When Tracey Fuchs arrived at Northwestern in 2009 to try to revive the field hockey program, the coach sometimes found herself having to correct the people she met in Evanston.
“Everybody gets field hockey confused with lacrosse. So everybody’s like, ‘Oh, you’re that good team on campus,’” Fuchs said. “And I’m like, ‘No, that’s lacrosse.’ Fast-forward 10 years later, I can now say, ‘Thank you.’”
On Nov. 23, Fuchs’ Northwestern team beat Princeton 2-1 in double overtime to win its second straight national championship and third in five years.
In the stands in Durham, N.C., was a contingent of athletic department supporters that included women’s golf coach Emily Fletcher, who led the Wildcats to the program’s first national championship in May, and softball coach Kate Drohan, whose teams have won five Big Ten titles and made the College World Series three times since 2006.
Watching the broadcast from afar while with her daughter at a college wrestling tournament was Kelly Amonte Hiller, the coach of the aforementioned women’s lacrosse dynasty that has won eight national championships since 2005 and in May made the NCAA title game for the third straight season.
Northwestern doesn’t have just one good team on campus.
When it comes to women’s sports, the Wildcats have had a special run over the last 20 years, which also includes three NCAA quarterfinal finishes for the women’s tennis team under coach Claire Pollard. Individually, tennis players Cristelle Grier and Alexis Prousis won an NCAA doubles title in 2006, and platform diver Olivia Rosendahl won two NCAA championships in 2017-18.
In the last five years, the team successes have been particularly notable as Northwestern has broken through for five national championships in three sports: field hockey, golf and lacrosse.
The winning has come under a stable of high-level, long-tenured female coaches who were brought to Northwestern by multiple people. They have sustained quality programs even through troubled times for the Wildcats athletic department after a football hazing scandal that called the sports culture in Evanston into question.
In a college sports landscape where most of the money to pay athletes is funneled into football and basketball programs, the coaches say they have done it by embracing the other resources they can provide for their players — and trusting in what they can do at Northwestern.
“Through the years, we’ve been able to just build that belief that we can be successful here,” Amonte Hiller said. “And it’s really highlighted on the women’s side, but I think you’re seeing it even on the men’s side as well. There is a real market to be at a place like Northwestern where you can get this amazing education, really grow in a tremendous way as a person on the field, but also in the classroom at the same time.
“Just like losing can be contagious, winning can be contagious too. Your peers see, ‘Oh, OK, this girl’s not that much different than me. She’s winning. I can do it too.’”
‘If lacrosse can do it, we can do it’
Amonte Hiller’s lacrosse team entered last week ranked No. 4 in the country with a 5-1 record. The Wildcats are looking to build toward their 12th NCAA championship game appearance in her tenure.
But when former athletic director Rick Taylor hired Amonte Hiller before the 2001 season, she felt like there was a mentality among some at the university that “you just do the best you can” and “you can only get so far here.”
The Wildcats had some women’s sports success in their past, including in the 1980s and ’90s in field hockey, tennis and softball, but the entire athletic department had only one NCAA team championship — in men’s fencing in 1940-41. They had many men’s individual champions over the years, but only the women’s tennis doubles team of Katrina Adams and Diane Donnelly had won in 1987.
“Like, we don’t have all the resources, we don’t have all the backing, and you just do the best job you can,” Amonte Hiller said of the mentality she encountered. “And then maybe you build up to move to some other institution that you can get more support.”
Amonte Hiller was an unproven coach tasked with guiding the lacrosse program from club to varsity status, but she had been a Hall of Fame player at Maryland and she was determined that she and her team would believe in the possibilities.
She was impressed by the people at Northwestern. She thought the academic stature of the university was an asset, not a hindrance. She believed it could be the “perfect place” to build a program if she could get the right players on board.
“I remember telling my team, we are insulary,” Amonte Hiller said. “The only people that you really listen to are each other. We’re going to influence each other. Don’t listen to other teams. Don’t listen to other cultures. We’re going to build our own thing here.”
Amid Amonte Hiller’s mission to build a culture of excellence, Northwestern lacrosse won its first of five straight championships in 2005. Former athletic director Mark Murphy, who went on to be the Green Bay Packers president, told Amonte Hiller he thought she was the one to “break the seal.” Other programs soon said, “Well, if lacrosse can do it, we can do it.”
Fuchs remembers thinking the Wildcats field hockey team was not performing to its potential when former athletic director Jim Phillips hired her in 2009.
Fuchs, who played on two Olympic teams and was twice named the USA Field Hockey athlete of the year, had been the associate head coach at Michigan and thought she might get the open head coaching job there that went to Marcia Pankratz.
Instead, with Phillips “hounding” her, she joined Northwestern, where she said creating the right culture with the right players and a consistent coaching staff has helped her build a winner.
“I was a very competitive player,” Fuchs said. “I loved to compete and win, and I wanted to bring that same energy and grit and determination to Northwestern. I have to dumb it down sometimes. They’re a different level player. But just being able to develop young women leaders and people and athletes is something that I’m really passionate about.”
Fletcher had spent decades on the club professional side of golf, working at the Glen View Club, and also was the swing instructor for LPGA player Jenny Lidback.
Pat Goss, Northwestern men’s golf coach at the time, was taking on a new role as director of golf for both Wildcats programs, and he wanted to bring Fletcher on board. In 2008, he persuaded her to become Northwestern’s coach, telling her that her experience would translate to coaching at that level.
Fletcher said she didn’t know from Day 1 what she could do with the program. But Goss had a vision for a program that hadn’t yet won a Big Ten championship, and he promised Fletcher he would help her achieve it.
“Basically Pat said, ‘Whatever we need, we’ll get it for you,’” Fletcher said. “‘We’ll raise money, and if we need extra trips, we need technology, whatever resource, you and (assistant coach Beth Miller) tell me what you need and we’ll figure it out.’
“He really had a belief that our program had underperformed for all those years and that we really could be a top-10 program in the country.”
The Wildcats golf team entered this season as the reigning national champion and was ranked No. 19 through last week after winning the Spartan Sun Coast Invitational in February and finishing ninth in the packed Darius Rucker Intercollegiate to open March.
Selling Northwestern
Fletcher, Miller and Goss wanted to follow a couple of principles to put the Northwestern women’s golf program on the map.
First, they wanted to schedule competition against great programs, an “iron sharpens iron” approach. Fletcher wanted her players to see what an elite team looks like and try to glean from their opponents where they could improve in areas like training or course management.
Northwestern also started the Windy City Collegiate Classic, an annual tournament at various clubs around the North Shore that has attracted some of the country’s top women’s teams. Northwestern doesn’t charge an entry fee, pays for hotels and meals and hosts an event in Chicago for the teams, Fletcher said. The idea was that such an event would lend credibility to the Wildcats program.
Northwestern broke through for a share of its first Big Ten title in 2013. Starting that year, the Wildcats have qualified for the NCAA Championship 10 times, finishing second in 2017 and beating top-seeded Stanford 3-2 for the title in May.
“In all of this, the common thread is we had in (Goss) someone who was championing our efforts,” Fletcher said. “(He) really believed in Beth and I and believed in our women’s program and that we could do more and be more.”
This school year, the NCAA began to allow athletic departments to share revenue with their athletes, up to $20.5 million per school, to supplement the third-party name, image and likeness (NIL) deals that also financially support athletes.
Fletcher said the golf team is not a part of Northwestern’s revenue-sharing, but they do try to help their players make extra money through small NIL deals. She believes the experiences Northwestern provides for its golfers — in the trips they take and courses they play — are part of the draw in recruiting.
She also said the facilities, including the $270 million Walter Athletics Center and Ryan Fieldhouse — spaces utilized by multiple teams despite being the football team’s indoor base — are important for the teams.
When Amonte Hiller spoke of monetary resources, she said the Wildcats “may or may not ever win a bidding war,” but both she and Fuchs said they have the support they need to win. And one of the main resources they pointed to is the academic stature of Northwestern, which was tied for No. 7 in the most recent U.S. News & World Report national universities ranking.
Amonte Hiller noted that most female athletes — except for perhaps an elite group in basketball, tennis and golf — won’t go on to make millions of dollars if they turn pro. So the degree, and the networking base that comes with it, becomes the path to success that draws in recruits.
“I don’t have to sell our university,” Fuchs said. “It’s top 10 in the country. The athletes we’re recruiting we want to be smart and great athletes, and we’re able to combine the best of both. And it’s in a great location outside of Chicago. So all of that definitely works to our favor.
“We always tell recruits: ‘This isn’t a four-year decision. It’s a 40-year decision.’ So I think that resonates with them and their parents. And when you leave Northwestern, you might not go play pro, but you’re going to be set up for the rest of your life and be a strong woman leader.”
And of course, the more the teams win and the more players succeed individually, the easier the draw.
Northwestern has had the Tewaaraton Award winner — given to the nation’s best lacrosse player — in seven seasons, most recently Izzy Scane in 2023 and 2024. Northwestern’s Maddie Zimmer was named the National Field Hockey Coaches Association player of the year in back-to-back seasons.
The coaches believe the successes can be infectious, even between sports.
The culture perception
When the Northwestern field hockey team lost to Princeton 3-2 on Oct. 13, Amonte Hiller marched over to Fuchs’ office — just down the hall from the lacrosse offices — and told her, “This is the best thing that’s ever happened to you.”
Sure enough, Northwestern bounced back, and the regular-season loss to Princeton was the Wildcats’ only defeat of the season. They went on to top the Tigers in the championship game.
“I’m so glad it actually ended up that way,” Amonte Hiller said. “And she does the same for us when she’s in season. When you have people around you that have been in those situations, have that experience, and you can rely on them for just a different way to think about things, that’s hugely valuable.
“I always look for inspiration from all of my colleagues, even if it’s the smallest little thing that I can bring to my program.”
The Northwestern athletic department’s reputation has been entrenched in controversy in recent years.
In May, the university settled 34 outstanding lawsuits with former football players over allegations of hazing — including physical, sexual and emotional abuse — within the program under former coach Pat Fitzgerald. The university fired Fitzgerald in July 2023 amid the controversy, then settled a $130 million lawsuit with him in August over his claims of breach of contract, defamation and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
Northwestern said it found no evidence Fitzgerald condoned the hazing or had it reported to him, and he returned to college football in December when Michigan State hired him as its new head coach.
The football program wasn’t the only one to come under fire. Northwestern fired former baseball coach Jim Foster after allegations of bullying and abusive behavior. And the athletic department and former women’s volleyball coach Shane Davis mutually parted after a former player alleged hazing.
A team led by former U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch concluded in a review in June 2024 that Northwestern had “robust” anti-hazing and anti-bullying policies but lacked clear guidelines on how to respond to concerns. Northwestern hired new athletic director Mark Jackson in August 2024.
For Amonte Hiller, Fuchs and Fletcher, the incidents were a reminder to try to keep lines of communication open with their players, to maintain transparency and to continue to evolve as coaches as athletes evolve.
Fletcher said she and her coaches try to be above reproach — and fight any complacency when it comes to such matters. She said they also need to focus on “really recruiting and attracting players who you really believe are good human beings.”
“It’s tough,” Fuchs said. “These are 17- to 21-year-olds and they’re not always going to make great decisions, and all you can do is hope that you have the leadership in place and you continue to talk about making good decisions with your program. And that’s what we try to do.
“It was a tough time for everybody’s program, right? Because it kind of puts a stain on Northwestern. But you just have to grow and learn and continue to mentor your leaders so that, if anything happens, they’re like, ‘Hey, that’s not cool.’”
Despite the recent issues, the coaches also talked about the support they feel from other coaches across the athletic department, and not just from the women’s sports teams.
That was the group that showed up for the field hockey championship in November, including new baseball coach Ben Greenspan, who was driving to Connecticut with his family and turned around to drive to North Carolina when the Wildcats made the final. That was Fuchs and softball associate head coach Caryl Drohan attending the golf championship match in California.
Amonte Hiller said the group, filled with decades of collective experience, is good about sharing ideas and offering pep talks and support.
“There’s a centering that happens when you see your peers and your friends and you’ve experienced success through their eyes by attending their events, whether it’s lacrosse or field hockey or softball,” Fletcher said. “And you begin to internalize that and learn from them.
“I mean, I’m a sponge. I listen to everything that they’re doing and sharing, if I can get a little bit of a glimpse, because I can learn from them. We’ve got athletes that are cut from a similar cloth.”
The coaches hope that breeds even more success among their programs, which have benefited from notable continuity among the coaching staffs.
Amonte Hiller said often when lacrosse jobs across the country open, athletic directors call with feelers for her and her now-extensive coaching tree. Early in her career, she went down that path seriously a couple of times and called it “a big pull.”
“Ultimately, the things that helped me be successful here, the reasons why I chose the job were the reasons why I stayed here,” she said. “And it was the best decision that I could have ever made to stick around at a place like this. When I believed in this place, that was hard to let go of. That was hard to change.
“I’m really happy that I stuck with it because there’s been a lot of growth — not just in our program, but across the board in Northwestern athletics, there’s a tremendous amount of momentum and belief.”
