NFHCA names 2022 Hall of Fame class and Lifetime Achievement Award winner

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — The National Field Hockey Coaches Association (NFHCA) is pleased to announce the members of the Hall of Fame, class of 2022, and the 2022 NFHCA Lifetime Achievement Award winner.

Selected as the 23rd class of the NFHCA Hall of Fame are former Enfield High School varsity head coach, Kathleen “Cookie” Bromage, current Middlebury College head coach, Katharine DeLorenzo, and recently retired varsity head coach at Columbus Academy, Anne Horton. Former head coach at the University of Pennsylvania, Anne Sage, will be recognized posthumously with the NFHCA’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

“We are thrilled to honor all of our award winners this year,” said NFHCA Hall of Fame Committee chair and Trinity College assistant coach, Kathryn Kloeckener. “I would like to thank our committee and nominators for all their hard work in recognizing the accomplishments of this group of outstanding individuals who have so wonderfully impacted the game of field hockey.”

The honorees will be recognized on Friday, January 13, 2023, at the NFHCA Hall of Fame Reception, the culminating event at the 2023 NFHCA Annual Convention in Lake Mary, Florida. In-depth feature stories for individual honorees will be shared throughout the fall season.

More About Our Honorees

Kathleen “Cookie” Bromage

Kathleen “Cookie” Bromage founded the field hockey program at Enfield High School in 1967 and remained in that post until retiring in 2019. Over the course of 52 years, her teams won nearly 450 games and accumulated five Connecticut Class M state championships. She was a charter inductee into the Enfield Athletic Hall of Fame in 1996, and her five state championship teams have subsequently been inducted as well. Bromage is also a member of five other halls of fame: Suffield, New Agenda: Northeast, Connecticut High School Coaches Association, Connecticut Field Hockey, and National High School Athletic Coaches Association. In 2019, the turf playing surface in the Enfield High School stadium was named Cookie Bromage Field, and in 2021, she received the prestigious Gold Key Award from the Connecticut Sports Media Alliance.

Katharine DeLorenzo

Katharine DeLorenzo joined the athletics staff at Middlebury College in 2000 as the head field hockey coach following stints at Skidmore College and Oberlin College. At Middlebury, she now holds the titles of Borgen Family Head Coach of Field Hockey, Assistant Athletic Director, and Senior Woman Administrator. Over her 30-year career DeLorenzo has amassed a 425-126-2 record with 330 of those wins coming at Middlebury. Under her leadership the Panthers have accumulated eight New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) Championships and five NCAA Division III National Championships. DeLorenzo has the distinct honor of leading the first Division III program to capture four-straight NCAA titles. DeLorenzo’s staff has been named the Division III National Coaching Staff of the Year a division-leading six times — she and Missy Meharg, head coach at the University of Maryland, are tied for the most national coaching honors across divisions.

Anne Horton

Anne Horton, the recently retired varsity head coach at Columbus Academy in Gahanna, Ohio, finished her coaching career last season after 38 years at the helm. She accumulated an overall record of 600-72-39, ranking her 11th nationally and first statewide in all-time wins. Since starting Columbus Academy’s field hockey program in 1991, her teams have won 24 district titles, played in 18 state championships, and claimed 12 state titles. She was the National Federation of State High School Associations’ 2019 National Field Hockey Coach of the Year, the recipient of 2012 Lou Berliner Memorial Award given annually by The Columbus Dispatch to “a central Ohio coach or administrator for their significant and longtime contributions to high school athletics,” and the 2000 NFHCA West Region Coach of the Year. Horton also served in a leadership role in the Columbus Academy athletic department from 1991 to 2022 and taught physical education for 32 years. 

Anne Sage

Anne Sage, who served as the first head coach for both the varsity field hockey and women’s lacrosse programs at the University of Pennsylvania, has been selected to receive the NFHCA Lifetime Achievement Award. Later in her career, Sage was named the first director of field hockey and lacrosse at Penn, where she oversaw both programs and served as the head lacrosse coach. Sage retired in 1997 after leading the field hockey program for 24 years and the lacrosse program for 26 years.

Beyond her success on the field hockey pitch — where she accumulated 178 wins, seven Ivy League titles, and advanced to the postseason 10 times — Sage was a devoted advocate for athletic opportunities for women in the Philadelphia area. Sage not only broke ground for women field hockey and lacrosse student-athletes at Penn, but she also championed causes in every walk of life. In 1990, Sage was named the Coach of the Year by the March of Dimes and in 1995 was awarded the Robert Davies Award for promoting social change and social justice at the University of Pennsylvania and beyond. Sage died in 2019.

The Awards

The NFHCA Hall of Fame was established in 1999 to honor exceptional field hockey coaches, administrators, and umpires for their success on and off the field. The Class of 2021 will be the 22nd cohort to be inducted into the Hall of Fame.

The NFHCA Lifetime Achievement Award was established in 2018 to distinguish a seasoned coach and their significant impact on our sport. With this award their courage, leadership, and strength are being recognized as well as their outstanding commitment to the sport of field hockey.

The National Field Hockey Coaches Association (NFHCA) is a nonprofit organization serving field hockey coaches and supporters of the game from across the United States. The mission of the organization is to champion, strengthen, and celebrate field hockey coaches and the game. The NFHCA strives to cultivate and recognize the professional contributions of its membership and to foster and promote the growth of the sport. The NFHCA is responsible for providing a recognizable presence and voice in regard to legislation affecting the sport as well as interscholastic and intercollegiate programs.