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LANCASTER, PA – Franklin & Marshall Director of Athletics & Recreation Tim Downes has announced the appointment of Cornell University assistant coach Beth Walkenbach as the College’s 11th head field hockey coach. She succeeds Missy Reiss, who resigned in January following her seventh year as the Diplomats’ head coach. “The Committee and all of those who met with Beth were so impressed by her ability to genuinely relate to people,” noted Downes. “She is a knowledgeable coach and an engaging leader and with her prior experience at Cornell University. I am expecting a very smooth transition for her into the Franklin & Marshall community.” A four-year member and two-year letterwinner at back for Cornell, she tallied a goal and an assist during her career in 38 games. In 2003, she returned to her alma mater to serve as the interim assistant coach under interim head coach Phil Sykes before moving up to a fulltime assistant in 2004. She also served as the team’s recruiting and travel director and helped out with all aspects of practice and game preparation. This season, she coached the Big Red to school season records in wins (10) and goals (44) as the Big Red led the Ivy League in goals, assists (35), points (123), shooting percentage (.231) and shots on goal percentage (.716). Cornell finished the year with a 10-7 record and ranked fourth overall in the Ivy League with a 4-3 conference mark. A coach in the U.S. Field Hockey Futures program, identifying elite players between the ages of 15 and 18 that could potentially play for the national team, Walkenbach served as an assistant coach at Cumberland (NY) High School during the fall of 2000, heading up the junior varsity program and teaching skills to the varsity squad. She spent the 2002-03 academic year as a sixth grade language arts teacher at Sweetwater Middle School in Lawrenceville, Georgia. In addition to her coaching duties in 2003, she was a French teacher at Lansing (NY) High School. She is currently pursuing her master’s degree in education at SUNY-Cortland. A 2000 Cornell graduate, she earned a degree in English literature and was a member of the University’s Red Key Athletic Honor Society. In addition, she attended Universite de Paris VII in France in the spring of 1999. She takes over a program which finished 12-7 in 2005 with a #19 national ranking and a berth in the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) playoffs as the Diplomats have finished 28-12 the last two seasons with an appearance in the 2004 Centennial Conference championship game. Beth and her husband, Bill Walkenbach, the head baseball coach at Franklin & Marshall College, reside in Mountville.
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