"Today we honor and celebrate with one of the most significant contributors to the Ocean
City High School Field Hockey program. Kristie was a star athlete for us. She was twice
named first team All South Jersey and three times named All-CAL. She scored 20+ goals
three straight years and finished her career with 71 goals, a record at the time and
still 4th place on our career scoring list. She accomplished all this at a time when
we averaged perhaps four or five games a season less than we play now.
She went on to be a scholarship field hockey player at Rutgers University where she
starred for the Scarlet Knights and represented Ocean City with great distinction. A year
after her graduation from Rutgers, Kristie returned to Ocean City, started her job with
the Recreation Department and joined our staff as an assistant coach. It is here where
she made her greatest contributions.
I was thrilled to have a young, knowledgable coach join our staff. Kristie was good cop
to my bad, offense master mind where my focus was defense. She was creative, hard working,
loyal and committed to developing Ocean City into one of the elite programs in the state.
She was a huge part of all six state championships and seven South Jersey titles. I
absolutely believe we would not have been successful without her.
In her role as Junior Varsity coach, Kristie worked tirelessly to develop the younger players
and her teams were extremely successful with several undefeated J.V. seasons to her credit.
The most important roles she filled, though, were those of role model, friend and family
member.
I could not have asked for a better person for our players to look up to and emulate. She
carried herself with class and distinction. She was the ultimate representative for our
program.
I have always considered myself honored to call Kristie my friend, as do all the other
coaches on our staff. She is an exceptional daughter, sister, wife and mom. This is what
ultimately called her away from the hockey field - a commitment to her girls, Nicholl and
Abbey, and her husband, Joe. She wants the opportunity to spend family time with them and see
the girls games while they are still young.
So, today we take just a short time to thank Kristie for all she has meant to each and every
one of us and let her know she is always welcome back."
-TRISH LeFEVER
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