Do you ever wonder how Olympians become the amazing players they are? Well, that thought popped up in my mind, so I decided, “Hey, why not ask my coach?” My field hockey coach, Mark Vittese, is the father of star field hockey player and Olympic National Team member, Michelle Vittese. His other two daughters, Carissa and Tara Vittese are also elite-level players. Carissa earned a full-ride scholarship to D1 college, UVA for field hockey and is now the assistant field hockey coach at Temple University. His youngest daughter, Tara Vittese (who is now in her sophomore year of college), is currently named best field hockey player of the year in the nation. Mr. Mark Vittese coached all of his star-athlete daughters at Camden Catholic High School, so I decided to ask him some questions at our field hockey practice about how he trained his daughters so well to get them to where they are today.

Me: How did you learn to train your daughters so well?

Mark V.: Trial and error.

Me: When did you recognize your daughter, Michelle’s, field hockey talent?

Mark V.: When she was a senior in high school, I started really watching the woman’s Olympic team play and saw that Michelle could play for them.

Me: When did you realize that you wanted to become a field hockey coach?

Mark V.: When I watched the Camden Catholic field hockey coaches coach.

Me: What is your background with field hockey?

Mark V.: Nothing. I never even saw the game played until my oldest daughter started playing for the first time in 5th grade.

Me: What is your favorite thing about Spirit of USA Field Hockey–besides me?

Mark V.: Wow, that’s a hard one now that you cut yourself out of there. But I really like the interaction with/between the kids.

Me: Describe the feeling of having your daughter play on the Olympic team?

Mark V.: Mixed emotions of proud about how she’s there and mad about how she plays sometimes.

After my interview with Coach Mark, I went online and watched some of his daughter, Michelle’s, field hockey games. I watched intently at how some of the moves and shots that she made which she learned from Coach Mark.

As you can see, Olympians have a very interesting background on how they got as good as they are today. Next time you turn on the field hockey Olympics in the summer, look for Michelle Vittese and if she shoots a drag-flick into the left corner of the cage, you’ll know where she learned that from!