By Dave Johnson
William & Mary Athletics
 
Field hockey, or just hockey as they call it Down Under, has taken Tess Ellis across the world. First to England, where she began to realize what her sport truly had to offer. Then to America, where her expertise could be fully tapped.
 
Since Australia doesn't have collegiate sports, and most opportunities that exist require a second job to pay the bills, Ellis never envisioned herself as a field hockey coach. She had a far different picture in mind.
 
"When I was younger, I always thought I'd grow up to be either a policewoman or a PE teacher," she said. "I never thought I'd be a collegiate coach because I did not know this world existed."
 
Ellis' is truly a one-thing-led-to-another story. She move London, where she played club hockey and worked as a nanny. She coached a season at the American School of London, where she first heard about this crazy notion of awarding scholarships to play collegiate sports in the U.S. 
 
Tired of the damp, chilly climate in London, Ellis came across the Atlantic to … New Jersey? She worked camps, coached a club team, and provided childcare for a single mother outside Princeton. Then, in 1991, she came to William & Mary to work then-coach Peel Hawthorne's camp.
 
Little did Ellis know she had found a second home. There were some detours along the way, but Ellis has been a part of W&M's field hockey program for 24 years — the last seven as the Tribe's head coach.
 
In Williamsburg, Ellis sees a smaller setting that reminds her of Goulburn, her hometown on the east coast of Australia.
 
"I'm definitely a small-town girl," Ellis said. "I like walking down the street and recognizing faces. William & Mary, as a campus and as a community, has that feel about it."
 
Having been an elite-level player in Australia, Ellis brought along an advanced knowledge of the game. Hawthorne, W&M's field hockey coach from 1987-2012, saw that the first time they met in 1991 at a spring indoor tournament in Richmond.
 
"She was trying to teach us how to play this indoor hockey because none of us had played it," Hawthorne said. "It was the most I've learned about hockey in a long time. 
 
"I really liked her and basically said on the spot, 'If I ever have an opening, let's talk.' Her understanding of hockey was so far advanced above mine."
 
But Ellis' first college job would come a year later at Salisbury University, a Division III program in Maryland. The Sea Gulls made their ninth consecutive NCAA tournament appearance and advanced to the Final Four. Ellis then returned to Australia for a few months and worked with her father.
 
That opening at William & Mary came before the '93 season. Ellis was quickly hired and, after getting stuck in Honolulu for a bit, made it back to the States. She worked on Hawthorne's staff for eight seasons. Making about $4,000 a year, she lived in Hawthorne's home.
 
In 2000, Ellis was hired as head coach of the U.S. Field Hockey Association's Under-21 and Under-23 national teams. She also was an assistant coach the 2002 World Cup team, which went through quite an ordeal.
 
In September of 2001, the team was to fly to France for a qualifying tournament. Then 9/11 happened, and air travel was grounded. In May of 2002, the team flew to India for a three-test series with the winner advancing to the World Cup.
 
That was at the height of tension between India and Pakistan. The morning before U.S. was to play a friendly match, they were instructed to quickly pack up and leave. The reason: Pakistan had a nuclear warhead pointed at New Delhi. 
 
The quickest flight the team could get was to France, and from there, the players were able to return to the States. A month later, the U.S. beat India in Cannock, England to qualify for the Cup in Perth.
 
"It was quite a series of events," Ellis said.
 
In 2003, Ellis came back to W&M as a volunteer assistant. She left after the '08 season but returned in '10 as a full-time assistant. The following year, she was elevated to associate head coach.
 
Then, before the 2013 season began, Hawthorne had the opportunity to take an administrative leadership role within the athletics department. One day after practice, she pulled Ellis aside and told her the news — the two of them would be moving up.
 
Hawthorne said then-athletics director Terry Driscoll agreed that Ellis would take over the team on the condition of her accepting the administrative position.
 
"Tess is one of those good people you want to have around your program," Hawthorne said, "and Terry was very amenable to her taking over the reins."
 
In Ellis' first season, the Tribe finished 8-11. One of the wins came against No. 5 Virginia on the road. That was enough for Driscoll to remove the interim label.
 
W&M went 31-45 in Ellis' first four seasons. Then came 2017, when the Tribe finished 13-7 with wins over No. 7 Michigan and No. 15 James Madison. 
 
The following year, W&M went 12-8 and won the program's first CAA championship. The Tribe also won its first NCAA tournament game. 
 
With a 12-7 finish in 2019, the Tribe had its third consecutive winning season for the first time since the early 2000s. Ellis was named CAA Coach of the Year for the fourth time in seven seasons.
 
Ellis has built the program largely from within the commonwealth. Of the 22 players on the current roster, 14 are from Virginia. That includes all five members of the incoming freshman class. 
 
"The recruiting in Virginia is getting better every year," Ellis said. "There are a lot of Virginia clubs that are doing really well, and our girls have played so much hockey together within the U.S. development program. When I get them as freshmen, they've already bonded.
 
"I've got five Virginians coming in, and four of them know each other very well. And it won't take long for the fifth one to work in very quickly."