Katie O’Donnell Bam, the most decorated player in Maryland field hockey history, is rejoining the team as an assistant coach, the team announced Thursday.
Bam, a four-time All-American and two-time Olympian, starred for the Terps from 2007 to 2010 under coach Missy Meharg and was a student assistant coach in 2012.
“Coming back to Maryland feels so right,” Bam said in a press release. “I have so many great memories of my time as a Terp.”
Bam holds the program records for career and single-season goals, assists and points and won the Honda Sports Award, given to the nation’s best player, twice. She holds three of the top four highest single-season point totals in Maryland history and won two national championships with the Terps. Her 306 career points are an ACC record, more than 100 better than the second-best Terp, Carla Tagliente (187).
“Katie’s deep-rooted passion and commitment to the game make her a natural teacher and players’ coach,” Meharg said in the release. “Her progressive and current hockey knowledge coupled with being one of international hockey’s most potent attackers will be an immediate asset to our young, talented and fearless Terps.”
In 2005, at 16, O’Donnell Bam became the youngest player to ever earn an international cap for the U.S. National Team, and she has remained with the team since. She played for the United States in the 2012 and 2016 Olympic Games.
Stefanie Fee, another member of the 2016 Rio Olympics team, is also on the Terps’ coaching staff. Fee, who played at Duke, joined Maryland as an assistant coach last season and will be the Director of Field Hockey operations this year, the team said.
Maryland went 18-5 in 2016, winning the Big Ten regular-season championship and spending the entire season ranked in the top 10. They entered the NCAA tournament as the No. 2 overall seed but lost in the quarterfinals, 3-0, to North Carolina, the third consecutive season Maryland has fallen short of the final four.
In her 29 years as head coach, Meharg, a seven-time national champion, has never gone four consecutive seasons without at least a final four appearance.
