HEEL TURN

WHEN THE BEST FIELD HOCKEY PLAYER IN THE COUNTRY FINISHED HER CAREER, NORTH CAROLINA KEPT THE 22-YEAR-OLD AROUND-AS ITS HEAD COACH 

- PAT FORDE

TWO DAYS into the job, the new field hockey coach at North Carolina walks down the stairs at the team's facility and greets a visitor with a firm handshake, an easy smile and an offer to tour the building. An engaging guide, she points out all the features of a facility that is commensurate with the Tar Heels' standing as the best program in the country, having won four of the last five NCAA championships. She laughs about her first contribution as coach: buying some small trash cans for the locker room.

When she flips on the lights in a room used for team meals, she's startled by a new addition to the wall. "Oh, I hadn't seen that yet," she says, looking at her own retired No. 1 jersey. It had just been framed and mounted there.

Erin Matson had just taken off that jersey for the final time 75 days earlier. She led the Tar Heels to a national title in late November, graduated with a degree in advertising and public relations in December, then was announced as the coach at North Carolina on Jan. 31.

At the age of 22.

This is something that normally happens in modern college athletics. Not only did North Carolina radically accelerate that timetable, but this also isn't some fixer-upper job that nobody wanted; Matson was chosen from a field of A-list candidates to lead a 10-time national champion.

A couple of years and a couple of national titles into Matson's time at UNC, longtime coach Karen Shelton mentioned to athletic director Bubba Cunningham that she was considering retirement. The team knew, as well. Her name went on the stadium in 2018, usually a sign that a career is winding down, but there was no end date announced.