Grace and Maggie Rarich started playing field hockey together at a young age and haven’t stopped since.
By Julie Kayzerman
Any sibling relationship could succumb to bickering or rivalry, but two local sisters have found a bond in the sport of field hockey that keeps them together—as coaches in the Hopewell Valley Regional School District.
Maggie Rarich can remember when her sister Grace started teaching her how to play the game. Maggie was just in third grade.
“She taught me how to play,” Rarich said. “She taught me a lot, and I guess I was just really fortunate to have her start with me at such a young age.”
Today they have found themselves teaching and coaching in the same school district, with Grace coaching the eighth grade team at Timberlane Middle School, and Maggie serving as assistant coach for the varsity team at Hopewell Valley Central High School.
“It’s really enjoyable,” Maggie Rarich said on teaching in the same district as her sister. “I’m really thankful because she showed me the ropes. She has made me feel a lot more comfortable. Even though we both went to Hopewell, it’s a lot different being on the other end of things as a teacher and a coach. She just helped me get my feet wet, and I’m really lucky for all of the opportunities that it presented to me.”
Before coaching, the sisters both played varsity field hockey at The College of New Jersey, Grace at the back and Maggie in midfield. Even after she saw her sister enroll at TCNJ and play on the team, Maggie never thought she’d end up there, because it was too close to home and she envisioned going away to school.
But she ultimately decided on TCNJ, from which their dad, Rob graduated and where their younger sister Rosie also went to school, some years later. (Mom Grace and sister Heidi did not attend TCNJ.)
“We’re kind of all really familiar with it. It’s kind of like a second home,” Maggie said.
The Rarich sisters are also coaches in a Hopewell Township field hockey program, where they run Winter Sticks and Summer Sticks programs.
The Winter Sticks program allows players to continue participating in the sport indoors, on a turf field, so they can get their practice in year round. Due to the unevenness of the ground, field hockey balls can be especially hard to move on a natural grass surface, Rarich explained, but on turf, it’s a lot easier for players to get touches, move the ball and improve skills for games.
The Rarich sisters are six years apart in age, so they never had the opportunity to play on the same team. Maggie graduated from TCNJ in 2009, and Grace in 2003. But coaching side by side has offered them the opportunity to work together in spreading their love and knowledge of field hockey to the future stars of the game.
“I guess it’s brought us closer together,” Maggie said. “On the field, [one of us will] sometimes see things that the other doesn’t see. We’re kind of like a one-two punch and we’re always working on extending our knowledge of the sport and trying to help more people learn the sport so that field hockey goes all through our town.”
Despite their teamwork as coaches and teachers together, competitiveness always found a way to seep through. Whether they are playing volleyball, table tennis or a board game, the members of the Rarich family like to win.
“Sometimes it gets heated, but we try to promote good sportsmanship and let it go afterward,” Maggie said with a laugh.
Maggie said she followed her sister into teaching, and ultimately coaching, because she saw how much Grace was having in her job. She teaches physical education at the sophomore and senior level, while Grace teaches eighth grade biology.
“Even though I followed in her footsteps a lot of the way,” Rarich said, “I tried to keep my own path too and be different.”
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