Wolstenholme excelled as a player, coach, official

Judy Smiley Wolstenholme will be inducted into the Chester County Sports Hall of Fame Nov. 8.

PHOENIXVILLE » It’s difficult to imagine a studentathlete at the high school or college level who tackled a more demanding daily schedule than Judy Smiley Wolstenholme.

“I didn’t get into any trouble,” she said. “I was just too busy.”

At Phoenixville High, Wolstenholme earned 14 varsity letters. And later Ursinus College, she upped that number to an astonishing 16. It was the beginning of a busy and highly productive career in athletics that branched out into coaching and finally officiating.

And the common thread throughout was excellence. Already enshrined in four halls of fame, Wolstenholme is going to make it five on Nov. 8 when she is inducted into the Chester County Sports Hall of Fame.

“As an athlete, a coach and an official, it’s led me to a lot of wonderful people and lifelong friends,” Wolstenholme said. “All of the things that I’ve done have produced a lot of social glue.”

As a freshman at Phoenixville, Wolstenholme made varsity in softball, field hockey, basketball, and on the boys’ golf team. By the time she was a senior in 1960-61, she was a team captain on the latter three. At Ursinus, she starred in field hockey, lacrosse, basketball and softball.

“At that point in the spring at Ursinus, they worked it out so I could play two sports at the same time,” Wolstenholme recalled. “I’d practice softball from 2:30-4 in the afternoon, and then go to lacrosse from 4-6.

“I will always be grateful that by some fluke of nature, I was able to wield a stick, or throw a ball, or run with some degree of skill.”

She was especially outstanding in field hockey and lacrosse. Wolstenholme competed in hockey for seven years with Team USA, which included a trip to Germany for the 1967 World Cup. She also represented her country for nine years in lacrosse, including three World Tour squads (1964, 1969 and 1971).

“The pinnacle of my career was being able to compete internationally,” Wolstenholme said. “Young gals now can’t because once they give you a Division I scholarship they sort of own you in that sport. But back then, because there weren’t any scholarships, it enabled me to put a lot of time in for my college team but also compete in local trials and on to the national tournaments.

“Playing at that level opened up a lot of other opportunities. I traveled all over the world and played with the best players in the country.”

After college, Wolstenholme transitioned to teaching and coaching – first at Conestoga High School and then at West Chester University from 1968-77. First as an assistant in charge of the freshman team under Vonnie Gros ( CCSHOF Class of 2012) and later head varsity coach, the Golden Rams lost one lacrosse game in nine seasons.

Wolstenholme gave up coaching to start a family. But she decided to try officiating in an effort to earn some side money and stay affiliated with athletics.

“I never intended to do it at the level that I did,” she said. “But the more I did it, the more opportunities came up.

“And the nice thing about it was it kept me attached to sports that I loved.”

She refereed at the Division I level in basketball, lacrosse and field hockey, and became the first man or woman to officiate NCAA Final Fours in three different sports. Wolstenholme gave up basketball in the early 1980s when the seasons started to overlap, but she excelled in the others.

In field hockey, she officiated 13 Final Fours during a 30-year span. In lacrosse, Wolstenholme presided over 50 international matches and 14 NCAA Final Fours.

In addition, she founded and then ran the Eastern Field Hockey Camp for 34 years, and has been an active member at Waynesborough Country Club for three decades. She qualified and participated twice in the U.S. Senior Women’s Open along the way.