2024 USA Field Hockey Humanitarian Award Winner: Amanda Janney Misselhorn

Misselhorn became the first head coach of the Penn State Harrisburg field hockey team when they transitioned to a varsity program in the fall of 2024, and has made inclusivity a founding principle of her team. In their inaugural season, the Lions picked up nine wins and made an appearance in the United East Tournament semifinals. Six players earned United East All-Conference honors, including first team recognition for Alexis Nasuta, Kylie Rife, and Natalie Rocuskie, and second team for Sadie Cook, Rachel Lane, and Macenzie Mulholland.

In addition to leading her team to a successful first season, Misselhorn has guided her student-athletes to break barriers. Under her tutelage, Penn State Harrisburg's Maggie Kutz became the first known student-athlete with Down Syndrome to play NCAA field hockey. Kutz, a member of Penn State Harrisburg's career studies program, started her first game in 2024 and has helped break down barriers.

The field hockey program hosted Career Studies Day prior to the team's contest against Sweet Briar on September 13 and honored Kutz and her peers from Penn State Harrisburg's career studies program during a special pregame ceremony. Following the 2024 campaign, Kutz was named to the United East Field Hockey All-Sportsmanship Team.

Under the mentorship of Misselhorn, Kutz completed a coaching internship this past fall, spending time each week helping with off-field coaching duties. Kutz will continue working on her coaching as she transitions to the role of student volunteer coach for the Lions this upcoming spring season. Kutz recently traveled with Misselhorn and Penn State Harrisburg field hockey staff to the NFHCA Annual Convention, where she along with PA Revs All Starz coach Lydia Smeltz discussed the NCAA Division III waiver that allows student-athletes like Kutz to be NCAA eligible. The group also encouraged coaches to be intentionally inclusive, with the knowledge that coaches – as good role models – can make a huge impact in their communities if they continue to reach out to athletes with disabilities.

Misselhorn came to Penn State Harrisburg with 14 years of experience coaching at the NCAA Division I level. She served as head coach at Indiana University for four years, following a decade at the helm of Temple University. During her time at Indiana, Misselhorn led her team to the most Big Ten (B1G) victories in single season in program history. In her ten years with Temple, she guided the squad to ten straight postseason appearances and achieved a final national ranking of No. 14 in 2014.

Before her time as a head coach, Misselhorn was an assistant coach at the University of Pennsylvania for two seasons, and an assistant at James Madison University the year prior.

Between her time at Indiana and Penn State Harrisburg, Misselhorn spent time coaching at the high school level. She served as head coach at nearby Warwick High School for a season after two years as head coach of Donegal High School. After moving to Pennsylvania, Misselhorn began coaching for local club team PA United, who was the winner of the USA Field Hockey’s 2024 National Club of the Year Award.

Misselhorn was a four-year student-athlete at Wake Forest University, where she graduated in 1999. She also competed as a member of the U.S. Women’s National Indoor Team.

Education is also a priority for Misselhorn, who is a USA Field Hockey Level 2 certified coach and helps educate the next generation of coaches by being a coach educator. She will be leading an in-person Level 1 Coaching Clinic in Annville, Pa. on March 23. Click here for more info. Misselhorn earned her Health and Physical Education teaching certification from Eastern University in May 2024.

"I'm humbled by this award from USA Field Hockey and I'm so grateful that my husband, Walt, and I can live in central Pennsylvania and be a part of the field hockey community at all levels," said Misselhorn. "Having Maggie on our team has been amazing and she is a great reminder for all of us that hockey is about so much more than wins and losses and more about teamwork, dedication to something greater than yourself and connecting with others from whom we can learn."

"It's been an honor to start a program from the ground up and build a team culture around grit, resilience, integrity and teamwork. We worked hard last year to recruit multi-talented players like Maggie, three transfers and our other talented student-athletes from central Pennsylvania. I'm grateful for the outstanding support staff and administration at Penn State Harrisburg, generous donors, supportive parents, helpful high school coaches and other enthusiastic college coaches who supported our program's first season."

Congratulations once again to Amanda Janney Misselhorn for winning the 2024 Humanitarian Award.