Victoria Ebner (left), who wrote this article, was captain of the Varsity Field Hockey Team at Springfield Township High School this year. She is thrilled to tell the entire community about her revered coach, Linda Nixon (seen here), who is about to begin her 50th year of coaching at the school.

by Victoria Ebner

We sit shoulder to shoulder on the cold metal bench. Paralyzed, our chests heave with shaky, exhausted breaths. In the last 15 seconds, our opponents scored and tied the game, 2-2, sending us into a sudden death overtime.

Though our heads hang, we drag our wide eyes to the 5-foot figure in front of us. “Girls,” Coach Linda Nixon calls as she glances around excitedly. “Go back out there, and be relentless”. One by one, we lift ourselves up. We go back out, and we win the game.

Coach Nixon’s message of dedication is fitting, as she will celebrate her 50th year of coaching this coming season. Known to her players simply as “Ms. Nix,” she is widely known to the Springfield community for her contagious positivity and timeless love of the game. Players will often comment that she never arrives to practice or a game without a smile and a plan.

“She had the ability to get us to be the best that we could possibly be at all times,” Joanna Matthews, class of ’92, remembers fondly. “Our team motto was ‘together,’ and we said it before and after every game. We even put it on tee shirts. I always think of that when I think of Ms. Nix. She cared deeply for each and every one of us. That was very obvious. We were truly a family.”

A family is certainly what Coach Nixon has created with the Springfield field hockey team. She has coached generations of girls, as her former players become mothers and bring their daughters to follow in their footsteps. “It’s so great that my daughter is in great hands,” Frith deKerillis, class of ’88, exclaims. “Being a member of Ms. Nix’s Spartan hockey team made me a stronger person, and ready for life challenges.”

The traits she encourages in her players are especially familiar to Coach Nixon. With her impressive hockey career, this season’s motto, “Commitment to excellence through attention to detail,” is a life message she knows all too well. Nixon played for Central Bucks West High School, receiving the honors of captain, Most Valuable Player and even Most Athletic Girl of her senior class. She played for Ursinus College as well, competing in six sports: hockey, softball, tennis, basketball, field hockey and swimming.

On top of captaining in field hockey, swimming and tennis teams, Nixon was elected into the Ursinus Hall of Fame, won the Ursinus Women’s Club Award and won president of the Ursinus Women’s Athletic Association. She then made the U.S. National Team during her senior year in college. Though she started coaching for Springfield in 1967, Nixon says that during the ‘70s, she represented the U.S. in tours, citing Zimbabwe, Jamaica, Guyana, Uganda, Kenya, Zambia, Argentina, Germany, Canada, Great Britain, New Zealand, Trinidad, Scotland, Ireland and Argentina as countries in which she competed.

Nixon insists that the purpose of taking hockey to other countries was to “encourage the sport to grow.” After she stopped playing for the U.S., she continued to coach in the developmental U.S. program for years and did statistics for the U.S. team’s tournaments.

After Nixon made breakthroughs for hockey in other countries, she also made breakthroughs for the sport in its early days at Springfield. “When I first started at SHS, the boys played in the Bux-Mont League, and the girls played in no league because the Bux-Mont League was ‘too aggressive’ for female Spartans,” Nixon recollects. But then, when the boys moved to the Suburban One League, everyone was included. A win for womanhood, as Nixon calls it.

In 1993, Springfield won the state title, and the small team of Spartans has gotten into at least the entry level of playoffs every year, and each season is both different and remarkable. “We’ve always been a small team, but we work together to accomplish our goals,” captain Isabelle Boles said.

Though the Spartans may not all be experienced field hockey players, Nixon believes the beauty of the team is to encourage any girl in the school to join. “Over time, the hockey program has been able to become successful and encourage girls to be strong, independent and focused athletes,” Nixon asserts.

Though the team is young and has always had to work extra hard for their success, Nixon’s values of hard work and playing as a single unit push the Spartans to become the strongest they can be.

Now, with almost 50 years under her belt, Nixon is still looking forward to the future. “I look forward to having fun and being able to improve our skills, strategy and teamwork to win games,” Nixon exclaims. “And to the players I coached years ago, I hope you have fond memories of your hockey days.”

As far as the community is concerned, we are thankful to have Coach Nixon in our lives, and we hope she continues to inspire Spartan hockey players for many years to come.

Victoria Ebner writes for the Springfield Township High School newspaper and for an online journalism class. She is a member of the National Honor Society and the National Art Honor Society. She was the captain of the Varsity Field Hockey Team this year, a member of the Varsity Track & Field Team and Honorable Mention on the Suburban One American Conference All League Field Hockey Team last year.