Beth Bozman Position: Head Coach

Thirteen may be considered an unlucky number, but Princeton University would be quick to disagree. After all, Beth Bozman is beginning her 13th year at the helm of the six-time defending Ivy League champion Princeton field hockey team.

Rest assured, the most optimistic members of the athletic department couldn’t have imagined this type of success when Bozman was hired before the 1988 season. In 12 years, she has compiled a record of 145-59-6 (.705), including a 59-13-3 (.807) Ivy record, and has guided the Tigers to the NCAA Final Four in three of the past four seasons, an accomplishment only two other field hockey teams have ever accomplished in the history of the NCAA tournament. Her teams have won seven Ivy League championships, including an unprecedented six in a row.

Besides earning the admiration and loyalty of her players, Bozman has garnered respect on a national level. She has been named the regional Coach of the Year in each of the past three seasons and was named the National Field Hockey Coaches Association Coach of the Year in 1996, when she guided Princeton to its first-ever NCAA championship game.

Both a master motivator and teacher, Bozman has coached six of the last seven Ivy League Players of the Year and five of the last eight Ivy League Rookies of the Year. And she has done it without a single scholarship to offer. All she can offer is an opportunity to play on one of the finest teams in the nation while attending one of the finest institutions in the world. And that’s been enough to attract the best of the best from the high school ranks.

Before joining the Princeton staff, Bozman had already blazed a path of success. After a year at James Madison as the assistant field hockey and lacrosse coach, she took over the head coaching duties for both sports at Hoftsra. In 1987 she led the Flying Dutchwomen to a 15-4 record and a No. 18 national ranking in field hockey.

A 1976 Trenton State College graduate with a bachelor’s degree in health and physical education, she earned her master’s degree in 1981 after a one-year stint as a graduate assistant at Old Dominion. Bozman returned to Trenton State from 1980-86 as an assistant field hockey coach. During her time there, the field hockey team won two national championships and was runner-up twice.

When Bozman was hired at Princeton, she immediately turned Old Nassau into a playoff-tested team. The Tigers went to the ECAC tournament in each of her first five years, including a championship run in 1992. She also served as an assistant lacrosse coach until 1996, a stint that included a national championship in 1994.

Bozman served as president of the National Field Hockey Coaches Association until this past January and was selected as head coach of the United States Field Hockey Association’s United Airlines team. She also serves on the NCAA Division I Regional Committee and chairs the NFHCA Regional All-America Committee.