By BRIAN TORTELLA
Correspondent
On X @tortreports
If you would have told Gina Brown fifteen years ago that she’d one day be leading the program she once starred for — and eventually would succeed its longtime coach — she would’ve thought you were crazy.
“I said, ‘I’m never going back there,’ and then as soon as I could make my move to come back, I just did it,” Brown chuckled. “It’s been awesome.”
It’s safe to say Brown had big shoes to fill.
Across 15 years, Genevieve Bieg-Hunter recorded 213 wins leading the Haddon Township field hockey program. She stepped down in 2024, and that opened up the pathway for Brown.
“Genevieve was a big piece in it. She definitely recommended me,” said Brown, a 2011 Haddon Township graduate who scored 17 goals her senior year. “She knew I was one of her old players and she knew I would really love to take over the program one day.”
Now in her second year at the helm, Brown is looking to make her own impact on the program.
“Gina got involved in our middle school field hockey program, and we knew she was passionate about field hockey. It started to grow, and we said ‘wow, she’s a good fit,’” Haddon Township athletic director Tim George said. “Life took over for coach Genevieve, and then it worked out perfectly. The timing was perfect.
“She just coached all these girls in middle school and brought them up. These are all girls that have been in her program for years. It does help a lot. She brought what it was like when she played here, and then she carried on traditions from coach Hunter-Bieg, and now she’s making it her program and it’s awesome.”
Brown, a Washington Township resident, works as a clinical trial risk manager by day and field hockey coach at night. Prior to taking the head job, she was the Hawks’ middle school coach as well as spending time in the winter coaching the South Jersey Edge Field Hockey Club.
“During the season, I flex my hours and do this because this is what I love to do,” said Brown, who earned her B.A. in Pharmaceutical and Healthcare Marketing from St. Joseph’s University in 2015 while playing Division I field hockey. “Then I have a group of girls from seventh grade that are now freshmen and eighth graders that I coached that are now sophomores, so I can’t wait to see them through their whole careers here.”
For the first time since 2022, Haddon Township will play in the South Jersey Group 1 semifinal when the Hawks travel to West Deptford on Monday. Brown earned her first career postseason win in a 6-0 shutout of New Egypt on Tuesday in the opening round of the tournament. In the quarterfinals on Thursday, The Hawks rallied from a 1-0 deficit to defeat Schalick, 2-1.
“She’s really amazing,” senior forward Kenzie Ricci said of her new coach. “She gives us so much enthusiasm. She’s always bringing us up. She knows what she’s doing, she knows where to put people. She works with us and scrimmages with us. She’s very young and has a lot of experience.”
Brown, 32, said she hopes to lead the Hawks for the foreseeable future, and she couldn’t imagine leading any other program.
“It’s like I’m home. I feel very much at home. I walk into the high school and I feel like this is my home, this is where I belong,” she said. “I can’t really imagine coaching anywhere else, and I’m glad this is where I started as a head coach. I hope to be here a long time and help build the program, and work with the youth league as well and make our feeder programs a little better. I think Haddon Township is just the best place ever.”
WHAT’S NEXT: No. 3 Haddon Township travels to No. 2 West Deptford on Monday at 2 p.m. in the South Jersey Group 1 semifinals. The other semifinal features No. 1 Shore Regional hosting No. 4 Gloucester on Monday, with Monday’s winners meeting for the sectional championship on Wednesday.
