Meharg signed a contract extension with the Terps through the 2028 season.
On Oct. 11th, legendary Maryland field hockey coach Missy Meharg achieved yet another milestone. A 3-1 victory for the Terps at Michigan State was her 650th career win, sparking celebrations across the program.
Already the winningest active coach in Division I field hockey, Meharg was just 50 wins away from 700, a number only two coaches have ever reached. On Jan. 2, Maryland athletics director Damon Evans announced a contract extension with Meharg, keeping her at the helm through the 2028 season.
“I’m not really familiar with doing the 50s. I was thinking maybe we’d wait until 700 [wins to celebrate],” Meharg said wryly. “As a young coach, you hit 50, you hit 100, they don’t really [celebrate] 150, but you hit 200, you hit 300, you hit 400 … [650] is not something I think about.”
Meharg is some time removed from being that young coach — she took the reins at Maryland at 24 years old in 1988. The Terps have reached the NCAA Tournament in 35 of Meharg’s 37 full seasons, which include 12 NCAA championship game appearances and seven national titles.
Meharg said becoming a grandmother last offseason was her greatest achievement, though. Given her contract was set to expire in just two years, the light at the end of her coaching career seemed to be shining brighter, and it was just about a decade ago she nearly gave up the job to pursue real estate.
But regardless of the abundance of accolades and memories behind her, this most recent extension is an assurance that Meharg’s story is not yet finished.
Meharg’s road to prominence
The program’s first coach, Sue Tyler, appointed Meharg as an assistant in 1985. After Tyler’s departure following the Terps’ first-ever title in 1987, Meharg was promoted. From there, neither Tyler, Meharg nor anybody in the program could have foreseen what would transpire.
When Meharg took over at Maryland 37 years ago, success was far from guaranteed. Maryland had largely hovered just above .500 since its inception in 1974 and finished with a losing record in 1986, the year before the NCAA championship came to College Park.
At first, that title appeared to be more of an exception than the expectation. Meharg’s team recorded just 11 wins in each of her first three years in charge and did not progress past the first round of the NCAA Tournament. But with time, the Terps grew.
In 1992, despite losing in the NCAA Tournament’s second round, Maryland won its first conference championship. A year later, Meharg guided Maryland to a double-overtime victory over North Carolina to secure her first national title as head coach. She picked up another two by 2005, along with five more conference championships.
Alongside her tactical development as a coach, Meharg was tasked with building a program culture. She is known throughout the college landscape as someone willing to develop her athletes on and off the field.
“When people come down here, I think what they love the most is the family environment,” Meharg said. “We have big camaraderie and trust, and the parents feel that. And I do believe that most parents think that I care more about their children as people than athletes.”
After the Terps’ 2005 title run, a transformation occurred. Meharg followed it up with a streak of five titles in seven years from 2005 to 2011, solidifying Maryland as a national powerhouse.
Maryland was far from Meharg’s only opportunity. While the Terps were her first suitors, programs like Iowa, Princeton and UMass tried to pry her away over the years. But Meharg remained loyal.
“I was made for Maryland,” Meharg said. “We’re just built around loving the game — really loving the game of hockey, in the country and all over the world, in a way that is just contagious.”
Nearly sold on real estate
About 10 years ago, Meharg was ready for a change. Maryland left the ACC for the Big Ten prior to the 2014 season, in which the Terps posted the best regular season record in the conference, but came up short against Northwestern in the Big Ten Tournament championship game.
The turmoil left Meharg pondering her future. Meharg — who had built her own houses previously — obtained a real estate license and was ready to move on.
“I decided I could make more money and sell anything to anybody. I love homes, and I love flowers, and I love landscape. I thought that’d be fun,” Meharg admitted. “[And] there’s always been a piece of me that said, ‘Should I not be coaching? Maybe I’ll help out with coaching coaches at Maryland.’”
And yet, the more she thought about it, the more she knew she couldn’t step away.
“I love coaching. And I’m still very effective,” Meharg said. “I’ll know when I’m not effective.”
The following year, Meharg and her women won the conference regular season title once again. Maryland faced Northwestern in the Big Ten Tournament semifinals and won a dramatic game, 2-1, in double overtime before romping to a 5-1 victory over Michigan for the program’s first conference tournament championship in the Big Ten.
No signs of stopping
The 2024 season was a frustrating one for Meharg and the Terps. They went 13-7, losing in the Big Ten Tournament semifinals and their first game of the NCAA Tournament, their worst performance in the national tournament since 2015. And aside from the pandemic-warped 2020 season, 13-7 was Maryland’s worst finish in 30 years.
Defining 2024 by that record is unfair to the Terps, though. Maryland never trailed by more than a goal, a feat matched only by Northwestern, which stormed to the national championship. Two-thirds of Maryland’s matchups came against ranked opponents, and every loss came against teams ranked No. 13 or higher nationally.
Just one player on Maryland’s 2024 roster has won a trophy as a Terp: Emma DeBerdine, who was a freshman starter on the 2019 team. DeBerdine used her final graduate season of eligibility with Maryland in 2024, having taken 2023 off to prepare to play in the Paris Olympics. But her experience could not guide Maryland’s young attacking core to success in a season where most top teams had lineups chock-full of veteran players.
Meharg ended 2024 with 655 wins, good for third on the all-time list. Nancy Stevens is second with exactly 700 wins accrued at Franklin & Marshall College, Northwestern and UConn. Karen Shelton, North Carolina’s longtime coach, is the all-time leader with 745.
Meharg coached against the two women for three decades. Shelton and Meharg split six NCAA championship matchups across a quarter century and Stevens won her first and only against Meharg in 2017. Today, Meharg is the only one left on the sidelines; now, she will stay put even longer.
“If I’m still doing the job in a way that’s facilitated winning, being in a position to win championships, both Big Ten and NCAA, and players are able to learn how to be in a position to play for their country,” Meharg said. “I’m going to stay in it and maybe extend that contract if it’s afforded to me. Why would I leave?”
The extension was signed at the turn of the year, with Meharg committing herself to the program for four more seasons. She is in line to finish the 2028 season with 725 wins — not that she is particularly concerned with unrounded numbers, though.
Ahead of Meharg lies a challenge both similar and wildly different to those that have come before. Once again, the Terps have a promising young nucleus for Meharg to develop, with two freshmen playing pivotal roles in 2024 and six of Maryland’s incoming freshman class being named National Field Hockey Coaches Association High School All-Americans.
But recent shifts in the collegiate sports landscape have touched field hockey as well. Meharg now has to consider the transfer portal, with Maryland’s draw giving her a chance to bring in experienced players to help win.
No matter the circumstances, though, there are few coaches in any sport, let alone field hockey, that would be more trusted to make those special moments happen again than Meharg.
“One of my superpowers is just being present,” Meharg said. “And I don’t really set goals. I am fortunate enough to always be in position to win because I’m given a lot and tremendously respected and supported at Maryland in every way. So I just stay right in the moment.”