Michele Madison and Chris Spice
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Jan. 6, 2007
In 1994 the American national women’s field hockey team traveled to Dublin, Ireland to compete in the FIH World Cup. The US was looking to improve on a 12th place finish from four years ago, but some formidable opponents stood in the way. US assistant coach Michele Madison, however, was confident that the Americans would rise to the challenge and become a major player on the international scene.
One of the countries that was already a major player internationally was world number one Australia. The Hockeyroos were coming off a gold medal finish in the 1993 Champions Trophy and were the favorites to claim what would be their first World Cup title in history. Assistant coach Chris Spice had watched the Dutch win their fifth world title four years earlier in Sydney over the host Aussies, and he and the rest of the Hockeyroos were looking to grab the gold this time around.
As fate would have it, the Americans and the Australians did not meet in the 1994 World Cup-but Madison and Spice did, starting a friendship that has lasted now a dozen years and endured over three continents, numerous international competitions and filled with laughter and a love of life.
At the 1994 World Cup the Hockeyroos defeated Argentina to win the gold medal, while the Americans won the bronze, their first medal in World Cup history. The two teams made history, and Madison and Spice celebrated their respective successes.
Two years after the Aussies won their first world title, the two met up again in Atlanta at the 1996 Olympic Games. The Americans shocked the world with a 3-2 victory over then world number three Korea, the team the Aussies defeated 3-1 to win the gold medal and notch their 40th consecutive contest on the international scene without a loss.
“It has been our dream to be able to work together,” said Spice, who helped the Aussies forge a five-year reign as the number one team in the world. “We talked all the time about it, but we just never had the opportunity arise.”
The two coaches did work together two years after the Olympics at the 1998 World Cup in Utrecht. Spice, who had left the Australian staff in 1997 after helping the Hockeyroos to their fifth consecutive major tournament gold medal at the Champions’ Trophy, had been named the Performance Director for England Hockey. In his new role, Spice oversaw all aspects of the men’s and women’s programmes. He immediately called on his dear friend Madison to assist him, giving her responsibility in assisting with the video analysis for the women’s team.
Over the next couple of years, these giants in the hockey world maintained their friendship while helping their respective programs achieve unprecedented success. Spice moved on to serve as the Performance Director of the English Rugby Union, where he helped England win the World Cup in 2003. Madison led the Spartans of Michigan State to the 2002 NCAA semifinals and in 2004 coached MSU to the number-one ranking in the nation, the first time the Green and White had reached the top of the poll.
The two friends stayed in close contact, still looking for that elusive opportunity to collaborate on the sidelines. In January of 2006, Madison accepted the head coaching position at the University of Virginia. Coincidentally, Spice was taking a sabbatical from the ERU-freeing him up to help these two longtime friends work together on the sidelines.
Spice joined Madison at summer camp, and then in August began working full time with the Virginia field hockey team. Within the first month, the Cavaliers won their first ACC game in five years.
“The opportunity to work with a technical genius and one of the funniest people on this planet, is more than a dream come true, if that is possible,” said Madison of her working relationship with Spice, a combination that quickly took the American collegiate field hockey world by storm as the Cavaliers served notice that they were to be players in the game.
By October the Cavaliers were a fixture in the top-ten, and in November Virginia advanced to the NCAA quarterfinals for the first time since 2001. Along the way the Hoos defeated three conference champions, three top-10 teams, and ranked nationally in both scoring offense and scoring defense.
The field hockey world noticed, and Madison was named the National Coach of the Year by womensfieldhockey.com.
“Great teams make great coaches,” said Madison. “Great staffs make coaches of the year.”
Great staffs are forged by longtime friendships between people who love hockey, but more importantly love life and sharing it.