Why one of America's biggest field hockey stars was kept off the Olympic stage

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

Nike booked a block of rooms during the Olympic Games. Its guests were part of an annual Athlete Think Tank, a consortium to survey influential women in sports. The list included Dawn Staley, Megan Rapinoe, Sue Bird and so on. They sat for group discussions, Master Class presentations from Serena Williams and Stacey Abrams, and for product sessions, giving feedback on Nike goods coming out soon and others still years from release.

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

Matson arrived in the lobby wearing an oversized designer Nike sweatsuit. The chauffeur waiting outside was scheduled to leave for the airport in 45 minutes. Jess Sims, the Peloton instructor-turned-ESPN personality, walked past, asking if she and Matson were sharing a ride to Charles de Gaulle.

This is not the typical life of an American college field hockey coach. Matson is represented by Wasserman Group, the powerful sports and entertainment agency representing 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 spiking interest in women’s sports is dictated heavily by name recognition and star power, Matson has found a place in these reserved spaces. Once the country’s top high school field hockey player and member of the U.S. national team at age 17, she played five seasons (2018-22) at North Carolina and won all imaginable honors. She became the NCAA’s third all-time leading goal scorer, was part 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 was across town hanging out with Serena Williams as the U.S. national team went 1-3-1.

The backstory is layered. Following the December 2022 retirement of legendary coach Karen Shelton, UNC named Matson, then 22, as head coach of the winningest, most well-funded college field hockey program in the country. Many celebrated the move as daring — a succession mimicking Shelton’s rise 42 years earlier. It was another era, but Shelton once went from being a three-time national player of the year at West Chester, to high school head coach in New Jersey, to taking over UNC at 23. Others weren’t so cheery about the move. 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 of this before turning 25.

Thus, the status.

Thus, Paris.

Matson filled a journal with notes and quotes. She talked to Staley about coach-captain relationships. She listened to Abrams speak on staying true to one’s values. She felt, at times, out of place. “Why am I here?” Not because of a lack of credentials, but because of field hockey’s ultra-niche place in women’s sports. It’s an issue much older than Matson.

Over lunch with Rapinoe one day, Matson was struck by a realization — that Rapinoe, a U.S. soccer icon, became so by being transcendent on the field and outspoken off the field. She raised the profile of women’s soccer as a player, a freedom afforded on the field more than when working as the CEO on the sideline.

In Paris, that field was Yves du Manoir Stadium. The U.S. national team, a group featuring two of Matson’s current players, one former player and five players she’ll coach against this fall, were outscored by eight goals and eliminated in pool play. They failed to medal, again, extending a streak dating to 1984.

The instinct, of course, is to make it make sense, but nothing is quite so simple here, and it’s only the sport that’s suffering.

Here’s the shortest possible version of the long, convoluted tale of Matson and USA Field Hockey. When hired at North Carolina, Matson knew 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 a few years to settle into the job, then hoped to continue her playing career, splitting time between coaching and playing. She told UNC athletic director Bubba Cunningham of her plans to pursue the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles. He was all for it.

Then two things happened. The Tar Heels won the national title in Matson’s first season. And the U.S. national team, one projected as a long shot to make the Paris Olympics, successfully qualified for the Games.

Reversing course on her original decision, Matson made a late effort to land a spot on the U.S. team, requesting a tryout and playing in the indoor Pan-Am Games to notch some international playing reps. While much of the already established U.S. national team had sacrificed time and energy, living and training at a facility in Charlotte, N.C., the official roster was not yet finalized. Multiple collegians who played their 2023 seasons would be invited to try out. Matson would not. USA Field Hockey issued a statement that Matson “did not qualify under the mandatory terms of the selection criteria.” Simon Hoskins, the executive director of USA Field Hockey, told The Athletic it was his decision to deny the tryout request, saying, “It’s an organizational policy, so it comes to me.”

The resulting backlash ran both ways. Matson’s supporters levied accusations of jealousy in the ranks of USA Field Hockey. Matson’s detractors criticized her for wanting special treatment and walking away from the national team in the first place. Acrimony and arguments mounted. Earlier this summer, a series of conversations with members of the 1984 bronze-medal winning team drew a variety of responses — both that USA Field Hockey wasn’t capitalizing on a new star, and that roster policies exist for a reason. Meanwhile, other current college coaches declined to go on the record to discuss the topic.

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

Field hockey, played evenly 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 hit periods of momentum, field hockey has never moved into the mainstream. It’s regional. It requires specific (read: expensive) turf. It doesn’t draw droves of kids as a youth sport. So while other women’s sports have enjoyed measurable growth, like increased college scholarship totals, field hockey has stagnated. A lack of success at the national level can be seen as both a root cause and a byproduct. Since ’84, the United States has finished no better than fifth in any Games since.

Hoskins cites a lack of government funding.

“It’s just not fair,” he said. “It’s a subsidized industry that we’re competing in. It’s a real struggle for the organization.”

Money is one thing, but popularity is another, and field hockey has never waded into public consciousness because the public knows so little about it. Sports need stars; in this instance, the sport’s biggest American star wasn’t part of the game’s biggest stage in Paris. Well, she was, except she was watching track and swimming meets and posting pictures for her 70,000 Instagram followers while the U.S. team scored five total goals in five games.

Neither the results nor the optics add up.

Though 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 that requires upwards of two years playing for the national team — “One hundred percent,” she said — but as an organization, USA Field Hockey must examine its shortcomings at the international level.

“I think there’s got to be changes (in the system),” Matson said. “I won’t sugarcoat that. I don’t know how many times we’ve got to fail for people to say that, but like, you know, come on. So I think there’s going to be. But there’s definitely no question that I would love to do that. I know I can help.”

Considering how fraught things turned through the spring, some will wonder what’s rectifiable.

“You don’t have to like me,” Matson said. “I’m not telling you to be my friend. I don’t need any more friends. I have support and I’m grateful. But why can’t we come to an understanding? Do we want to win or have the best chance to win? I don’t mean just here at the Olympics. Our sport needs to win.

“I’m not someone who lives in regret, gets hung up on that, or holds grudges. I truly believe if you want to grow or progress, you can’t be hung up on that stuff.”

In the meantime, Matson will keep coaching. In what felt like a wink 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 as a full-time assistant coach on staff. Matson says Riccardo was to her what she was to Shelton. Once upon a time, the two were freshmen together.

“The argument from the schools that recruit against us is, ‘They’re a young staff; they have no idea what they’re doing,’” Matson said. “And you know, I always joke — don’t people know that we like a target on our back by now? If you just stay quiet and don’t tell me what you’re thinking, I’ll actually probably get less motivated. But if you keep telling me, oh, you’re too young, oh, you can’t do this and that — like, stop it, ‘cause you’re only hurting yourself.”

The 2024 North Carolina season will start next week with the Tar Heels, again, a national title favorite. Matson says she knows perceptions. “That, oh, Erin is off gallivanting in Paris. Oh, Erin is out in LA at the ESPY Awards,” she said. “But I don’t think people understand that I know how fortunate I am, and I use these opportunities and ask, how can we be better, how can the sport get bigger?”

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

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