Kornacki: Pankratz Relives Olympics, 20 Years Later
7/22/2016 12:00:00 AM | Field Hockey
By Steve Kornacki
ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- Twenty years have passed since Marcia Pankratz was the leading goal-scorer on the U.S. women's field hockey team at the Atlanta Olympics. Her excitement back then continued with a visit to the White House, where a photo taken of her with President Bill Clinton made the front page of The Washington Post.
She's gone on to coach the University of Michigan to great glory -- including the 2001 NCAA championship -- during 16 seasons as the school's winningest coach in the sport with a 242-110 record and seven Big Ten regular-season championships.
Still, those experiences as "a bright-eyed kid" at the 1988 Seoul Olympics and then as a veteran leader eight years later in Atlanta both remain close to her heart.
She twice got to play against the best of the best on the biggest stage and has relished the opportunity recently provided her to pass along the experience and joy of those competitions.
Pankratz's contribution to the 2016 U.S. team, one of 12 to qualify for the upcoming Rio de Janeiro Games, is putting together video messages with her Olympic teammates as well as others who preceded them as Olympians.
"My responsibility is to put together a video for our current team," said Pankratz. "I got everybody from the '96 team as well as those in 1980 and 1984 to send me a little video link, and I put it all together, and I will be sending that off for them. I got a kick out of that.
"It's essentially a good-luck video for this year's team. Hopefully, they'll appreciate and enjoy it."
Pankratz's road to the Olympics began at the University of Iowa, where she scored 76 goals during her career and was the school's Female Athlete of the Year in both 1985 and 1986. She made the 1984 NCAA All-Tournament team and helped lead the Hawkeyes to the national championship game.
She made the U.S. national team in 1985 and earned a roster spot for the '88 Olympics in Korea.
-- Marcia Pankratz on her Olympic success
"I was super young and don't remember as much about that," said Pankratz. "But we were one of eight teams to qualify, and it was a four-year process to qualify. We were just grateful to make the top eight because at that time only the top eight went. What I gleaned from that was that you have to keep playing in every moment of every game. It can come down to the last play."
Pankratz left the national team after Seoul but returned to the squad in 1994, two years prior to the Atlanta Games.
"You don't make any money playing field hockey," said Pankratz, "and so I became a stockbroker for a few years. The U.S. team didn't end up qualifying for the Barcelona Games in '92, but I saved up money and went back to playing after that."
That decision necessitated personal sacrifices in terms of lifestyle and finances, but Pankratz was determined to return to the sport she loved to once again play at the highest level.
"You make a lot of sacrifices," said Pankratz. "You're always just squeezing by, and you don't have any money. You don't have a career. You work out a lot by yourself and have to stay fit and try to make the team. You are constantly being evaluated, and you're under pressure to perform.
"It's a four-year pressure cooker."
She said the even though she was "one of the most experienced players" trying out for the 1996 Olympic team, there was no way of knowing if putting her life on hold for four years was going to even earn a place on the U.S. squad.
Pankratz said, "The second my name was announced as having made the team, I just cried. There was such a relief for all you'd gone through all of those years. It was unbelievable."
She scored three critical goals in U.S. wins over South Korea and Spain and a 1-1 tie with The Netherlands in 1996.
"I was supposed to score goals," said Pankratz, who credited teammates for putting her in positions to score. "It's been 20 years since that happened and now, looking back in retrospect, it was an amazing experience.
"I was also older and had been to the Olympics before. So, my perspective was completely different. I was much more present and appreciated every moment, drank it all in and enjoyed the experience tremendously. It was special."
They didn't win a medal, but there was a definite sense of accomplishment by coming in fifth after finishing eighth and last in Seoul and not making the field of eight for Barcelona. The U.S. has won one medal since field hockey was introduced to the Olympics in 1980, and that was a bronze at the 1984 Los Angeles Games.
Pankratz said family members followed her to both Seoul and Atlanta.
"Even in Korea," she said, "my whole family came over. It was a great experience for all of us both times, and I knew they were proud of me. But it wasn't until my nephew, Matt Besler, played on the U.S. team in the World Cup in Rio (de Janeiro, Brazil) in 2014 and I was able to watch him play, that I realized how amazing and special it was for my parents to watch me in the Olympics. I could understand that because I was feeling that for my nephew, and it was phenomenal."
She has a framed photo at the Phyllis Ocker Field complex that reminds her of that great experience two decades ago.
"I've got a picture of me shaking President Clinton's hand," said Pankratz. "We have it on display in our field hockey building. It was funny because it was the exact same ceremony we had in '88 with President Reagan. Bill Clinton came right in and stood right next to us, and we all got our photo together on the front page of The Washington Post."
She said she shares Olympic memories with her players, but only when they ask, adding, "We're more focused on winning championships for Michigan."
Pankratz has coached U.S. national teams for players under 21 years old but hasn't been part of an Olympic coaching staff. However, she's making a connection with the current American Olympians by working with her former U.S. teammates to put together that special video for them as they embark on their Olympic quest.
"We're about to see them experience as a family the same things we did 20 years ago," said Pankratz, "and it just warms my heart. I feel lucky because we have a great field hockey community, and I think it was really neat that we were able to pass along our thoughts and memories to this next generation of kids."
