LYNCHBURG, Va. --- Over the past 44 years, Enza Steele turned University of Lynchburg's field hockey program into a national powerhouse.

Now it is time to pass the baton.

The legendary Hornets coach announced Friday that her 45th season in charge will be her last. Steele will retire from her role as head coach at the end of the 2023 season. Associate head coach Jenni Releford will take the reins of the winningest field hockey program in the Commonwealth of Virginia in January 2024.

"Lynchburg – whether it's Lynchburg College or University of Lynchburg – over the years, this has been my family," Steele said. "I love seeing my players. I love seeing my alumnae. We've had more than just a coach-player relationship. When I recruit, and I say, 'This is a family,' I mean that with all my heart. I've had a great career."

Steele came to Lynchburg in 1979 to be the head coach of both the Hornets' field hockey and women's lacrosse teams, and she quickly turned both programs into winners.

"Life was tough in the beginning, because I was very demanding," said Steele, noting her penchant for making her players perfect the fundamentals. "My players weren't used to having that type of discipline. But then as the season progressed, they started getting used to discipline. They needed to believe that they could achieve, and they needed to believe in themselves."

With discipline and belief came wins. A lot of them. Steele's 860 head-coaching victories across the two sports make her the winningest coach in the history of the Old Dominion Athletic Conference. In just her third season at the helm of the field hockey program, Steele guided the Hornets to a runner-up finish in the 1981 Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women national tournament, and Lynchburg won the first three ODAC field hockey titles when the conference began sponsoring the sport the following season.

Steele helped the Hornets to 26 conference championships – 21 in field hockey and five in lacrosse – over the next four decades. She was voted ODAC coach of the year 13 times in field hockey and four times more in lacrosse, and she mentored a combined 42 All-Americans and five Academic All-Americans between the two sports. Lynchburg has 173 All-ODAC field hockey players in her tenure.

"Coach Steele has had a dynamic impact on the women who have come through her program," Jon Waters, director of athletics at Lynchburg, said. "Her commitment to developing and empowering strong, competitive scholar-athletes stood the test of time as she set the bar for excellence for success both on and off the field."

On the field, the championships speak for themselves. Off the field, though, Steele said the close-knit community at Lynchburg was the key to her longevity. She raised her two children – Jennifer and Larry – on Lynchburg's campus, often with the help of her players for childcare. She had team dinners at her house, attended her players' weddings, and later, met their children. Jennifer is now a microbiologist for Fleet Laboratories, and Larry is an assistant district attorney for Bedford County.

In 2002, Steele hung up her lacrosse whistle to focus on the field hockey program and her role as Lynchburg's senior woman administrator. With her focus tighter on campus, Steele got more involved nationally, serving on multiple NCAA and National Field Hockey Coaches Association committees. Most recently, she has served on the NCAA Division III field hockey committee.

Lynchburg's field hockey program took the next step in 2006, when the Hornets won the first of an unprecedented nine consecutive ODAC championships. In that span, Steele's teams won seven NCAA tournament games and reached the national quarterfinals twice. 

Of course, there are the games that stick out, too. In 1985 or '86 – she can't remember which – Steele was hospitalized with a herniated disc. She checked herself out to coach the women's lacrosse team in the national tournament only to return after the season for surgery. There were field hockey's back-to-back national quarterfinal appearances in 2011 and 2012, both years winning on the road in the NCAA tournament to advance. There was the classic at Randolph-Macon in 2014, when Lynchburg erased a 3-1 deficit in the second half to win in overtime and extend a dozen-year win streak against its ODAC rival. And the ODAC tournament semifinal in the spring of 2021 when Lynchburg found itself down two goals with 12 minutes to play before miraculously tying the game and, again, winning in OT.

"We have 21 championships," Steele said with a glance at the trophy-filled wall in her Turner Gymnasium office. "Each one was probably sweeter than the last."

Releford, a native of Kinross, Scotland, played a large part in the Hornets' latest run of success. She joined the Hornets staff in 2015 after a four-year playing career at Michigan State, where she helped the Spartans reach the NCAA Division I tournament quarterfinals. In her time on staff, Lynchburg has three ODAC titles, a trio of NCAA tournament appearances, and two conference players of the year.

"Jenni has been with me longer than any other assistant coach I've had," Steele said. "She has great knowledge and experience. I think she's ready to take over the program."

This past summer, Releford earned her USA Field Hockey Coaching Level 3 accreditation and guided a team at the USA Field Hockey AAU Junior Olympic Games in North Carolina.

"I am so grateful for this opportunity and to continue to grow the Lynchburg field hockey program," Releford said. "This team has been the standard for field hockey success at the NCAA Division III level, and I am excited to write the next chapter in the program's rich history."

Steele enters her final season with a coaching record of 645-244-11, the second-most among active coaches and fourth-most in the history of the collegiate game. Her Hornets had a winning record in each of the past 23 seasons. A New Jersey native and 1976 graduate of William Paterson University, Steele also earned a master's degree from Ithaca College, where she was an assistant coach before coming to Lynchburg. The National Field Hockey Coaches Association inducted Steele into its hall of fame in 2020.

"I am so thankful that my career in athletics had the opportunity to intersect with Coach Steele's time here," Waters said. "Working with her and learning from her every day has been inspirational. I am excited that she will continue to develop programming to mentor newer coaches and inspire students who are interested in careers in athletics."

And for Steele's part, the future will still be about teaching.

"I would love to continue to be a mentor," the Lynchburg coaching legend said. "I think because of my background in sports psychology, I am able to relate to people who work in all sports. I am excited to keep passing my knowledge along to the next generation."