Field Hockey
| Coni Fichera | ||
 |
Title | Head Field Hockey Coach |
| cfichera@bryant.edu | ||
| Phone | 401.232.6975 | |
Head field hockey coach Coni Fichera begins her 10th season as head coach of the Bryant field hockey program in the fall of 2008. The only coach that Bryant has ever had in field hockey, will guide the Bulldogs into its first year of transition into Division I in 2008 and eventually as a full member of the Division I Northeast Conference.
Having directed the field hockey program from its days as a club sport to back-to-back NCAA semifinal appearances, there is no doubt Bryant field hockey is here to stay.
In nine seasons, Fichera has a career record of 86-88 overall at Bryant and 66-49 record in Northeast-10 conference play - including six winning seasons in the NE-10 in the last seven years.
Coaching ten All-America selections in the last seven years, Fichera was named the NFHCA Division II North Region Coach of the Year in 2002 and was a finalist for national coach of the year honors that same year. There were also ten Bulldog players who earned NFHCA Academic honors.
In 2003, Bryant earned its first Northeast-10 player of the year honor in Heidi Chirigotis and placed four players on the NE-10 all-conference squad - including three first-team selections.
The 2003 Bulldogs set school records for most conference wins in a season (13) and most wins in a season with 16 in winning its first outright Northeast-10 Conference regular season conference championship.
During the 2003 season, Bryant was ranked in every NFHCA poll and finished the year ranked No. 4 in the season's final poll and finished No. 1 in the North Region at the completion of the year for the second-straight year.
After a winning season in 2001, the Bulldogs took the conference by storm in 2002 with a share of the conference regular-season title and a trip to the NCAA tournament. Bryant has had two Northeast-10 freshman-of-the-year-award winners over the past five years and has had four winning seasons in conference play in the last five years.
Fichera has also been an assistant director of athletics at Bryant since 1993. Her duties include the responsibility of overseeing the academic support and student-athlete welfare of Bulldog student-athletes.
Before coming to Smithfield Fichera was the holder of the prestigious Asa S. Bushnell internship with the Eastern College Athletic Conference.
An outstanding athlete in her own right, Fichera was a four-year letterwinner in field hockey and a two-year letterwinner in lacrosse at Plymouth State. A standout goalkeeper, she captained the field hockey team as a senior and was named Plymouth State's 1992 female athlete of the year.
Among the highlights of Fichera's playing career is a 37-save performance in a 1-0 loss to top-ranked Williams in the semi-finals of the 1990 ECAC tournament. She ended the season having allowed only 11 goals with a record of 12-3-1.
A dean's list student as an undergrad, Fichera graduated cum laude from Plymouth State in 1992 with a bachelor's degree in physical education. She also is a graduate of Pinkerton Academy and was inducted into that institution's Hall of Fame in 1993.
Fichera has served as the chair of the NCAA Division II Field Hockey Committee, the North Region advisory committee and the ECAC Division II field hockey and softball championship committees. She still stands as a member of the ECAC Division II scholar-athlete of the year selection committee and also is the Division II representitive to the NFHCA Executive Committee.s
Additionally, Fichera was Bryant's first head coach of women's lacrosse team, and brought that program to the Northeast-10 championship game in just its second varsity season.
