Megan Errico speaks with Olivia Davis during a break in play at a game at Nottingham on September 18. Lawrence won 3-0.
Megan Errico takes over as Lawrence High School varsity field hockey coach
Joe Cardwell is looking down and smiling.
His daughter, Megan Errico (whose last name changed after getting married this past year), is the new head coach for the Lawrence High field hockey team. She was an assistant coach for the past six years and the JV coach for the past five before taking over the varsity program for Carlee Cimorelli this fall.
“It was just a cool thing for me to do to become a head coach this year,” Errico said. “My mom said, ‘Your dad would be proud.’ He was a huge influence on our work ethic, impressing on us your coach is always right. That’s how I grew up. He was a pretty important influence with sports.”
Joe passed away when Errico was 24, two years after she graduated from Salisbury State University. Errico was a former athlete, playing soccer under her dad’s instruction growing up in addition to playing field hockey and performing gymnastics for Penncrest High School just outside of Philadelphia. She reached Level 10–the highest a gymnast can get–but put aside athletics when she went to Salisbury.
“I just chose not to do sports at the college level,” Errico said. “I was kind of burned out by that time.”
Upon graduation, Lawrence girls lacrosse coach Heather Rainey–Errico’s best friend and classmate since sixth grade—helped get her an interview at Lawrence High, where she landed an English teaching job.
Errico strictly taught for two years. Around the time her dad passed away, Errico was asked by then-coach Candace Mains to help out with the field hockey team.
“I was working with her and she was coaching, and I wanted to get involved somehow,” Errico said. “She just said ‘Why don’t you come out and volunteer with us?’ I thought that sounded great so I volunteered.
“My dad passed away, and that’s something that made me want to get back into sports. I run, I do triathlons and I started all that after he passed away. It’s kind of a way of honoring him.”
When Mains went to another school and Kristin Shields took over the field hockey team, Rainey became an assistant and Errico took over the JV squad. Carlee Cimorelli replaced Shields and Errico was her JV coach and assistant for the last three years before replacing her this year.
“It was cool working with Heather for a while because she’s a role model to me, and I worked with her and got to watch her,” Errico said. “It’s cool for us to be from the same area and bring that to the table together.
“I loved coaching at the JV level, because I’m a teacher so I like being at a level where you teach. But when the opportunity arose it was definitely something I wanted to take on. I’m enjoying it and I love it. I’ve known these girls, some of them, since second grade, so it’s cool to see them at the high school level and for me to be with them at this level.”
Because of her familiarity with the players, her hiring was good news for them.
“She was the one we wanted to get the job,” senior midfielder Jen Dwyer said. “She’s been here so we know her, it’s been an easy transition. And she’s really done well with us this season.
“She’s very outspoken. She really helps us in positioning. She doesn’t yell at us, but it’s more like constructive criticism to make us better.”
It’s all part of Errico’s game plan. She inherited a program that has been down for a while, and understands that patience and positive reinforcement is necessary. It’s something she learned from Cimorelli.
“Carlee and I worked really well together, I learned a lot from her,” Errico said. “She has taught me so much as a coach and being organized and all the paperwork.
“I was sad when she stepped down but I was glad to take her place because it was an easy transition for the girls. We have the same philosophy.”
Which is?
“It’s the whole idea of just being positive about it because we’re always the underdogs,” Errico said. “You just bring what you learned from the field in practice into a game. I’ve started this whole idea of every ball counts and to understand it’s OK that we don’t do this all year round like other schools, because things might not work out like that at Lawrence.
“Carlee and I have always been like ‘You come here every day and work your butt off and we’ll see what we can do.’ So there’s no angry vibes. We even do a ‘Who’s the best player,’ when we lose because that’s important.”
Errico inherited a fairly experienced team that graduated just three seniors but still has a lot of young players.
“We’re working to figure out who can step up as the leaders,” she said. “My goal this year is to give them the fundamentals, so next year they can come out and be a really, really decent team.
“If we can get there this year, great. But if not, we have a lot of freshmen, who I coached in rec since second grade, so that’s exciting. They know me and they know the game very, very well. I’m hoping that plays into the future.”
Whatever happens, Joe Cardwell will be smiling at his daughter’s accomplishments.
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