Erin Matson has made her place in women’s sports. Can hockey capitalize?

PARIS — The week was almost over, the Olympics almost wrapped up, when Erin Matson walked into the lobby of a botanical-themed boutique hotel. A kind of gilded garden, taken from a Parisian dream. This place is how the other side lives, and the name fits. La Fantasy.

Nike booked a block of rooms during the Olympics. The guests were part of an annual Athlete Think Tank, a consortium that researches influential women in sports. The list included Dawn Staley, Megan Rapinoe, Sue Bird and so on. They were present for group discussions, Master Class presentations from Serena Williams and Stacey Abrams, and product sessions, providing feedback on Nike items coming soon and others that will be released years after release.

The youngest member of the group was USC basketball star Juju Watkins. The next youngest was Matson, a 24-year-old entering her second season as head hockey coach at the University of North Carolina.

Matson arrived in the lobby wearing an oversized Nike sweatsuit. The driver waiting outside would leave for the airport in 45 minutes. Jess Sims, the Peloton instructor turned ESPN personality, walked by and asked if she and Matson were sharing a ride to Charles de Gaulle.

This is not the typical life of an American field hockey coach. Matson is represented by Wasserman Group, the powerful sports and entertainment agency that represents Katie Ledecky, Diana Taurasi, Nelly Korda and others, and this summer proved her reach. She walked the red carpet at the ESPYs. She was a featured speaker at the espnW Summit in New York City.

At a time when increasing interest in women’s sports is heavily driven by name recognition and star power, Matson has found a place in these reserved spaces. She was once the nation’s top hockey player in high school and a member of the U.S. national team at age 17. She played five seasons (2018-2022) at North Carolina and won every accolade imaginable. She became the NCAA’s third all-time leading scorer, was a member of four national championship teams and was named national player of the year three times.

But this year, instead of competing in Paris, the 24-year-old face of the sport hung out across town with Serena Williams as the U.S. national team went 1-3-1.

The backstory is layered. Following the retirement of legendary coach Karen Shelton in December 2022, UNC named Matson, then 22, head coach of the nation’s winningest and best-funded college hockey program. Many called the move a bold one – one that mimicked Shelton’s rise 42 years earlier. It was a different era, but Shelton once went from three-time national player of the year at West Chester to head high school coach in New Jersey, taking over UNC at age 23. Others were not so happy about the switch. Some saw Matson’s hiring as ridiculous, a borderline insult to women’s sports, and criticized the school for what they saw as a closed job search.

Matson and the Tar Heels responded by winning the school’s 11th national championship in her first season as head coach.

All this before you turn 25.

So the status.

So Paris.

Matson filled a diary with notes and quotes. She spoke with Staley about the relationship between coach and captain. She listened to Abrams talk about staying true to your values. She sometimes felt out of place. “Why am I here?” Not because of a lack of qualifications, but because of hockey’s ultra-niche position in women’s sports. It’s a problem that’s much older than Matson.

Over lunch with Rapinoe one day, Matson was struck by the realization that Rapinoe, an American soccer icon, became so by being transcendent on the field and outspoken off the field. She raised the profile of women’s football as a player, a freedom she was given more on the field than when she worked on the sidelines as CEO.

In Paris, that field was the Yves du Manoir Stadium. The U.S. national team, a group that includes two current Matson players, a former player and five players she will coach this fall, was defeated by eight goals and eliminated from its pool. They again failed to medal, extending a streak dating back to 1984.

The instinct is of course to make it logical, but nothing is that simple here, and it’s only the sport that suffers.

Here is the shortest possible version of the long, complicated story of Matson and USA Field Hockey. When he was hired at North Carolina, Matson knew that taking a full-time job with a six-figure salary meant stepping away from the U.S. national team. In her version of events, she wanted to have a few years to settle into the job, and then hoped to continue her playing career, splitting time between coaching and playing. She told UNC athletic director Bubba Cunningham about her plans to pursue the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles. He was all for it.

Then two things happened. The Tar Heels won the league title in Matson’s first season. And the US national team, which was expected to make it to the Paris Olympics, successfully qualified for the Games.

Matson reversed course from her original decision and made a late attempt to secure a spot on the U.S. team, requesting a tryout and playing in the indoor Pan-Am Games to complete a number of international players to score. Although much of the pre-existing U.S. National Team had sacrificed time and energy, living and training in a facility in Charlotte, NC, the official roster had not yet been finalized. Several colleagues who played their 2023 seasons would be invited to try out. Matson wouldn’t do that. USA Field Hockey issued a statement saying Matson “was not eligible under the mandatory terms of the selection criteria.” Simon Hoskins, the executive director of USA Field Hockey, said The Athletics it was his decision to deny the trial request, saying, “It’s an organizational policy, so it falls to me.”

The resulting reaction worked both ways. Matson’s supporters leveled accusations of jealousy within the ranks of American field hockey. Matson’s opponents criticized her for wanting special treatment and walking away from the national team in the first place. The bitterness and arguments piled up. Earlier this summer, a series of conversations with members of the 1984 bronze-medal winning team led to varying responses: both that USA Field Hockey was not benefiting from a new star and that the roster policy exists for a reason. Meanwhile, other current college coaches declined to discuss the topic officially.

Anyone operating from a perspective could see a valid case either way. Matson chose to prioritize her coaching career over her playing career. At the same time, regardless of protocols or personal feelings, was it really in the best interest of the sport not to compete in the Olympics?

Field hockey, played equally among men and women in other parts of the world, has long struggled to catch on in the United States. While other women’s sports have seen periods of momentum, hockey has never gone mainstream. It’s regional. It requires specific (read: expensive) grass. It does not attract large numbers of children as a youth sport. So while other women’s sports have seen measurable growth, such as an increase in college scholarships, hockey has stagnated. A lack of success at the national level can be seen as both a root cause and a byproduct. The United States has not finished better than fifth at any Games since ’84.

Hoskins cites a lack of government funding.

“It’s just not fair,” he said. “It is a subsidized industry in which we compete. It is a real struggle for the organization.”

Money is one thing, popularity is another, and hockey has never entered the public consciousness because the public knows so little about it. Sports need stars; in this case, the sport’s biggest American star was not part of the sport’s biggest stage in Paris. Well, she was, except she was watching athletics and swimming competitions and posting pictures for her 70,000 Instagram followers as the US team scored a total of five goals in five matches.

A day full of gymnastics and waiting for the 🐐do her thanggg

Not in the photo: product sessions with Nike about the future 👀👀 pic.twitter.com/7Bksq9PYAK

— Erin Matson (@erinmatsonn) August 6, 2024

Neither the results nor the optics are correct.

While the ugliness of the 2024 process is still fresh, Matson says she fully intends to pursue a spot on the 2028 Olympic team, even if it takes more than two years of playing for the national team – ‘One hundred percent’ , she said – but as an organization, USA Field Hockey needs to examine its shortcomings at the international level.

“I think there needs to be changes (in the system),” Matson said. “I won’t sugarcoat that. I don’t know how many times we have to fail before people say that, but come on. So I think that will happen. But there’s no doubt that I would like to do that. I know I can help.”

Considering how fraught things have been this past spring, some may wonder what can be fixed.

“You don’t have to like me,” Matson said. “I’m not saying you have to be my friend. I don’t need friends anymore. I have support and I am grateful. But why can’t we come to an agreement? Do we want to win or do we have the best chance of winning? I don’t just mean here at the Olympics. Our sport must win.

“I’m not someone who lives in regrets, dwells on them, or holds grudges. I truly believe that if you want to grow or progress, you can’t get stuck with it.”

In the meantime, Matson will continue coaching. In what felt like a nod to her detractors, she made a notable hire this summer. Romea Riccardo, who won five NCAA titles at UNC and graduated in December, was named a full-time assistant coach on the staff. Matson says Riccardo was to her what she was to Shelton. The two were once freshmen together.

“The argument from the schools recruiting against us is, ‘It’s a young staff; they have no idea what they are doing,” Matson said. ‘And you know, I always joke: Don’t people know by now that we like to have a target on our back? If you just stay quiet and don’t tell me what you think, I’ll probably become less motivated. But if you keep telling me: oh, you’re too young, oh, you can’t do this and that – stop it, because you’re only hurting yourself.

North Carolina’s 2024 season begins next week with the Tar Heels once again a national title favorite. Matson says she knows perceptions. “That, oh, Erin is dancing around in Paris. Oh, Erin is in LA at the ESPY Awards,” she said. “But I don’t think people understand that I know how lucky I am, and I take these opportunities and ask: how can we get better, how can the sport get bigger?”

Maybe that’s possible. Or maybe it’s fantasy.

(Illustration: Dan Goldfarb / The Athletics; Photos: Andrew Katsampes/ISI Photos, Jamie Schwaberow/NCAA Photos via Getty Images)