Newport
“Well, I had to do a lot things today, including lining the field,” Christensen explained.
To understand Christensen, 64, you have take out the old-school handbook and return to those days of yesteryear when pampering was replaced by discipline and rewards only went to those who earned them. And if you want to play Newport field hockey, you have know that the first hour of every practice is conditioning.
No sticks. No balls. No horsing around. It’s all part of the job for a guy on his third tour of duty with the Tigers.
“He just wants us to be in shape for the second half of our games,” said senior forward Hailey Perry, who added that all the players are cool to the way Christensen runs the program. “He’s a good coach and good guy.”
While Christensen may appear to a harsh taskmaster, he is not. He is a man of compassion and has strong feelings for Newport field hockey and its players. Why else would a man want to coach the sport three times at the same school, starting in 2004, with return trips in 2013 and 2017?
“I’ve always loved field hockey, but he makes me love the sport even more,” Newport forward Kennedy Pysz said.
Newport athletic director Jeff Miller described Christensen not only as a very principled man, “but perhaps one of those throwback guys,” he said.
Christensen may have been at his principled best when he returned four years ago for his second stint with the Tigers. It didn’t last long.
“My first year back, I let the team vote on the team captains, but the next year, over the summer, I selected the captains and let them know whom I picked by social media,” Christensen said. “Right away, the flack I got back did not sit well with me, so I resigned.”
The fact that Christensen is a field hockey coach is a story in itself.
While he grew up in Chelmsford, Mass., he went to college at Louisiana State University, where tennis was his favorite sport. He went on to coach tennis and teach at a Louisiana high school. But he left teaching and coaching for 16 years and ended up working for a lumber company in Somerville, Mass.
Then one day, he went to his niece’s high school ice hockey game. The coaching and teaching bug bit him again.
“I sent out 65 applications and only got five interviews,” Christensen said. “Four of the interviews led to nothing, but when I did the Newport interview, I knew I had a chance and was hired. All of which leads me to always tell my players and students (he’s also a science teacher) that sometimes you just have to keep plugging along to get what you want.”
Still, getting to field hockey was another journey.
He was helping with Newport’s baseball and track teams when then-athletic director Doug Beaupre approached him about taking over the field hockey program.
“I told him I never played field hockey before, but he thought I could do the job,” Christensen said.
Beaupre saw something that Christensen didn’t necessarily see in himself.
“He just had the right manners and temperament and I felt, because I had seen him coaching other sports, I knew he could do the job,” said Beaupre, now the athletic director at Stevens High School. “It was several months before the start of field hockey, and I knew he would go out and get himself ready for the season.”
Christensen became a quick study.
“What I did was I went to clinics at Yale and Boston College and as many other clinics I could find,” Christensen said.
“Then, when the season started, we lost our first six games, but then went on finish the season on a winning streak.”
Newport has benefited since.
“When he took over the team, it had not been competitive,” Miller said. “But he went on to string together a bunch playoff teams year after year.”
Christensen left Newport the first time to take a more lucrative position at Newfound Regional High School in Bristol, N.H. He was there for four years and worked as an assistant to Newfound field hockey coach Kari Peterson, who is still coaching the Bears.
“She had a great influence on me,” Christensen said. “She set high expectations and wanted everybody to abide by the rules. She just knew how to handle the kids and set the bar high, but she was also one of the kindest people I’ve ever known.”
Christensen is working with 23 players this season. Out of his own pocket, he bought his all of his players matching sweatshirts and sweat pants.
“He just wants them all to look the same,” Miller said. “That stuff is important to him.”
After the 2016 season ended and Newport needed a field hockey coach, Miller approached Christensen about coaching the team one more time.
Miller told him that not only did he want him to take over the team, but some of the kids he coached as freshmen and were now seniors also wanted him to coach.
“Truthfully, I was glad he asked me,” Christensen said. “I missed the sport.”