This is a printer-friendly version of an article from Zip06.com.
09/22/2016 12:00 AMShannon Torpey-Cribbin had a decorated career with the Hand field hockey team and now she’s laying the groundwork for the future of another storied program in Guilford. A few months ago, Shannon learned that she’d earned one of the greatest honors any athlete can receive when she was selected for induction into the Connecticut Field Hockey Hall of Fame. Shannon was officially inducted in a ceremony at the AquaTurf Club in Southington on Sept. 18.
Shannon, a Madison resident, earned varsity letters with the field hockey, gymnastics, and outdoor track squads at Hand. She was one of the SCC’s leading scorers during a field hockey career that saw her record 37 goals with 31 assists on her way to earning First Team All-SCC honors, as well as First Team and Second Team All-State accolades, before graduating in 2000.
Outside of Hand, Shannon competed for club teams and played in tournaments, including three field hockey festivals held in California and Florida. As a member of the United States Field Hockey Futures program, Shannon was quickly promoted to the elite athlete site, where she was chosen to represent Connecticut at the U-16 National Tournament in Maryland, in addition to the 1996 Junior Olympics in North Carolina. By her senior year, Shannon was recruited by three NCAA Division I field hockey teams and ultimately went to the University of Columbia, where she helped the Lions win an Eastern College Athletic Conference championship.
Shannon says she was surprised when she heard she was heading to Connecticut Field Hockey Hall of Fame and it didn’t take long for her emotions to surface.
“I love every second of coaching and, when I got the call that I was going to be inducted, I started crying because I had been nominated in the past and field hockey has been a big part of my life,” says Shannon, who was also a member of Hand’s 1997 Class S state championship gymnastics team, plus the field hockey squad that reached the Class M final the following year. “There are legends that are in that Hall of Fame and ones that are going to be inducted this year. There are so many amazing players and coaches and so it was a shock to me to be included with them.”
Nine years ago, Shannon stepped into the Guilford field hockey family as the head coach of the Adams Middle School team. As a coach at a key developmental stage of the sport, Shannon knows that the most important things aren’t the amount of games won or goals scored. Instead, it’s more about her athletes enjoying themselves, while improving each day as they learn the essential skills that will help them in their days beyond the middle school level.
“I’m very big on having fun. At this stage, the competition level is not as strong, but I want the girls to enjoy the sport, because then they will do better with it,” says Shannon, a biology teacher at West Haven High School. “I like breaking down things to their simpler form. I like to build the girls slowly for them to get things. I tell them and the parents that I can’t promise we will win all our games, but I can promise that the team that goes onto the field won’t be the same that comes off of it, as they’ll improve through that game.”
Shannon competed against Guilford field hockey coach Kitty Palmer during her playing days at Hand, but now the two work together with Shannon coaching the team at Adams. Palmer says that she sees a great passion for coaching in Shannon.
“Shannon is a great teacher of kids because she makes every drill fun. She takes the time to think things through and really make an effort to improve a skill and, at the same time, have the kids enjoy it. She sends kids to the high school that are prepared to take the next step, are enthusiastic, and love the game like she does,” says Palmer. “I remember coaching against the Hand teams that she played on and we always had to watch out for her speed and skill to goal. She was a very unselfish player that thought to pass before shooting. We are very fortunate to have Shannon teaching our 7th- and 8th-grade field hockey prospects.”
Shannon focuses on guiding players toward specific goals in her capacity as a coach. She gets great satisfaction when she sees her athletes’ eyes light up once they’ve achieved one of those goals.
“I love coaching as it’s different from teaching. You can make the smallest things amazing because, when they get it, they get so excited and love it,” Shannon says. “You can also push them to their next level and then their next level after that. It’s a brilliant part of coaching.”
Shannon feels connected to all the teams she’s coached in Guilford and continues to monitor their progress when they go on to compete for Coach Palmer in high school.
“Kitty is an amazing coach. She is always doing things with the team outside of games in the community. She really is a great leader,” says Shannon. “In my first year of coaching, the kids worked really hard and learned a lot that year. I may have done some drills that might have been over their heads at the time, but they stayed with me and were a great group of girls. It was great to see them grow and I even got to see them play in the state finals when they were juniors.”