Coach Lewis helps field hockey team
land in the ECAC championship game
Rupert Lewis led the field hockey team to a
14-7 record, its very first post-season playoff and the best finish in the
program's history. Two years ago, the team won just 1 game out of 14. Lewis
challenges the players, but builds a close family feeling as well. He will
also coach the new women’s
lacrosse team that begins competition next spring.
At first, the lyrical Jamaican accent
calling out across the playing field seems out of context. The voice
commanding attention from the sidelines has a warm, friendly lilt
on this quintessential New England afternoon in autumn.
“Set
it up, set it up!” shouts Rupert Lewis, coach of the Saint
Joseph’s
women’s field hockey team. Pacing the sideline, hands behind his back,
Lewis offers encouragement and direction to his young team. And while the path
he traveled from the Caribbean to Standish was circuitous, it is clear Lewis
has come full circle to his real passion.
As a young boy growing up in Montego
Bay, Jamaica, Lewis played both soccer and field hockey. His athletic
prowess garnered him a scholarship to the University of Southern
Maine where he earned a degree in business and communication. He
embarked on a career in the insurance business in Massachusetts,
while still actively playing soccer and coaching adult and youth
soccer teams in Maine.
Three years ago, Lewis yearned for a change.
Weary of the long commute from Maine, Lewis spotted an ad for a field
hockey coach at Saint Joseph’s. Although
he’d been out of coaching field hockey for 10 years, he felt
it was a calling.
“It was meant to be,” he says. “The
program was struggling. The girls had a passion for playing but no
desire for winning.” Lewis took
the team by storm, teaching a physical, soccer style of play that
he admits was a hard sell.
“I was extremely intimidated by him,” co-captain
Gina Gaetani ’08
of Auburn, Maine, recalls. “He is wicked good at field hockey
and, even at 42, he could still keep up with us.”
Fellow co-captain
Katie Seaman ’08 of Beverly, Mass., agrees. “He
got on the field with 30 girls and ran all over us,” she says.
Still,
Lewis describes his first year as head coach as humbling. “I
am a competitive player and they killed my ego,” he says with
a hearty laugh. “I
had to get used to losing and I didn’t take it well.” Now
in his third year, Lewis has watched his young team grow and mature
as both players and citizens.
According to athletic director Brian
Curtin, the coaching position was made full-time and Lewis worked
very hard to recruit dedicated, talented players. “This
is the first time field hockey has ever started the season 3-0 … good
things are happening because of his commitment and work.”
“We’re
bringing excitement and prestige to the program,” Lewis
says, “but seeing kids grow and have confidence to become leaders
on and off the field and become positive role models in the community
is my greatest pleasure.”
• www.sjcme.edu/athletics
