2024 High Performance Summit Speakers
Chris Fry, USWNT Performance Analyst
Topic: Preparing to Perform
Fry will provide an overview of the key analytical processes and tools used in the preparation of the team in the build up to, and successful completion of the Olympic Qualifying tournament in Ranchi, India.
Fry worked for the USWNT from 2017 to 2019, providing video analysis for games and tournaments around the world including the 2017 FIH Hockey World League Semifinals in South Africa, 2017 FIH Hockey World League Final in New Zealand, 2018 World Cup in England and 2019 FIH Hockey Pro League. In 2019 he joined the University of North Carolina staff as the team's performance analyst. In 2022, Fry resumed his role with the USWNT Staff.
Grant Fulton, USA Field Hockey’s Director of Junior High Performance
Topic: Junior High Performance Update
Fulton will provide an update on the goals and upcoming schedule for Junior High Performance.
A native of South Africa, Fulton represented his home country at the Atlanta 1996 Olympic Games and appeared in a total of 60 international matches with South Africa's Men’s National Team. He spent two years coaching in South Africa, where he served as an assistant for both the men’s and women’s national teams.
Fulton was the University of North Carolina’s assistant coach from 2005 to 2010 and associate head coach from 2010 to 2023. As one of the nation’s top collegiate programs, he was instrumental in the Tar Heels’ success. In 2009, he founded the club Carolina All Stars to develop youth elite players through high performance training. He was appointed to his current role with USA Field Hockey in 2023.
Maddie Hinch, USWNT Goalkeeper Coach
Topic: World Class Goalkeeper Development
Hinch will lead this session on her experience of different modern goalkeeping technical approaches and practice design.
A world-renown goalkeeper, Hinch is a decorated athlete who made her debut for Great Britain in 2008. She went on to represent England and Great Britain in 186 combined international caps. She is a two-time Olympic medalist, leading her teams to gold at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games and bronze at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. She earned FIH Goalkeeper of the Year awards in 2016, 2017 and 2018, and was named Officer of the Order of the British Empire by the King of England in 2023. After a 13-year career, Hinch retired in 2023.
In 2017, Hinch founded MH1 Coaching which specialized and focused on goalkeeping specific training. After its inception, it rapidly grew and is now considered the United Kingdom’s most successful goalkeeper coaching company running camps, clinics and coach education worldwide. Hinch spent this past season as the assistant coach at the University of Connecticut before joining the USWNT staff in March 2024.
Hannah Jaussen, USWNT Physiotherapist
Topic: Physical Development for Elite FH Performance
Joined by David Passmore, Jaussen will provide a detailed overview of the key stages of physical develop the team have been through in building their fitness levels. A lens will be shone on the use of GPS in training environments and how key markers of development are monitored and met.
Hannah Jaussen works for the United States Performance Center as the Head Athletic Trainer for the USWNT. She is primarily responsible for athlete management, GPS monitoring and team periodization.
Prior to joining the staff at USPC, Jaussen served as the Head Athletic Trainer for the Navy men's basketball and squash teams. She also was a Co-Investigator for the CARE Consortium Concussion Research at USNA. She joined the Navy athletic department after working at Virginia Commonwealth University and Saint Francis University.
Hannah earned her B.S. in Athletic Training from Clarion University of Pennsylvania. She then graduated from Utah State University with a M.S. in Health and Human Movement with an emphasis in Sports Medicine.
Allan Law, U-21 USWNT Head Coach
Topic: On Field Attack Principles
Law will provide hands on training for on field attack principles and methods.
Law became involved with the USA system in 2014 and became assistant coach of the U-21 USWNT program in 2021. In 2023, he was appointed to head coach after helping lead the team to a bronze medal at the 2021 Junior Pan American Championship and gold in 2023.
From 2013 to 2021, Law was the assistant coach at Syracuse University. He helped to lead the Orange to their only NCAA National Championship in 2015. Currently the National Coaching Director of 3STEP Sports, he is a certified USA Field Hockey Level 3, FIH Level 2 and United Kingdom Level 2 coach. He had a ten-year playing career for both the indoor and outdoor squads of the Scotland Men’s National Team. A seasoned field hockey coach with more than 20 years of high performance experience, he excels in player development, program creation and possessing comprehensive insight into the Olympic pathway.
Craig Parnham, USA Field Hockey’s High Performance Director
Facilitator
Parnham will be the facilitator for this event, including providing commentary on the USWNT group trainings in real time.
Parnham represented Great Britain as an athlete in both the Sydney 2000 and Athens 2004 Olympic Games, then went on to coach Great Britain in the Beijing 2008 and London 2012 Olympic Games. In January 2013, he was appointed head coach of the USWNT. He guided the team to their best FIH World Ranking (5th) and propelled the squad to a fifth-place finish at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.
In January 2017, Parnham transitioned to the role of Director of Coach Education and Learning. After spending 6 years in that role, he moved to the position of High Performance Director in October 2023. He has coached professionally for more than 23 years and is a qualified Level 4 Coach. He holds a post-graduate diploma in Elite Coaching Practice.
David Passmore, USWNT Head Coach
Topic: Culture is King
Passmore will provide an overview of how the USWNT culture provided such a key basis for Olympic Qualification and how that culture is being developed for Paris 2024.
Topic: Accelerating the Game
Passmore will share this key area of development to allow the team to create more attacking flow and penetration.
With more than 20 years of coaching international field hockey under his belt, Passmore has worked with men, women and junior teams as well as regional and club programs. He joined the USA staff after serving as the assistant coach for Ireland’s Women’s National Team and Ireland’s National Development and U-21 Head Coach. He combined his field hockey coaching roles with being an Assistant Professor in Sports Science at Dublin City University, where he specialized in coaching science and talent development.
Prior to that, Passmore was the assistant coach for Great Britain and England from 1999 to 2005. In that time, he was the assistant coach at the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games, where the team finished eighth. In 2001, he was the assistant coach for the England’s Men’s Team that claimed fifth at the Champions Trophy. He was at the helm of the Ireland’s Men’s National Team from 2004 to 2009, where he increased their world ranking from 25 to 18, a role he performed simultaneously with that of Performance Director.
Passmore was named head coach of the USWNT in 2022, leading his team to qualify for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games at the FIH Olympic Qualifier in January 2024.
Sean Rapaport, USA Field Hockey's Director of Umpiring
Topic: Umpiring Mastery: Expertise on Aerials, Playing the Ball over the Endline, Going to Ground, Penalty Corners, and Video Referrals
Rapaport will navigate some of the intricacies of the game, considering helpful video clips as we go.
Rapaport has more than 20 years of umpiring experience and knowledge, including having represented South Africa internationally at the highest levels of the game while remaining actively involved in the sport locally as an umpire, umpire manager, coach, and disciplinary chairman. He currently sits on the FIH World Cup and Pro League Panels for outdoor umpires, earned the prestigious golden whistle in October 2023, and was appointed to the upcoming Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
Rapaport joined the USA Field Hockey staff as the Director of Umpiring in August 2022.
Javi Telechea, USWNT Assistant Coach
Topic: On Field Defense Tactics and Execution
This session will focus on coaching defensive units and defensive tactics. This session will provide hands on training and discussion of tactics that led to the team not giving up a goal for four games in the Olympic Qualifier.
Topic: Negating opposition attack with effective defensive structures; The story of Olympic Qualification
Telechea will provide a detailed overview of the process he takes in deciphering how the team will defend and presenting those defensive tactics to the team taking with the critical ingredients from the Olympic Qualifier.
Telechea got his start coaching at the elite level in 2011 with a senior women’s team for the Monte Grande RC T1 when he was just 23 years old. In 2018, he took his experience abroad and became the assistant coach for the KHC Leuven Men’s T2 in Leuven, Belgium. During his time in Belgium, he was invited to be the video analyst for the Belgium U-21 Women’s National Team, then was promoted to second assistant coach. He then shifted to assistant coach for the U-21 men. Telechea’s final stint coaching in Europe was from 2020-22 for the Royal Daring Men’s T1 team in Brussels, Belgium.
Telechea is an FIH Level 4 Coach and Argentina National Coach Level 1 and 2 certified. He joined the USWNT staff as an assistant coach in August 2023.