WEST CANAAN — After years of juggling, Jenn Hammond finally decided she had too many balls in the air.
Mascoma High’s field hockey coach for the past eight seasons, Hammond, 51, has turned the program over to longtime assistant and friend Danielle Pushee, who’s been on the Royals sideline for the last six years.
“It was a super-hard decision, but as life progresses, circumstances change,” said Hammond, whose teams all reached the NHIAA playoffs and who posted a 55-21-1 mark over the last five seasons. “Something had to give, and sadly, it was field hockey.”
Hammond and Pushee, both Mascoma graduates, restarted their area’s youth field hockey program roughly 15 years ago and coached their daughters as they progressed up the ranks. Hammond was the Royals’ JV coach during the 2013 season under varsity boss Amanda Valliere, now Lebanon’s varsity coach.
When Valliere departed in 2014, Hammond took over and, despite winning only a combined six games during her first two seasons, led the Royals to the 2017 NHIAA Division III finals. Mascoma won it all in 2018, was runner-up again in 2019 and officially finished third in 2020 after an utterly bizarre ending to a COVID-altered campaign.
Hosting what they thought was a state semifinal contest, the Royals were informed before the start of overtime against Bishop Brady that the event was now the championship clash. Berlin, the other semifinal winner, forfeited its finals berth because of virus issues.
The Green Giants won the game in overtime and became champions. Mascoma, despite playing in what had been declared the championship tilt, was somehow not the runner-up, that status going to Berlin after a day or two of NHIAA confusion.
“There were so many mixed emotions and such commotion,” Hammond said. “Would I have changed my earlier strategies if I’d known it was going to be the championship game? Possibly. The whole thing was unfair, especially for the players.”
Better memories came from the 2017 team, which reached the finals despite entering the playoffs as the No. 10 seed in a 14-team field, and the police escort home a year later after capturing the championship. Hammond’s father, John Cattabriga, rode in one of the cars and was the first person she saw upon departing the bus.
The Royals reached a championship level by withstanding Hammond’s two-a-day preseason practices.
Conditioning took up the morning session with players running, jumping, flipping truck tires and pulling football sleds through the sand volleyball court.
That extra investment in themselves and the program caused students to feel they had significantly invested in its success. Hammond did every drill with them.
“As much as they hated it, they understood the method behind our madness,” Hammond said. “We laid our expectations out, and they understood them and were wiling to push through the hard parts. I coached a lot of talented athletes who had a lot of heart.”
Over time, however, Hammond’s obligations working for Creare, a Lebanon engineering and development firm, consumed increasing amounts of time. As a senior contracts administrator, Hammond was allowed a flexible schedule but was often at her desk by 5 a.m. When her workload rose to as many as 60 hours per week last winter, she realized next fall was going to be a problem.
“It would have been impossible to juggle,” she said. “There was going to be no way.”
Hammond’s husband, Walt, is also a former Mascoma athlete and coach, and their children, Walt Jr. and Kayla, played multiple sports for the Royals. Jenn Hammond recently drove past Mascoma High and saw Pushee and her players engaged in a summer workouts. Sniffles were heard from behind the wheel.
“I definitely got teary-eyed,” Hammond said. “Coaching’s been a huge part of my life and we achieved so much, but it’s somebody else’s time to bring something to the program.”
Tris Wykes can be reached at twykes@vnews.com.