Written by ASHLEY HUMPHREY
While Team USA field hockey had a rough run at the Paris Olympics, they ended their time with a 1-0 win against South Africa on Saturday to finish ninth in the competition. Several Tar Heels were on the roster – including UNC alumna Ashley Hoffman.
Hoffman has had Olympic dreams since she was a little girl. Her first stick was only 12 inches long. Her mother, Brenda Hoffman, was a 1984 Olympic bronze medalist alongside former UNC Field hockey coach Karen Shelton. Now, Hoffman continues her mother’s legacy.
“I owe my career to her.” Ashley said of her mom. “She showed me the way forward and was a coach, and is still a coach to this day for me. I am so grateful for her influence on my career. For her to just be that role model for me and show me what is possible has helped me get to where I am today.”
Ashley Hoffman answers questions at the 2024 Paris Olympics. (Photo via Caroline Routh.)
Her father Scott Hoffman described her leadership style as providing a steady presence to everyone on a team.
“When there’s a lot of anxiety on the team and discord, even the staff looks to Ashley,” he said. “She is a calming influence on the girls — that’s just her personality, and one of the things she’s passionate about is staying calm and focused in stressful situations.”
Her leadership does not end when she steps off the field. For the past three years, the Boone family of Charlotte has hosted Hoffman while she trains at the Team USA training center. The family’s daughters, 16-year-old Lindsey Boone and 14-year-old Lillie Boone, are high school field hockey players who see Hoffman as a big sister.
“She just has that natural instinct about her,” Lindsey Boone said, “and she understands how to interact to fit what they need. You can tell on the field how good of a leader she is.”
Hoffman even helped the girls train for their high school’s tryouts right before she left for Paris.
“She talks us through everything,” Lindsey said. “I was playing in my backyard a few days before she left and she said ‘Oh my gosh, I’m joining.’ She dropped her laundry in the yard and grabbed her stick, and I basically had a practice with her.”
Ashley Hoffman plays with UNC during the 2018 NCAA Tournament. Carolina would go on to win, with Hoffman being named NCAA Tournament MVP. (Photo via Carolina Athletics.)
Before being an Olympian, Hoffman was a national champion on UNC’s field hockey team in 2018 coached by Shelton. While at Carolina, she started all 96 games she played and eventually saw her jersey number retired by the program. In the national title-winning season — where UNC went 23-0 — Hoffman won the National and ACC Player of the Year honors and NCAA and ACC Tournament MVP awards, becoming the first field hockey player to ever achieve the feat. Hoffman also earned the Patterson Medal in 2019, which is highest individual achievement awarded at UNC for athletes regarding accomplishments on the field.
“Ashley wanted to go to a team that would win the national championship — and where else to go but UNC,” said Shelton.
On getting to play with her former Tar Heel teammates Meredith Shoulder, Ashley Sessa, and Cassie Sumfest, Hoffman shared that it was fun to play with the friends she had before joining Team USA.
“We grew up together,” she said. “So, if you looked back to where we were when we were freshmen in college – or freshmen and seniors, which was me and [Shoulder] – just to see how much we’ve changed… but [we] still have that friendship that is still growing. It is really an amazing and unique opportunity.”
The Chapel Hill Media Group is partnering with the UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media to publish stories reported by students in Paris, France for the 2024 Olympic Games. Ashley Humphrey is one of 25 student journalists working under the direction of professor Charlie Tuggle, who are publishing their stories through a variety of North Carolina outlets.
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