UNC field hockey star Erin Matson accomplished pretty much everything on the field during her five-year run with the Tar Heels, but now she’s taking on a different challenge: mirroring those accomplishments off it. Matson was hired as the field hockey program’s head coach in January after the retirement of longtime coach Karen Shelton.
Matson has now been in the role for four months, and she stopped by 97.9 The Hill’s studios last week for the first time since taking the job. She and Aaron Keck discussed her transition into the position, Shelton’s role post-retirement, and what the summer holds for the defending champion Tar Heels.
Check out highlights of the conversation below, which have been lightly edited for clarity, and click here to listen to the full conversation!
Aaron Keck: How in demand are you in right now? How many people want a piece of your time?
Erin Matson: Oh my gosh, everyone. But I also want a piece of everyone’s time too, so I can’t complain. I love communicating and checking in on things and having my hands in a bunch of different places, so I’m glad that’s what I’ve gotta do now.
Aaron Keck: Walk us through the process of the when season ended. Coach Shelton retired, you got the job as head coach. All of that happened pretty quickly. I can imagine it was like a whirlwind for you.
Erin Matson: Yeah, very quickly. The classic winner break of a December grad was not for me. Mine was filled with filling out my application, getting that submitted, writing a cover letter, all of that stuff because the interview process was pretty in-depth. It was a nationwide search and everything. And then you go through the rounds, and the last round I came back here and sat down for a day full of interviews and meetings with everybody and tons of different committees. And then it’s painful waiting around, waiting for the text or call. But luckily it all paid off. The Board of Trustees, [athletic director] Bubba [Cunningham], the athletic department, everyone was so helpful and amazing. And then I accepted the job obviously, and then got to practice the day after. It was bang, bang, bang.
Aaron Keck: How has that transition felt for you?
Erin Matson: Awesome. I love it. I couldn’t be happier. The team’s doing great. They’re playing great. They’re in a good head space. Working hard. The staff’s been awesome. [At] Carolina, there’s just so much support everywhere. I’m in heaven every single day. I really am fortunate.
Aaron Keck: For some of those players, you’re transitioning your relationship from teammate to coach-player. Has that been weird or have you have been able to manage that okay?
Erin Matson: It’s honestly been great. I’ve always taken a lot of pride in transparency and open communication, and that’s been a huge thing from day one with the team, especially with the uniqueness of the situation. They were bought in from the start when I said, ‘Hey, look, I’m gonna be applying. I don’t want you to hear this through the grapevine.’ I had their support.
So the spring’s been great. They know who I am as a leader, how I was as a player on the field as a captain. And I’m not different. They need consistency. So they know what they’re getting and they know the standards. But it’s funny, we always joke because I probably know too much about them and they probably know too much about me, you know? So it works. There’s that level of respect in figuring out those boundaries and everything. They’ve been absolutely amazing and I’m so grateful for them and I’m really excited for everyone to see what they’ve been working on this coming August.
Aaron Keck: It’s gotta be easy to establish rapport too. I think when the news first came down, there was some reaction of, ‘Oh wow, that makes sense, but Erin’s so young.’ But I remember being a 23-year-old TA and being able to connect with students way easier than the 65-year-old [professor]. That’s gotta be an advantage.
Erin Matson: Yeah, totally. And Karen knew us inside and out as well. That’s one of the reasons we were so successful, because she took the time to do that. And that’s something I really learned and I implemented as a captain and a teammate. It’s easier when you were in their shoes literally four or five months ago. I know what’s going through their mind. I know what they’re complaining about, I know what they like, you know? And if I don’t, we put aside a lot of time and energy to make sure we’re having those communication sessions to make sure they’re happy, in a good spot, getting what they need and that the staff is all united so that we can provide that for them.
Aaron Keck: How active has Coach Shelton been in that transition? How often do you get a chance to catch up with her?
Erin Matson: All the time. I lean on her. I probably forever will. I already have a wonderful relationship with her and it makes it easier now and more fun, honestly. It’s been a good time. And we had all of those classic conversations upfront. She doesn’t wanna be the retired coach with the long shadow. The program doesn’t need that. I can’t afford that. We had all of those honest conversations. And I think because we understand each other so well, we really haven’t run into issues.
She’s just been absolutely amazing. So helpful with things. You don’t know what you don’t know. So even things that I don’t even know should be going on or questions that should be asked, she’s like, ‘Oh yeah, keep an eye on this.’ I can shoot her a text and she’ll respond. We go to brunch all the time and catch up on things. I think she’s really enjoying retirement and the grandkids and pickleball and golf, all of it. And she deserves that. But I’m super grateful that she’s still around. This is her baby. She cares so much about the program, so she’s gonna do anything she can to help and make sure that we’re in good hands.
Aaron Keck: What was her number one piece of advice to you that you weren’t expecting?
Erin Matson: She keeps reminding me that I need to take care of myself because she can tell I’m so passionate about it. I’m young. My boyfriend’s in Minor League Baseball, [so] he’s not around. I have 24 hours a day to work if I want to, and I love that. So she’s reminding me, ‘Don’t go too crazy.’ But I don’t know if I’ve been listening to that just yet.
She had so many good tidbits. Even things she told me and all of us as players: dare to be brilliant. You’re strong, beautiful, powerful, all of those things. Seize the moment. It totally pertains to what I’m doing now. And I still hear her voice in my head saying those things when things are going well and when things are going bad. There’s just so many things to pick from. She’s got so much knowledge and experience, and it’s not going to waste because she wants to help and share it.
Aaron Keck: Summertime means recruiting time. I don’t know how much you can share publicly about the recruiting trips, but what’s it like?
Erin Matson: It’s fun. Summer’s very different than fall. There’s something new every day, but summer’s definitely focused around recruiting, planning for the upcoming season, revisiting and tweaking what we need to present to the team in the fall during pre-season. Camp’s huge in the middle of the summer, going and working a couple of clinics, [getting] Carolina in the face of people across the country. [We] use that as recruiting, too. We’ve had a couple recruiting trips already in the spring and late winter, and then we had a couple two weeks ago now. And then July is our huge hub for a ton of recruiting, so I’m looking forward to it. I love it. It’s fun to look out on the field and see who has that natural talent, and then it’s also fun to see what you can do for a kid and what Carolina can do for a kid with what they have and where they can grow and where they could be in four years. It’s a good time and I’m looking forward to the bulk of it.
Aaron Keck: Have you had recruiting conversations with students yet? And if so, what was the first one? The first one’s gotta be the hardest.
Erin Matson: June 15 is a big day for us because we can actually contact the the rising juniors in high school. So that’s coming up. But I guess my true first recruit was actually a grad transfer, because we haven’t had recruiting conversations with the class of 2025 yet. She’s transferring in. It was a couple months ago, and it’s just amazing to be in the position to provide something like Carolina to a kid and say, ‘Hey, we want you badly, we think you can add to this program. We respect tradition, but we have goals for where we wanna go and where we wanna excel and we think you are the perfect person to fit into this formula.’ And if they really are excited and really have looked up to UNC field hockey and Carolina in general, it’s a very special call. You hope all of them go that well. It was great. She’s awesome. I can’t wait for her to get here. The team’s super pumped. The whole staff is. And there’s gonna be things to learn along the way, but you hope they all go that well because it was special and memorable. And one day when she’s done I’ll pull her aside and talk to her about it. But hopefully after a couple of wins.
Aaron Keck: What are the clinics like?
Erin Matson: The clinics are fun. I had a little taste of them with NIL passing, which is great. Looking back, [it’s] one of those things where the stars aligned. That moment added up to teach me things that I can use now. It’s kind of the same feeling of, ‘Wow, these kids look up to these girls and the program and me and Coach Shelton and everyone involved so much.’ And they just come with wide eyes and big smiles and everything, water bottle, sticks, gloves to sign afterward. They’re just so happy to be coached by Tar Heels. It’s amazing for Carolina to be able to provide an experience like that. We really take pride in, ‘Yeah, we’ll get you out on the field hockey field, but let’s do a Q-and-A. Let’s spend time together. Let’s connect with things that aren’t necessarily hockey in this three hour block.’ So they really walk away feeling like it was super beneficial in more ways than one. The clinics are really fun and we can get creative with it. It’s really great at the end to see kids walking away with their parents just super thrilled and happy and excited and loving the sport. And of course it doesn’t hurt to get a Carolina blue shirt on them so they can wear that around and promote the school as well.
Aaron Keck: You mentioned NIL. We’re in a world where conferences are realigning every five minutes. What’s your take on the state of college athletics today? What are your thoughts on where things stand?
Erin Matson: It’s so unique not only for each conference or each school, but also each sport, right? Our dealing with NIL and the conference realignment stuff is so different than football [and] basketball. What’s gonna be huge is what happens to the Olympic sports or the female athletics that aren’t the revenue-generating ones but have to go along with it as they should. So we’ll see. I know it’s a rocky unknown. It’s similar to the whole NIL conversation at the start of it. Everything is changing every single day. I’m glad I’m not in the position to have to make any of those decisions, but it’s really interesting to be a part of. We just hope that everybody wins, that everyone’s taken care of.
But at the same time, we have full trust in the athletic department and Carolina and Chapel Hill. Whatever happens, UNC is going to be well-off and taken care of and we’re gonna still make our mark in the world of college athletics. And the best way that we can do that is to just keep winning. So we’ll try to add to it and control it as much as we can. But [the] main thing, at least with the coaching hat on, is just making sure student-athletes still have their head on straight and understand that the college experience and education comes first rather than all the dollar signs and all of that. But we’ll take time to get that through to all of them.
Aaron Keck: The season’s just around the corner. What’s your message to the fans as you head into season one of the Matson era?
Erin Matson: Come on out, it’s gonna be exciting. There’s fortunately already a lot of hype around it, but I’ll say it again: I really can’t wait for everyone to see the team and how hard they’ve been working and what they can do. They came together a lot this spring and it’s gonna be a fun, exciting game. [A] team game like always. And we’re gonna do some fun marketing stuff, really ramp up social media hopefully, get some cool events out for the fans and keep everyone engaged because that’s what we want. One game at a time, but hopefully we can walk away feeling good about it and with a good amount of wins under our belt.
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