Erin Matson: the 23-year-old coach who is making hockey history at UNC

Ssleep eludes Erin Matson. It's been three weeks since the University of North Carolina's most decorated hockey player and head coach guided her players to an NCAA championship victory in her debut season; the 23 year old does probably the youngest college coach ever to win a national title. Still, the interview requests keep pouring in, even as Matson's other coaching duties beckon her attention. Matson isn't complaining, though.

“Field hockey doesn't get this kind of attention at all,” said Matson, who as a student-athlete led the UNC team to four NCAA titles in five seasons. American hockey is having a moment, and far be it from Matson to stop it. Just as she plowed through her opponents on the field, Matson knows only one direction and that is forward.

“She's the best thing to happen to hockey since we won the (Olympic) bronze medal in 1984,” said former UNC coach Karen Shelton, who handed the reins to Matson at the end of her own storied 42-year career at the Chapel. Hill School. More than anyone, Shelton has a keen understanding of the pressures and pitfalls of such a tough undertaking at such a young age; Shelton was just 24 when she took the helm at UNC and eventually built it into the nation's premier collegiate program, where she won 11 NCAA titles.

Hailing from Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, Matson was introduced to the sport when her mother, a former Yale goaltender, took her unusually coordinated six-year-old to a local clinic. Erin cradled the stick as if it had never left her hands before, going through the motions quickly and confidently. She was a natural talent, but also excelled in softball and basketball. Field hockey won out in the end, the sharp blow coming from wood and connecting with hard plastic, a sound too tempting to give up.

Whether it was luck, fate or a little of both, the Matsons lived an hour away from the WC Eagles facility, the best youth club in the country. At the age of nine, Erin was part of the team, joining 14 and 15 year olds without a blink of an eye.

Coach Shelton first saw nine-year-old Matson at the WC Eagles facility punching above her weight. At the age of 13, Matson was introduced to the international game and made his debut at the junior Pan-American Games. At the age of 17, she became a member of the US national team.

At age 15, Matson and her parents made an unofficial visit to UNC. Matson had always made it clear she wanted to play there under Shelton, but the trio wisely tried to keep their options open by making deals with other schools. But it would always be UNC, that resolve strengthened by a solo run that took Matson across campus to clear her thoughts.

Matson blossomed with Shelton and the Tar Heels, the top-scoring midfielder who could anticipate the reactions of others to create paths to the goal, fast and fluid like Lionel Messi. By the end of her tenure, the three-time team captain would have collected five ACC championship victories, received the Honda Sport Award for hockey three times and set all-time scoring records in both ACC history and NCAA tournament play. . (She has also competed on the international stage, winning her first international cap for the US shortly after her 17th birthday and helping the Americans reach the podium at the Pan-Am Games in Peru four years ago.)

After graduating, Matson could have played professionally abroad. Her talent would have made it a lucrative business.

“I just didn't want to leave Carolina,” Matson says. “And I knew I loved coaching. I knew I had a talent for it. And I knew I could help the sport that has given me so many opportunities. I knew that as a player I was helping the sport, and I knew I could help even more.”

Through a combination of circumstances, Matson charted a path to a unique opportunity. Shelton would coach one more season, a fifth ahead of Matson and others who were granted the additional eligibility in response to the Covid pandemic. Could Matson land the coveted job in that time?

The man who needed convincing was Bubba Cunningham, the university's athletic director for the past decade. Matson had interacted with Cunningham at competitions and on speaking panels, but she barely had a resume to hand him, other than teaching at children's camps and clinics.

“Dare to be brilliant,” Shelton had advised Matson and her teammates during her UNC career. With that mantra echoing in her head, Erin entered Cunningham's office and asked for the job.

“It wasn't like I was a stranger walking into his office and asking for it, but it definitely caught him off guard,” Matson said. For starters, Matson was about to lead the team into its senior season. Would she have the focus, let alone the time, to apply for the position?

Matson entered the interview pool among other coaches with decades of experience, knowing she would be much more observed and scrutinized at every stage of her senior season.

“(I was hoping Cunningham would say) 'OK, she came to me in August, but she leads her team tremendously and doesn't let that affect the atmosphere in the locker room,'” Matson said. “Okay, she asked for the job, but she's still taking care of business on the field.” It was all just staying true to my word, and then he would know I'm not that crazy.

The Tar Heels completed an undefeated season in Connecticut in November, challenging their Northwestern rivals who had knocked them out of the first round of the NCAA tournament last year and snapped their three-year championship streak. A frantic battle between Baby Blue and Dark Purple ended in double overtime, with Peyton Worth firing with her back to the goal to extend UNC's victory.

Athletic director Cunningham had seen enough. He offered Matson the head coaching position and graciously admitted that he hadn't even thought about considering a 22-year-old candidate until she marched into his office and threw her hat into the ring.

Shelton met her star player after her retirement in December and wasn't surprised to learn that Matson had already been on the move, picking the other Carolina coaches and interviewing them about their individual journeys.

“She set up meetings with different players on the team just to let them know she was going to do this and to see if she had their support, which she did,” Shelton says. “Erin was willing to do the dirty work, the recovery runs and the support runs of the ball, where sometimes you go unrewarded. That is what leadership is about, and she has done that from day one.”

UNC announced Matson's hiring last January. Twenty-three players returned for the 2023 season, including many of Matson's friends she had spent time with off the grass. She had lived off campus with some of them. The speculation about that transition disappeared as the season progressed, replaced by the kind of excitement that only a gym generates. But to win the NCAA title in her first year as a collegiate coach? That means daring to be brilliant and achieving it.

Matson's skills in time management and organization — skills she credits both her parents for teaching her along the way — are still in full force three weeks after the season ended. She takes every opportunity to speak about the sport in between her coaching duties, which go back to recruiting. Sleep will come soon. Matson can feel it.

“It's more of me reminding myself, you know why I'm doing this, why we're all doing this,” she says. “Like we just love this place. We love this sport. So if it pays off for the sport and the future Tar Heels and current players, then we're doing something right.