Get to know coach Ott of Kingsway High’s girls field hockey team
WOOLWICH TOWNSHIP, N.J. — Kingsway High School’s head varsity field hockey coach is Ms. Dana Ott. While she is in her fourth year as head coach, she has coached at multiple levels for over 14 years. A proud alumna, Dana was a four-year varsity starter at Kingsway and a regional All-American. Twice named Gloucester County Times Player of the Year, she also eared All Conference and All State honors.
That led to her earning a full athletic scholarship at Villanova University where she earned Big East weekly honor roll recognition multiple times, Mid-Atlantic regional recognition, All Big East recognition, All Philadelphia Team recognition as well as all Academic Team recognition. After graduating from Villanova in 2011, she was the head coach at Haverford High School before moving back home to teach and coach at Kingsway.
During her tenure at Kingsway she coached the middle school, freshman, and JV teams before becoming varsity head coach. Part of team training involves practicing like they play, by playing with high competition, but also having fun. Dana played roller hockey for many years because of her older brother. If it wasn’t for his passion for his sport, she doesn’t think she would have found the same love for field hockey. She would also like to thank her high school and college coaches and her mom for helping make her the coach she is today.
To her, field hockey is more than just a sport. She believes it is a way to connect with people and create memories and relationships that last far beyond the playing days. Dana recounts that there is nothing more fun than seeing her players succeed in the sport that they love, and then to see them succeed at the collegiate level. The bond and relationship the kids maintain with each other never fades. When her alumni come back or when she sees families of kids that she has coached, they pick right up where they left off, and those are moments that mean everything to her as a coach. She never wants to settle as a coach because her kids have dreams and aspirations, and she will do everything in her power to support them. She hopes that they know that they are loved, pushed beyond their own comfort zones for a reason, accepted, appreciated, and respected for who they are as individuals and the value that each player brought to the team.
One day, hopefully years from now, when Dana decides to stop coaching she hopes that her players remember her as a coach that was driven and motivated to be a better coach and person because of them. One of her favorite memories from this season was when Kingsway played in the MAX Field Hockey Invitational and they beat two strong out of state teams. Another was witnessing player Tori Griffiths 100th career goal.
She believes that we are all only as good as the people we surround ourselves with and that it takes more than one person to build a strong program. With that in mind, she give thanks to her field hockey players, their families, her school administration, her athletic director (June Cioffi), her assistant coaches (Jennie Hara and Erin Bernard), and her family for their support and in helping her to build this program. She would like to remind everyone that times can be tough both in field hockey and in life.
Dana shares, “there will be moments when you feel like you want to simply give up, but constantly evaluating your “why” both as a player and as a person and holding on to those core values keeps you tough and motivated to move forward, even on the challenging days.” As Robert Schuller stated, “tough times never last, but tough people do”. Good luck and congratulations to Head Coach Dana Ott and Kingsway Field Hockey teams!
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