Erin Matson is the head field hockey coach at the University of North Carolina. At only 23 years old, Matson took on the head coach position after completing five impressive years at UNC. As a player, Matson was a 5x first-team All-American, 3x Honda Sport Award winner, 5x ACC Player of the Year, 4x NCAA National Champion, 5x ACC Champion, and the ACC's all-time career goals and points leader with 137 goals and 337 points.
After her above-average five seasons, it was announced in January of this year that Erin Matson would become the head coach for the Tar Heels. Matson has already led her team to a 2023 ACC Championship and will attempt to bring home the NCAA Title as well. Let's take a trip down memory lane as we interviewed Erin Matson in 2020 about her training schedule during the pandemic!
How has COVID-19 impacted your training for both the UNC and the US National field hockey teams?
I'm lucky that I have a gym at home and a room to do my skills in, and I grew up spending a lot of time in those two places when I was younger. So it's sort of like I'm just back in my high school days but doing harder workouts! I enjoy working out at home and doing the packets that our strength coach has sent out so I'm able to keep my fitness and skills up. [Fitness will] be most important for all of us, so when the team is back together in the fall, we can hit the ground running. The toughest part is definitely not being with the girls and playing with them every day, but we use our Snapchat group, GroupMe, and FaceTime all the time. We are lucky that we have such a close team, and we want to make sure it stays that way even during these times.
What are you doing to stay in shape and keep your skills sharp?
Our UNC strength coach has been awesome with sending us workouts, so those keep us primed up. I also have gotten into yoga a lot more since I have more time on my hands! I love it, and I definitely feel better playing when I'm more flexible. Skillswise, anything that I can do helps. Whether I'm doing a serious skills session in my basement or just messing around outside, I love to take advantage of any time I can get my hands on a stick and keep my touches up.
Can you give me some examples of creative, or different, workouts you've been doing to stay active?
I don't know if everyone knows this but Peloton has a 90-day free trial that they are doing because of the pandemic! It's a nice switch-up from the normal workouts I do, and they have everything you can imagine: cycling, running, core, yoga, etc. I've enjoyed mixing those in since it's something fun and different that is still getting you moving!
What advice would you give to any field hockey players right now, both high school and college, to stay ready for next season?
I would say control the controllable and stay focused on what matters! Take advantage of this time at home because it's a great opportunity for each of us to come out of all this fitter, stronger, more skilled, and reach whatever goal we set! When all of this is over, it'll show who continued to put in the work and who took the time to better themselves-physically or mentally. Trust me…you'll thank yourself and coaches will notice!!
Image Credit: @erin_matson/Instagram
