Telechea Named U.S. Women’s National Team Assistant Coach

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – USA Field Hockey is pleased to announce that Javier Telechea has been named the full-time U.S. Women’s National Team assistant coach.

“Javi is a massively important appointment to the USWNT and we are fortunate to have him on board as I know he is very much in demand within the hockey world,” said David Passmore, USWNT Head Coach. “He offers many important skills including great on-field coaching and tactical analysis both of which he developed through his time in professional soccer. He is personal guy which is key in forging a relationship with the athletes, especially within a centralized context and is always open in his feedback and voicing his opinions and challenging opinion which is key to me personally as head coach".   

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. After three years and aiding the program to jump from the third to second division, he shifted to coach the Lomas Athletic Club women. A club that is dear to him, as this is where he played all his life, Lomas has the most championships in Argentina’s history. In 2014 and for the first time, they got relegated to the second division, and after being named vice champions they got promoted back to the top division in Buenos Aires. While also coaching the senior women, Telechea was the U-16 and U-18 coach, where he led the U-18 squad to be vice champions and the U-16 team to be champions.

After just one season with Lomas, Telechea started coaching soccer and couldn’t do both jobs full-time, so he decided to leave his position. In 2015-16, he was named the assistant coach of the CA Defensa y Justicia, a club in Argentina’s top soccer league. He helped the club qualify for the South American Cup for the first time in history. A year later he moved on to be an assistant coach at CA Independiente, one of the biggest clubs in Argentina’s soccer system. He led the squad to win the South American Cup in front of a crowd of 80,000 fans at the Marcana Stadium (one of the largest in all America).

While coaching soccer full-time, Telechea still followed his passion of coaching field hockey part-time for the CA Banfield Women’s T1 in the third division and U-18 women’s side.

In 2018, Telechea took his experience abroad and became the assistant coach for the KHC Leuven Men’s T2 in Leuven, Belgium. In their first season, they were named champions and got promoted to the top league but unfortunately the following season was cut short because of the pandemic. He also coached the U-16 girls for three seasons, where in the 2022 they were named champions. Following his success, he was offered a position to become the head of all youth hockey at KHC Leuven. He oversaw more than 1,000 athletes and structured a long-term plan to develop youth within the club and continued to help the growth. When he first started in this role, Leuven youth was ranked ninth in Belgium and 3 years later, when he left, they were ranked third. From 2022-21, Telechea also coached the Women’s T2 in the honor division (highest level) for a season.

During his time in Belgium, Telechea was invited to be the video analyst for the Belgium U-21 Women’s National Team. He did this for a season before being promoted to the second assistant coach. He then shifted to the U-21 men’s side as an assistant coach where he was part of the staff at the FIH Odisha Hockey Men’s Junior World Cup Bhubaneswar 2021 and European Cup, where they earned bronze.

Telechea’s final stint coaching in Europe was from 2020-22 for the Royal Daring Men’s T1 team in Brussels, Belgium. Also playing in the honor division, he was the head coach for two seasons before he decided he wanted to leave Belgium.

He is FIH Level 4 Coach and Argentina National Coach Level 1 and 2 certified.

“I am pleased to be part of the USWNT and the challenge involved in helping this team make it back to the top,” commented Telechea. “I’m also very happy to work together with David, who I met when I was in Europe and built a great relationship since then. There is so much potential in this team that I am sure we can achieve great things together.”

The USWNT Staff consists of head coach Passmore, assistant coaches Telechea and Tracey Fuchs, team manager Krista Page, stand-in manager Nazia Rashid, goalkeeper coaches David Williamson and Jackie Briggs, specialist coach, Pietie Coetzee-Turner, performance analyst Chris Fry, physiotherapist Hannah Jaussen, and high performance director Craig Parnham.

USA Field Hockey would like to recognize the elite support for the USWNT by the United States Performance Center in Charlotte, N.C. who provides strength and conditioning coaches, athletic trainers, nutritionists and sport psychologists, which are all key components for the USWNT’s preparation.

Join USA Field Hockey in welcoming Telechea to his new role!