LAKE MARY, Fla. --- In a year of incredible accomplishments, Enza Steele earned recognition for a lifetime of achievement Thursday night.
The National Field Hockey Coaches Association enshrined University of Lynchburg's legendary field hockey coach into its hall of fame at a reception during the NFHCA Annual Convention.
Surrounded by an entourage of more than a dozen former players, colleagues, and Lynchburg administrators, Steele felt right at home on the stage.
"It was one of the most memorable days of my life," she said. "I don't think you can really put a name or a feeling to it."
Even after her selection was announced this past summer, Steele continued to add to her legacy in the sport.
Lynchburg's team earned Steele her 600th-career victory in the November 3 season finale at Wooster; the Hornets followed with a run to the team's 20th Old Dominion Athletic Conference championship and won a pair of NCAA Division III tournament games to reach the national quarterfinal round.
"It was really neat to see how Coach Steele was regarded, not only by our alumni, but by her peers in the sport," Jon Waters, Lynchburg's director of athletics, said. "The whole experience was special, and we could not be happier for Coach Steele to receive this recognition."
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Steele is the winningest coach in ODAC history in any sport, and her 604 career victories put her fifth in NCAA history.
She arrived at Lynchburg in 1979 and helped a mediocre program quickly morph into a national powerhouse. Under her watch, the Hornets reached an Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women national runner-up finish in 1981, and Lynchburg won the first three ODAC championships, starting in 1982. Since then, the Hornets have reached 18 NCAA Division III tournaments and reached the national quarterfinal round five times.
The key to all of it, she said, was cohesion. And that connection between teammates has been something she's built a career around, working just as hard with her teams off the field as on it.
"Teams don't just have chemistry," she said. "You have to build that chemistry within your teams."
In addition to her coaching success in field hockey, Steele led the Lynchburg women's lacrosse program for 20 seasons to the tune of a 215-137-3 record and five ODAC championships; her combined record makes Steele the winningest coach in the history of ODAC athletics.
Steele also serves as Lynchburg's senior woman administrator and is a member of the university's faculty in the School of Health Sciences and Human Performance.
She graduated with a bachelor's degree from William Paterson University in 1976 and a master's degree from Ithaca College in 1978.
Steele was recognized Thursday evening with former SUNY Cortland coach Cynthia Wetmore and longtime Watertown (Mass.) High School coach Eileen Donahue in the hall of fame's 2020 class.
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--- This release is courtesy of the University of Lynchburg sports information department. ---
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