June 10, 2009

BERKELEY - Shellie Onstead has had a busy spring, coaching the 2009 incarnation of the California field hockey team, leading a U.S. youth national team to a Dutch tournament and even playing in a Southern California tournament herself. The U.S. under-16 team placed third in the 2009 International Easter Hockey Tournament for Under-16 teams, held April 11-12 in Valkenswaard, the Netherlands. Cal's first field hockey All-American in 1982, Onstead played club ball in the Netherlands for Mop during the Dutch premier league's 1984-85 season after wrapping up her Cal career in 1983.

CalBears.com: How was the trip to the Netherlands?

Shellie Onstead: The kids were awesome. They were great, great kids, so it was a really uplifting tour. One of the fun things of these sorts of tours is you meet for the first time at the beginning, and then you've got a week to put them together and see how they perform. It's like a cramming. And you see how well you did in your own work by the weekend, so that's always interesting.

We ended up third in the tournament [after beating Dutch club Nijmegan, 1-0, in the third-place game] against teams that are select teams in the Dutch region that train together all the time. For sort of an all-star group that was thrown together for the first time and played overseas, I think we did extremely well. We missed the final by one goal here and there. It was really a great trip, and I think they all came away with a great experience. It was the first time ever I had almost every athlete email me, thanking me for a great week.

CalBears.com: Did you visit any old teammates or old hangouts from your playing days in the Netherlands?

SO: We played at my old club one night and got to see old teammates, the family I lived with and the kids of my Dutch sisters I played with. It was a neat continuum. It was a good time.

SO: It's a case-by-case thing. I was on contract last year, which meant I did everything. Now it's sort of 'as available,' as it's been in the past. I'm in the staff, I do what I can and balance it out with my own program. I think what's next this summer is some junior national camp coaching, which has to do with helping the under-21s prepare for the Junior World Cup. We're hosting that in Boston [Aug. 3-16] this year, which is the first time on our soil. I'll help out. I'm not on that staff officially, but I'll help out on the staff.

We don't have anyone on that team, but we have some potential. I know Jess Kreck was just at an open camp, and she did alright.

CalBears.com: Are you going to any of the Junior World Cup games?

SO: I hope to, but it's right between camp and preseason. I'd like to go for a couple games, but I don't know if I'll make it.

CalBears.com: You played in the California Cup at Moorpark College. What was that like?

SO: It's a long-standing tradition. I've been going there since I came here as a student on Memorial Day, either to play or to coach or whatever. These past couple of years, I've done all of that. This year, I decided to play on a team with other college coaches and play in the super division, which means it's on turf.

I don't coach my own kids, because they're out of school, but I coach a men's club and then I'm also there for the recruiting end of things, for the under-19 tournament. It's always a big weekend. My coaches group, with a few choice additions of national team players, won the trophy for the first time. We took the super division, so that was good fun. The Cal kids took fourth.

CalBears.com: How will Cal do next year after graduating 10 seniors from the 2008 team?

SO: I think about it all the time. On the surface, we're in a rebuilding mode. You've got eight starters that are now off the field. It's a motivational tool for the returning kids. We had a really good spring and more demanding than past springs. It's just a function of the progress of the program. I'm very excited about the incoming class. On the upside, we're going to be able to say, maybe the expectations are going to be low in other people's eyes, but I think we're going to be a surprise for a lot of people. It's going to be fun. We're going to be alright.

Everybody's got to come back ready to go, we've got to be lucky with injuries, but we're not as bad off as a lot of people think we are. But I don't mind if they think we are. That's not a bad position to be in either.