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Jennings Readies for 2002 Champions Challenge in South Africa
Field hockey coach to act as assistant with U.S. National Women’s Team; Americans still vying for chance to compete at World Cup

January 18, 2002

Head coach Steve Jennings travels to South Africa next month as an assistant with the U.S. Women's National Team.

WASHINGTON -- American University field hockey coach Steve Jennings, also an assistant on the U.S. National Women’s Field Hockey team, will travel to South Africa at the end of this month for the 2002 Champions Challenge from February 9-17. The Challenge is an international tournament featuring six elite teams, including three teams (England, South Korea, and host South Africa) who have already qualified for this year’s World Cup to be held in Perth, Australia at the end of the year.

Officials originally intended that next month’s Champions Challenge would serve as the World Cup qualifying event for the United States, India, Ireland and Lithuania. The U.S. Team had to pull out of the original qualifier last September in France due to security concerns in the wake of September 11, and was to compete against No. 7 finisher India at the Champions Challenge for the chance to qualify. Now, without a chance to qualify at the Challenge, the American National Team as well as No. 7 India must both wait for the FIH decision in March regarding whether they will compete in the upcoming 2002 World Cup.

Meanwhile, along with the U.S. and India, the Lithuanian and Irish squads are also still uncertain about their World Cup future. Lithuania’s apparent defeat of Ireland by second-round penalty strokes at September’s qualifying event is still under discussion after Ireland protested that the second round of strokes began with a technical error. Both teams are appealing to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne, Switzerland for a final decision, and neither squad will compete in South Africa next month.

The six teams participating in the Champions Challenge include the United States, South Africa, South Korea, England, India, and Russia. Russia enters the tournament as the second reserve team after members of the German team could not earn releases from their indoor clubs to attend the tournament.

Jennings was named to the U.S. National coaching staff last September after traveling to Germany with the team in July 2001 as an assistant coach. A Bethesda, Md., native, Jennings first began playing field hockey in an area league while in high school. He was a member of the U.S. Men’s National Team from 1991 to 1999, and participated in 91 international test matches.

Jennings also represented the U.S. in the 1996 Centennial Olympic Games in Atlanta, where he was vice-captain and logged the most playing time on the team. A bronze medalist in the 1995 and 1999 Pan-American Games, he also participated in eight U.S. Olympic Festivals and won three gold and two silver medals. Jennings later moved to Europe to play in the Dutch First Division Field Hockey League as the first U.S. athlete to compete in the highest Dutch division.

After the stint in Europe, Jennings returned to the U.S. and began his coaching career at American University in 1993. He acted as assistant coach for the Eagles until 1996 when he took an assistant coaching position at the Ohio State University. He returned to American in 1999 as head coach and currently holds a 25-25 career record.

In their first season of Patriot League competition in 2001, the Eagles finished with a 7-10 overall record and a 4-4 overall conference record. As the No. 3 seed, the Eagles advanced to the semifinals of the Patriot League Tournament before falling to No. 2 seed Lafaytette.

American University, which is in its inaugural year as a member of the Patriot League, officially joined the conference on July 1. The University, founded in 1893, fields a 19-sport Division I athletics program, featuring 10 women’s sports and nine for men.