Medway’s Hasenfuss still going strong
Longtime field hockey coach in 50th season
Mary Ellen Hasenfuss says she has never counted her win total during her field hockey tenure at Medway High.
Which isn’t surprising, since the number that truly matters when it comes to the veteran mentor is the thousands of kids she has affected in her half-century of service as a teacher and coach in the town.
This fall marks her 50th year with the Medway field hockey program, a journey that started with what she calls “a baptism by fire.”
Hasenfuss was hired in 1972 as a health and physical education teacher and immediately thrown into the open JV field hockey position despite no prior experience with the sport. Having worked all through high school and college to put herself through UMass Amherst, Hasenfuss didn’t have much time for extracurricular activities like sports growing up, and was hoping to perhaps coach gymnastics instead.
She was elevated to head coach in 1977 and she’s still there.
“It’s so inspirational to see how hard kids work to better themselves both academically and athletically, so it has kept me in the ballgame,” said Hasenfuss. “To see them so excited about their successes and to see them use their failures or shortcomings as a way of improving themselves, it’s amazing. It’s such a gift to me and I have always considered myself blessed to be in Medway.”
Hasenfuss has also held a post with the outdoor track program for nearly as long. She continued in her role as a teacher until 2003, when she transitioned to acting assistant principal at Medway High and then assistant principal at Medway Middle School before retiring in 2010, partly because she had to choose between being an administrator or coach, which was an easy decision.
“She is just awesome. She is so Medway,” said Jeff Parcells, who has observed Hasenfuss as both her current athletic director at Medway and from the other side as former AD at DoverSherborn. “She has a little bit of old school in her but she has done a really good job changing with the times. She has a great relationship with the kids and is just super, super passionate about what she does.”
Hasenfuss said the evolution of field hockey since she began until now is night and day. One change in particular stands out in her mind.
“The thing that really saved field hockey is turf,” said Hasenfuss.”It’s just a much cleaner, more skilled game on turf than it ever was on grass. It was hard to get kids to come and play on grass because it wasn’t always cut right, it was three inches and you couldn’t see the ball and move the ball. When the turf came in the kids were able to have more success more quickly, and they all started to love it more and more.”
Just because Hasenfuss isn’t keeping track of her milestones doesn’t mean winning isn’t important to her. With the strength of other programs at the school, field hockey doesn’t always draw as many top athletes as other fall sports, but the Mustangs claimed Tri-Valley League titles in 1984, 1987 and 2018.
She says she still thinks about a Division 2 South final loss to Canton in 2010, the program’s deepest tournament run, wondering what she could have done differently.
But even that defeat pales in comparison to the toughest loss that she has suffered as Mustang coach when Maddie Lamson, her senior goalie, was tragically killed in a car accident in 2015.
“I will never be over that,” said a choked-up Hasenfuss.
The fire still burns in season No. 50. And just because it’s a nice round number, don’t expect Hasenfuss to hang it up quite yet.
“I still love it. My husband says, ‘Oh my God, August is coming,’, and I say, ‘Yes it is,’” said Hasenfuss. “I still really love what I do. People ask me if I am going to give it up and I have no plans to right now. If I am physically able and I feel like I can do the job that needs to be done then I will stick with it. You never know what will happen, but I just take the good and hope the good will continue.”