Family ties to ODU brought Anders back

In the fall, after her Old Dominion field hockey team completed another successful season by reaching the NCAA semifinals, Beth Anders drove to Pennsylvania to help her 87-year-old father move into a personal care unit at an assisted-living facility.

Memories flooded back as she packed up his things, and those of her deceased mother.

"It was an emotional time," she said.

Visiting her father again at Christmas, Anders wondered how many new memories they would have an opportunity to create.

"I started thinking, 'Geez, I don't get to see him often.' "

At the same time, her brother, Beau, who lives with his family in Georgia, was settling into retirement.

"He was so happy, like a different guy," she said. "We had conversations we never had before."

Personal concerns, combined with the wear and tear of 29 years at ODU, resulted in Anders' decision to abruptly announce her retirement from coaching last Monday.

She said she was tired and that she had a nagging feeling that, at 60, she had "put a lot of things on the back burner." Family things.

"It's been a long time here," she said. "As a coach, I'm 24-7. There's no getting around it. I'm intense. That's probably not a good thing all the time."

But as everyone who has followed the story knows, Anders changed her mind. Within three days of her initial announcement, she and ODU agreed that she would return for a 30th and final season and attempt to win her 10th Division I national title.

"Wow, I had no idea," she said of the outpouring of support from former and current players and people throughout the tight-knit field-hockey community who were alarmed by her decision. The calls and emails "really touched my heart," she said.

ODU officials were caught off guard, too, according to athletics director Wood Selig.

"We were stunned, absolutely shocked by the announcement," he said. "Timing is everything, and the timing didn't feel right to me or to the administration."

Selig and school president John Broderick met with Anders and asked her to give ODU one more year.

"To her credit, she was willing to reconsider," said Selig. "And it was all for the kids."

During Saturday afternoon's men's basketball game at the Ted Constant Convocation Center, Anders and her kids were honored at center court for reaching the Final Four.

Later, in the back of the arena, Anders joked about her stab at retirement.

"I never retired before," she said. "The art of retiring; I really don't know how to do it. This is a better way."

Anders' uncompromising coaching demeanor softens off the field, revealing a deeply sentimental side. But expect nothing to change during her last hurrah, most of all her famously intense approach.

"There would be no danger of that," she said, smiling.

Just as she's never been interested in the trappings of success, Anders has no intention of allowing the final season to become a victory lap for her personal achievement.

"I want to make sure the year isn't about me," she said. "It's about the players."

It's also about the demands Anders places on herself, her team and the school. Her surprise retirement announcement led to idle speculation that she was unhappy about her situation at ODU.

"No issues whatsoever," she said Saturday. "There was never any problem; you just come to a point where you want to put energies into other things."

She thought she had reached that point, but now has gone past it and back to field hockey.

"I love coaching. I'm never going to stop loving it."

Part of her wishes she had the freedom to spend more time with her father, and she's fascinated by the rejuvenating effects retirement is having on her brother.

But, at the same time, she feels a strong tug from another family that isn't ready to let her go.

Bob Molinaro, (757) 446-2373, bob.molinaro@pilotonline.com

Twitter@BobMolinaro