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In 2018, former assistant coach Katie Gerzabek’s first season with the Orange, Syracuse field hockey failed to qualify for the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2007. But throughout her three years at SU, she changed the narrative and assisted the Orange’s return to the tournament the following season in 2019 and she helped navigate the team through the pandemic-altered 2020-21 year.

“I just loved being a part of building Syracuse back to where it is now,” Gerzabek said.

Gerzabek left Syracuse after the spring 2021 season to become the field hockey head coach of Rhodes College, a Division III school in Memphis, Tennessee. While at SU, Gerzabek developed as a coach through crafting the team’s offensive play and structure on penalty corners. She also led the recruitment of prospective players. Gerzabek’s relationship with Syracuse field hockey head coach Ange Bradley helped her thrive in her role as an assistant and understand head coaching responsibilities.

Gerzabek started playing field hockey competitively in seventh grade, and she went on to play at the University of Maryland. After graduating, she coached a high school club team in the Washington D.C. area while simultaneously holding an assistant job at Temple University.

“There’s a picture of me as a newborn with a mini stick in my hand, so it’s always been a part of my life,” Gerzabek said.

On March 26, 2018, she joined Syracuse’s staff after Allan Law was promoted to associate head coach. Gerzabek said she attributes much of her readiness to the connection she already had with Bradley — even before working together at SU, the two had already known each other for years.

“I’ve known Katie since she was born,” Bradley said. “I was at her mother’s wedding.”

The pair also had experience on the 2016 USA U19 National Team together, where Bradley was the head coach and Gerzabek served as a part of the video analysis team.

At Syracuse, Gerzabek’s responsibilities consisted primarily with fostering the offense by working with forwards through film sessions and individual training. During individual sessions, Gerzabek would work on certain aspects of each player’s game, throwing drills at them geared toward improving a certain aspect of the player’s game. She also oversaw the attack and penalty corner defense units while leading recruiting efforts.

“I was a forward and a midfielder as a player, so that’s kind of my specialty.” Gerzabek said. “Ange (Bradley) really gives her assistants a lot of autonomy to kind of be the head coach of your own area.”

With freedom under Bradley, Gerzabek said she was able to venture out of her comfort zone. She said she explored what type of coach she wanted to be, and she became more player-oriented and collaborative than she was before. She also learned from Bradley how to oversee an entire program.

Now, having transitioned into a head coaching role, Gerzabek is already familiar with all the “little things” that have to be dealt with, and she said she enjoys “being able to oversee a whole picture.”

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“(Bradley) really helped me find my voice and create my own philosophy,” Gerzabek said. “Working at Syracuse really gave me the confidence to be able to take this next step in my career.”

Defender Sienna Pegram was the first player that Gerzabek recruited to SU. Although Gerzabek was mainly an offensive-minded coach, she worked specifically with Pegram on defending penalty corners. The Orange held their opponents to 1.88 goals per game in Pegram’s freshman year.

“She was the one that recruited me,” Pegram said. “She’s taught us the positioning and … more detailed things that really helped us out last year.”

After the team failed to qualify for the 2018 NCAA Tournament, Gerzabek and the SU coaching staff were forced to reassess the program, starting by “stripping down back to bare bones,” Gerzabek said.

The coaching staff worked collaboratively, constantly bouncing ideas and opinions off one another, Gerzabek said, which aided SU when it came to recruiting prospects, as the staff needed to determine the necessary changes needed as well as the types of players to bring in. Gerzabek’s efforts attracted players like Pegram and Eefke van den Nieuwenhof, who have both cemented themselves in Bradley’s starting lineup with a total of three goals this season.

At Rhodes, Gerzabek has been creating a culture similar to what she was a part of at Syracuse. She said she hopes to emulate the same collaboration that takes place at Syracuse with her own coaching staff with the Lynx. She also intends to bring consistency and stability to Rhodes, a program that has undergone multiple head coach turnovers in recent years.

The biggest adjustment for Gerzabek thus far has been the shift from DI to DIII, as DIII athletes are not on scholarship and therefore, the team doesn’t have to be as committed in comparison to DI teams. Despite this challenge, Gerzabek said her main priority in her first season as head coach is to instill a winning culture centered around continuous improvement at Rhodes.

“It’s been (about) how to keep it simple so we’re not overcomplicating things and how do we get 1% better each day so that we can peak towards the end,” Gerzabek said. “(I’m) looking forward to see how we develop and grow in our competitiveness.”

Published on September 28, 2021 at 10:49 pm

Contact Bryan: brbrush@syr.edu