Gavin Featherstone, a former Olympian and World Cup Coach for both the United States and South Africa, was named an assistant coach on Donna Hornibrook's staff in June 2012.
“I am very pleased with the addition of Gavin Featherstone to our coaching staff,” said Hornibrook. “He is a world class coach with an outstanding pedigree and an impressive track record of success everywhere he has been. I fully anticipate that he will make a tremendous impact on the Cornell field hockey program.”
Featherstone helped the Big Red to a 10-7 record overall in 2013 and mark of 4-3 in the Ivy League, good for third place in the conference standings. The team scored 100 points in a season for just the sixth time in program history with its 111 total team points ranking third in school history for single-season performance. The Big Red also registered 39 goals, a mark that was also good for third overall in program history for single-season goals. Following the season, Carolyn Horner ’13 and Marisa Siergiej ’15 were named first-team All-Ivy, while Hannah Balleza ’13 and Katy Weeks ’16 were second-team selections. Siergiej went on to be named a Mideast Region All-American second-team selection.
In his first season, Featherstone helped the Big Red rebound after a tough 2011 season, as the 2012 squad went 8-9 overall and 3-4 in the Ivy League, good for fourth in the conference standings. Of the nine losses, six came by a single goal, with three being decided in overtime. Following the season, Balleza and Horner ’13 were each named first-team All-Ivy, as well as Mideast Region All-American second-team selections. Joining Balleza and Horner on the All-Ivy teams were Siergiej (second-team) and honorable mention selections Genna Collins ’13 and Ann DiPastina ’14.
Featherstone came to East Hill from England’s Durham University, his alma mater, where he has achieved great success as the head coach of both the women’s and men’s field hockey teams. In six years at the helm, his women’s team has won three National Club League titles in four trips to the finals. His men’s team has also become highly competitive.
Prior to his return to Durham in 2004, Featherstone was the last Durham student to play for the England national team, some 30 years ago, but currently there are five players from his squads who are participating in either the England or Scotland Under-21 programs.
A coach with a wide-range of experiences, Featherstone has 324 international matches to his credit as a former Olympic coach for both the United States (1984) and South Africa (1996). At the 1984 games, he was the youngest coach to ever take a field hockey team to the Olympics. He also led the USA in the Pan-American games, while heading up South Africa in the World Cup and All-African games. Featherstone has also served as the head coach for England’s men’s and women’s U21 World Cup teams.
An outstanding tactician, Featherstone has produced 20 DVDs endorsed by the International Hockey Federation (FIH), which have been distributed worldwide to more than 25 countries to teach strategies and principles of field hockey. He has also been selected in the past to lead several world seminars by the FIH in the use of video breakdown and film study by athletes to improve performance on the pitch.
As a player, Featherstone competed for Durham University, where he captained the first field hockey club in school history, eventually becoming President of the Durham University Athletic Union, and played hockey for the British Universities Team. Featherstone then went on to play in England’s national program, where he was team captain at all levels and played in both the World and European Cups.
He received a Bachelors of Arts degree from Durham in 1975 before earning a Postgraduate Certificate of Education from Oxford University in 1976.
* Updated January 2014
