tough Colonial Athletic Association-a conference that includes national powers Old Dominion University, William & Mary, and James Madison University.

“We’re preparing to win, not hoping to win,” Behrens said.

Behrens has a strong belief in her young team and pushes them to perform as well on the field as they do off the field.

“I have a great deal of respect for what my players do,” she said. “There are lots of struggles in school, in life, and that makes a stronger team.”

The Pennsylvania-born Behrens has played field hockey for much of her life. Success came early and often for her. As a starting freshman goalkeeper, she helped defend the ODU Monarchs into a NCAA championship in 1984.

The next year she helped the team reach the NCAA finals. During her junior and senior seasons, she won the team’s first All-South Region honors. She graduated from the university with a bachelor’s degree in education.

She also played for the United States’ Junior National team and was an assistant coach on the U.S. team that won a silver medal at the 1999 Pan American games. In 2000, she helped coach a U.S. team vying for a spot in the Sydney Olympics. Some of her responsibilities were coaching the team’s goalkeepers, scouting opponents, and she was on the panel that selected players for the national team.

Before coming to VCU, Behrens was the head coach of cross-town rival University of Richmond. She spent four years working to resurrect the Spiders’ field hockey program, leading them deep into the CAA tournament. Prior to her arrival, the Spiders had not won a single tournament game.

However, VCU’s 1-8 record this season has been a dark cloud over her otherwise positive career run.

With the season still young, Behrens thinks the Rams have what it takes to achieve an NCAA standing.

In her inaugural season in 2002, Behrens went straight to work rebuilding the field hockey program. Her team had seven wins, more than doubling their number of wins from the year before.

In 2004, Behrens coached the team to its first winning season since 1993. They had a 10-9 record including a six-game winning streak – the longest streak for the Rams since the 1992 season.

In the year before that, her second year, Behrens coached the team to a record of 10-10, including a 5-4 upset over nationally ranked ODU, snapping the Monarchs’ 58-game winning streak against CAA opponents. She won the league’s coach of the year.

She said the team is still a work in progress.

“We aim for a top-four finish in the CAA,” said Behrens. “It’s not how you start. It’s how you finish.”