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College at Oneonta Athletics
312 Alumni Field House
Oneonta, New York 13820
Ph - (607) 436-3594
Fax - (607) 436-3581
24-hr Hotline - (607) 436-2425

Head Coach - Michele "Shelly" Behrens
Email: BEHRENMM@oneonta.edu

michele behren

Behrens enters her first season at the helm of the Oneonta field hockey program after having spent the last five seasons as the head field hockey coach at Div. I Virginia Commonwealth University.  During her tenure, she led the program to an overall record of 37-57 in five seasons.

In 2003 and 2004 Behrens guided her team to back-to-back 10-win seasons.  The double-digit win total for the Rams had not been seen in over a decade.  The 2004 team went 10-9, which was the first winning season for VCU since 1992.  In 2003, the squad recorded six straight wins - the longest for Rams field hockey since the 1992 season that included an 11-game streak.
The 2003 season culminated with Behrens being selected as the Colonial Athletic Association Coach of the Year honor along with having the first of two consecutive conference Rookie of the Year awards.

Prior to her tenure at VCU, the Elizabethtown, Pa. native spent four years as the head coach at the University of Richmond, from 1997 to 2001.  In her inaugural season with the Spiders, Behrens guided the team to its first-ever victory in the CAA tournament and twice led the team to the semifinals of the league championships.

Prior to becoming the head coach of Richmond, Behrens was a Division I assistant for eight years and participated in the NCAA tournament three times.  She began her collegiate coaching career in 1989 as an assistant at national power Penn State and helped the Nittany Lions to an 18-3-1 record and an NCAA berth that season.  The following year, Penn State compiled a 21-4 overall mark and advanced to the Final Four.

Behrens then joined the staff at CAA-member James Madison University for a two-year stint before becoming an assistant at Northeastern University, where she was part of the 1994 Huskies’ squad that finished 16-5-1 and captured the America East championship.

Behrens has also been heavily involved in USA Field Hockey at both the national and developmental levels over the past decade.  She served as an assistant coach on the U.S. team that won a silver medal at the 1999 Pan American Games and the national squad that competed in the 2000 Olympic Qualifier Tournament in Milton Keynes, England.

A 1988 graduate of Old Dominion University, she received a bachelor’s of science degree in education.  Behrens was a four-year starting goalkeeper for the Monarchs and received first team All-South Region honors during her junior and senior seasons.  She was a member of four ODU teams that reached NCAA tournament play, including the Monarchs’ 1984 national championship squad and the 1985 group that reached the finals of the NCAA Championships, and also competed on the United States’ Under-21 Junior National Team.