She has played, coached, taught and watched students mature for what seems like an eternity, and now long-time ASU Field Hockey Coach Cathy Burleson has decided to hang up the clipboard. 

Fresh off of a Deep South Tournament Championship, Burleson will become a full-time teacher in the Department of Physical Education. 

It will be a difficult transition for Burleson, who has been involved in field hockey since her junior-high days. 

Burleson played from middle school up to high school, and then at Longwood College, where she was on the varsity squad all four years. 

After college, Burleson kept her skills sharp by playing club hockey outside of the Washington, D.C., area. 

In addition, she played in regional tournaments against college players, and in 1979, she met Jan Watson, the ASU field hockey coach at the time. 

Watson opened the door for Burleson, who was then working as an elementary P.E. teacher and assistant high school field hockey coach, and offered her a chance to pursue a graduate degree as well as a position as an assistant coach for the ASU team. 

Burleson arrived in 1983 and was an assistant coach from 1983 to 1984, before being named the head coach in 1985. 
Her goals coming in were simple. 

“I wanted to make sure, on an individual basis, that I tried to help each of the players to reach their full potential,” said Burleson.  “I knew that I was coming into a winning program, and my team goals were to allow us to stay there.” 

Although Burleson inherited a very successful program under Watson, winning the Deep South Tournament in 1985, Burleson became concerned when teams began switching from grass fields to turf. 

According to Burleson, it was the biggest disadvantage for her in terms of coaching. 

“Our sport has changed so much because of the move from grass to turf, that you just can’t play the same game ... you do have to keep up with all the new skills and activities that are going on in that sport,” said Burleson. 

In the mid to late ‘80s, schools like Wake Forest and Duke began leaving the Deep South Conference for the ACC, and Burleson began attending clinics to adapt herself to the newer, faster style that turf brought to the sport of field hockey. 

Burleson took a two-year leave of absence from 1989 to 1990 to pursue doctoral work in Greensboro. 

When she returned in 1991, Burleson’s squad faced hard times. 

With a low recruiting turnout, Burleson was forced to take players from the P.E. programs, with the end result being a two-win season. 

To add to the trouble were even more changes in the game, especially new rules and regulations on NCAA Division I schools. 

Appalachian State had to schedule a majority of Division I schools, cutting out long-time opponents Pfeiffer and High Point. 

ASU has been able to keep Catawba on the schedule, a matchup that has created strong tradition and competition to this day. 

In 1992, ASU began playing on turf, one of the major steps in Coach Burleson’s plan to return to power in the Deep South. 

With the upgrade of scheduling after the new NCAA regulations of the early ‘90s, Burleson scheduled games against top opponents, which decreased her win records but increased her team’s competitive nature to raise their level of play. 

Burleson is proud of the fact that she did not sacrifice competition for a big win season, with most of her seasons around the .500 mark. 

“If we didn’t play those schools (UVA, Kent, Duke and Wake), that would’ve improved my win/loss record, but I think you can gain by playing teams that are better than you,” Burleson said. 

Nevertheless, it was hard for Burleson, who is a very competitive person. 

Recently, it has been rewarding for the Mountaineers, with three-straight Deep South Championships coming in 1996, 1997, and 
1998. 

“We go in there and we’re expected to win, and we won,” said Burleson.  “It’s a great feeling.” 

With this rise to dominance in the Deep South, Burleson feels her goals as a coach have changed philosophically from her days as a 27-year-old. 

“I feel that I should give an experience to college women by which, hopefully, they can get a positive viewpoint of themselves and see that when they work hard they can make gains, learn skill and become talented,” said Burleson. 

One of the best parts of being the head coach, according to Burleson, was being able to watch freshmen go through college and mature, as well as helping them mature and make decisions. 

What will Cathy Burleson miss the most about coaching? “I think the interaction with the field hockey players, the individuals that make up the team,” said Burleson.  “I’m going to miss that the most.” 

Burleson is looking forward to life after coaching, especially fall weekends without constant travel.  Besides teaching full-time, she will have more time to spend with her husband and at church. 

“I want to enjoy Boone and the surrounding area on good-weather weekends,” adds Burleson, who also looks forward to sleeping in on some Saturday mornings. 

Burleson plans on keeping in contact with both her former players and her most recent ones, and will look back fondly on the bond she had with them as well as all the flat tires she encountered on road trips. 

“There’s a lot of fun memories that I have to reflect on over the past 14-odd years,” said Burleson. 

A replacement for Coach Burleson has not been made yet.