Justine Sowry (born 3 October 1970 in

Whyalla, South Australia Whyalla is a city in South Australia. It was founded as Hummock's Hill, and was known by that name until 1916. It is the fourth most populous city in the Australian state of South Australia after Adelaide, Mount Gambier, and Gawler, and along ...

) is an Australian former

field hockey Field hockey (or simply referred to as hockey in some countries where ice hockey is not popular) is a team sport structured in standard hockey format, in which each team plays with 11 players in total, made up of 10 field players and a goalk ...

goalkeeper and current Head Coach of

University of Louisville The University of Louisville (UofL) is a public university, public research university in Louisville, Kentucky, United States. It is part of the Kentucky state university system. Chartered in 1798 as the Jefferson Seminary, it became in the 19t ...

Women's Field Hockey, the Cardinals, which competes in the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) in the United States. She was a member of

Australia women's national field hockey team The Australia women's national field hockey team (nicknamed the Hockeyroos) are, as of August 2023, ranked second in the world. Having played their first game in 1914, and their first Olympic game in 1984 Summer Olympics, 1984, they are one of A ...

from 1991 - 2001 which is best known as th
Hockeyroos
which won the World Cup in 1994 and 1998. She was capped 128 times during her international career. She was a member of the Hockeyroos Olympic Squad for the Atlanta (1996) and Sydney Olympics (2000).

Coaching career

Sowry earned a bachelor's degree in Physical Education and Mathematics from the

University of South Australia The University of South Australia is a public research university based in Adelaide, South Australia. Established in 1991, it is the successor of the former South Australian Institute of Technology. Its main campuses along North Terrace are ...

, the program influenced by esteemed coach and teacher educator
Alan Launder
and

Wendy Piltz Wendy Piltz (born 24 August 1956) is a former Australian cricketer who played as a right-arm medium bowler. She appeared in one Test match and three One Day Internationals (ODIs) for Australia in 1984, all against India. She played domestic ...

. Sowry began her US coaching career at the University of Louisville, where she spent five years (1998-2002) as an assistant coach to Pam Bustin. Sowry served as a USA High Performance Coach with the U.S. Field Hockey Association (USFHA) from 2003 to 2007 and was the director of all goalkeeping programs. Sowry spent a year as an assistant coach for the Stanford University field hockey program in 2003, and went on to become assistant coach of the United States Junior National Team in 2005 and the Senior National team in 2006. In 2007 Sowry was appointed Head Coach of

UMass The University of Massachusetts is the public university system of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The university system includes six campuses (Amherst, Boston, Dartmouth, Lowell, a medical school in Worcester and a law school in Dartmouth ...

field hockey and led the program to national prominence over four seasons in the role. Sowry had a 58-31 (.652) overall record in those four seasons, including a 22-4 (.846) mark in Atlantic 10 play, and was named A-10 Coach of the Year three of those four seasons (2007, 2008, 2010), and Dita/NFHCA Northeast Region Coach of the Year twice (2008, 2010). In 2011 Sowry returned to the University of Louisville Cardinals' now as Head Coach and is currently in her third season at the helm of the women's field hockey team. In 2012 Cardinals posted a 12-8 overall record and made their eighth straight appearance in the BIG EAST semifinals. Three players earned all-conference honours while Amber Thomas was selected to the NFHCA All-Region team. Louisville has made it to the NCAA Tournament eight times in Sowry's tenure, advancing as far as the national semifinals in 2020.

Coaching achievements

* 2011 Dita/NFHCA Division I Northeast Region Coach of the Year * 2011 Atlantic 10 Coach of the Year * 2010 Dita/NFHCA Northeast Region Coach of the Year * 2010 Atlantic 10 Coach of the Year * 2008 Dita/NFHCA Northeast Region Coach of the Year * 2008 Atlantic 10 Coach of the Year * 2007 WomensFieldHockey.com Coach of the Year * 2007 Atlantic 10 Coach of the Year

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sowry, Justine 1970 births Living people Australian female field hockey players Female field hockey goalkeepers Sportswomen from South Australia Field hockey players from Adelaide Commonwealth Games gold medallists for Australia Commonwealth Games field hockey players for Australia Commonwealth Games gold medallists in field hockey Field hockey players at the 1998 Commonwealth Games People from Whyalla Australian expatriate sportspeople in the United States Louisville Cardinals field hockey coaches University of South Australia alumni Australian field hockey coaches UMass Minutewomen field hockey coaches Medallists at the 1998 Commonwealth Games