Amherst College women’s hockey coach Jeff Matthews was recently discussing Gretchen Dann, the Mammoths’ All-American defender, and paused to ponder life without the Hanover native during the coming seasons.
The Kimball Union Academy graduate will soon earn a diploma from her Massachusetts college and head off to work in the advertising media world, leaving Matthews without his star rearguard but grateful for her presence in his life overall.
“For the rest of my life, I can pick up the phone and talk to Gretchen Dann,” Matthews mused. “What a gift.”
Needless to say, not all college coaches wax so wonderfully about their departing players. The game’s stakes and demands seem to grow every year, heaping on pressure that can leave everyone exhausted and sometimes at odds with one another.
Not so with Matthews or Dann, whose collaboration helped Amherst reach the NCAA Division III finals three times during the last four seasons. That none of those campaigns resulted in a national title surely stings, but they were substantive and fun nonetheless. The Mammoths (21-3-6) lost the championship game at Wisconsin-River Falls for a second consecutive season last month.
“We had a locker room of love and you have to add to that culture, because it’s how we win,” said Dann, who led Amherst in goals with 15. “We hold each other accountable.”
Dann grew up in a family unfamiliar with hockey before she hit the ice. By age 12, however, she was playing on a Hanover Wild boys team coached by former Dartmouth College star and coach Judy Parish Oberting. Dann recalls her coach letting out a whoop when Dann dropped a Cardigan Mountain School opponent with a mid-ice body check.
“He was a foot taller than me but I laid him out,” Dann recalled with a laugh. “Judy had told me on the bench I needed to be more physical and when I was skating to the penalty box I heard her shout ‘That’s my girl!’ ”
Dann decided playing at Hanover High wouldn’t best suit her goal of reaching college hockey, so she became a four-year day student at KUA, where she played for former Dartmouth coach Mark Hudak her first two years. She also skated for Massachusetts club teams before and after the prep school season. Still, she describes herself as a late bloomer and never one who caught top-tier Division I recruiters’ eyes.
“At first it was a bitter pill to swallow because I expect so highly of myself,” Dann said of failing to reach the Ivy League, where her parents were both athletes. “But I wanted to win hockey games, not lose them at a lower level just to say I played Division I.
“I wanted to be the best possible player and person I could be and Amherst could give me that. It’s turned out to be incredible.”
So were the Mammoths’ results. Amherst was 90-15-9 during Dann’s career, during which she was twice a first team All-American in front of goaltender Natalie Stott, who herself earned that honor an amazing four times. The 5-foot-9 Dann played in 114 games, producing 27 goals and 33 assists.
“I’m definitely an offensive defenseman,” said Dann, who played for a team that pressured the puck all over the ice. “It’s confidence and you have to have swagger to play hockey. Sometimes as girls, we have trouble with that but I figured it out.
“I play within the system but Jeff lets me takes rushes and chances and use my legs to move the puck up the ice.”
Matthews said Dann was one of Division III’s five best players this winter but that her more subtle skills set her apart.
“Everyone’s pretty good in college hockey, so the intangibles become that much more important,” the coach said. “Grit, work ethic, the ability to accept coaching — those are Gretchen’s strengths.
“She had seven game-winning goals this season. That’s unheard of for anyone, let alone a defenseman. Who does that? The kid who can find the willpower and desire to make a play because they want it so bad.”
An internship last summer at a Washington, D.C., political marketing firm led to a job offer Dann has accepted. She pondered playing professionally in Europe but decided she couldn’t pass up such a good employment opportunity.
“Hockey’s the love of my life,” the 22-year old said. “Having my career end feels like I’m losing part of myself and I haven’t quite processed it. But I think about coaching all the time and once the upcoming election cycle is over I’m going to look into it.”
Matthews, whose 9-year old daughter is devoted to Dann and who trades homemade bracelets with her favorite Mammoth, said his player will translate her hockey stardom into the working world.
“Whatever she pursues, she’ll excel at it,” he said. “It doesn’t get any better than being around her.”
Tris Wykes can be reached at twykes@aol.com.
CORRECTION: Jeff Matthews is Amherst College’s women’s hockey coach. An earlier version of this story had an incorrect surname for Matthews.