“It’s a full circle moment. This place means so much to me. This program means so much to me,” says Sarah Shute (SHA’08, Wheelock’17), who was appointed head coach of BU’s varsity field hockey team last February. As an undergrad, Shute became one of BU field hockey’s most accomplished players.

Sports

Field Hockey’s New Coach Wants Her Players to Take It All In

Former Terrier standout and longtime assistant coach Sarah Shute is now helming the program

Sarah Shute found field hockey by chance. 

She had grown up playing soccer each fall, but when her family moved to New York when she was in middle school, Shute (SHA’08, Wheelock’17) learned that soccer there was a spring sport. 

During a gym class, she discovered that the teacher running the field hockey unit also coached the school’s team.

“She really encouraged me to play,” Shute recalls. “I loved playing it right from the start.”

Shute would take the sport she loved all the way to Boston University. As an undergrad, she quickly distinguished herself as one of the field hockey program’s greatest players. She is one of only four Terriers to amass 100 career points, remains tied for the most games played in program history, and ranks third all time in goals. BU won three conference titles in her four years with the team, and Shute was named the America East Offensive Player of the Year in 2005. 

Now, she is bringing her passion for the game back to BU in a different role: In February, Shute was named the fourth head coach in Boston University field hockey history, a role she accepted after six years as the head coach at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Before taking the helm at MIT, Shute served as an assistant coach under 45-year head coach Sally Starr, who ranks sixth all time in wins at the Division I level. 

“She loved competing, she loved the game, and I think that’s essential,” Starr says. “If you have a true passion for the sport, which she has, then you’re going to be successful and have a long career.”

Cocaptain Maddie Hudson (Questrom’26, MET’27) says Shute is a perfect fit for the team. 

“It’s super helpful that she was a [Terrier] herself,” Hudson says. “She understands our culture off the field, she understands how close a group we are, and she understands the family that we build here.”

Maggie Driscoll (SAR’27), the team’s other cocaptain, echoes the sentiment. 

“With coaching changes, a lot of things can be new, but the transition was really nice because she already had a lot of experience at the school,” Driscoll says. “It’s been really successful.”

BU’s double-overtime upset over the University of Iowa in the 2007 NCAA tournament is still Shute’s favorite moment as a player. The moment she remembers most about that day, however, is the pregame breakfast, at which the team’s strength and conditioning coach, Darcy Gould, stood and asked everyone to stop and take in the moment. Shute has incorporated lessons from that moment into her own coaching.

“That’s something we talk a lot about with the team now—being present and being where your feet are,” Shute says. 

Players say they appreciate Shute’s philosophy.

“It’s really helpful in keeping us grounded and mindful,” Driscoll says. “This is such a special time in our lives that we should not take for granted.” 

After graduating from BU’s School of Hospitality Administration in 2008, Shute took a bit of a right turn, landing a job with the car rental company Enterprise, where she quickly advanced. But when an assistant coaching position opened at her alma mater two years later, Shute approached Starr and landed the job that would launch her coaching career. 

“Being able to provide an experience that’s really transformational for someone’s life, that’s what really got me wanting to coach,” Shute says. 

In 2014, she was promoted to associate head coach and in each of the next four seasons, the Terriers won the Patriot League tournament title. 

Shute’s coaching style is competitive, focused on high-energy play and constant readjustments, she says. 

“‘Passion’ is a word that comes to mind,” Starr says of Shute’s coaching. “How her teams play mirror her personality.”

Shute got her first taste of head coaching in 2019, when she left BU to lead MIT’s field hockey team. She coached the Engineers to a 69-28 record over six years and helped the team secure an at-large bid in the 2022 NCAA tournament. 

“I learned a lot and I grew a lot,” Shute says of her time at MIT. “I came back [to BU] with so much more knowledge, so much more confidence, so much more experience overall under my belt.” 

While Starr wasn’t involved with choosing her successor at BU, she says she is confident Shute was the right choice. 

“In my heart, I was really hoping that she would be named head coach,” Starr says. “To have a former player with that experience to be able to step into the position that I left—I was just really happy that it was Sarah.”

Shute’s tenure has been successful so far. The Terriers are on a three-game winning streak and won their first two games of Patriot League play—outscoring opponents 14-3 in those games. 

Stepping onto New Balance Field for the first time as a head coach last spring nearly brought Shute to tears.

“I’m carrying on this legacy, writing my own story, and it starts now,” Shute says. 

The field hockey team will host Holy Cross on Friday at 6 pm on New Balance Field. Admission is free. The game will be live streamed on ESPN+.