Harvard Sports Enhanced By Two Stones

Even before Kylie Stone first picked up a field hockey stick, she had experienced college sports up close and quite personally. Her father, Mike, has been the head baseball coach at Massachusetts since 1988. During his time there he has led the team to two NCAA appearances and sent 33 players into professional baseball.

But it wasn’t baseball—or softball—that Kylie came to know and love. The junior is currently the starting goalie for the Crimson field hockey team. And despite her father’s influence at UMass, she has another family member who may have had the bigger influence on her college decision.

Kylie’s aunt is none other than the Crimson’s own head women’s ice hockey coach, Katey Stone.

“I’ve kind of always wanted to come to Harvard,” Kylie said. “I definitely think me being able to come see her hockey games and see the kind of atmosphere that was around athletics at Harvard let me see it in a way that I wouldn’t have been able to see just applying like most students do.”

But Kylie, who was selected to the All-New England Tournament field hockey team as a senior in addition to starting on her school’s lacrosse team, probably wasn’t applying “like most students do.”

“My aunt has always been one of my favorite members of my family,” Kylie said. “She’s always encouraged me in a lot of different parts of my life.”

Despite the influence of being so involved in both Harvard sports and Kylie’s familial life, Katey denies credit for Kylie’s success.

“I think Kylie’s an extremely self-motivated individual,” Katey said. “She’s gotten where she needs to be because of her own determination and hard work.”

As for choosing the path of an athlete, Katey likens it to “the family business.”

“It’s like the natural thing to do, more than anything else,” she said.

While Kylie didn’t choose her father’s sports path, she certainly had competitive lacrosse in her blood. Katey, who is Mike’s sister, was a lacrosse star in college at New Hampshire. She was a four-year letterwinner and captain of both the hockey and lacrosse teams, helping both teams to championships during her time there.

So what made Katey veer towards hockey instead of lacrosse?

“It’s a good question,” she said. “The job was available. Ultimately I did think that I was going to be a college lacrosse coach, but I was coaching hockey at the time and the job opened, so I applied.”

It’s a good thing she did. Since then, she has become the winningest coach in Harvard history, leading the Crimson to an incredible 268-124-19 during her first 13 seasons as head coach. Most recently, the team had an NCAA tournament appearance, losing to the eventual national champion Wisconsin in a four-overtime thriller.

And while she and her aunt share a love for lacrosse, Kylie’s experience was rather brief.

“I played varsity lacrosse my senior year—I was the goalie,” she said. “I played with my twin sister, and my experience had a lot to do with her being on the team. It was our senior spring and we both knew we were going different places.”

Kylie’s sister eventually went on to play at Skidmore and transferred to Vermont, where she no longer plays due to a torn meniscus.

Now that the Kylie and Katey are both entrenched in their own Harvard athletic activities—it’s about halfway through the field hockey season and hockey has an exhibition game this Friday—it’s tough to find time in the day to see each other.

“The good thing is her locker is right outside my office,” Katey said. “We both kind of understand that we’re doing our own thing, but it’s great to see each other when we can and catch up briefly.”

After all the influence her aunt has given Kylie, she herself may be returning the favor.

“It’s certainly great to watch her compete at this level—I feel very fortunate to be able to do that,” Katey said. “I’m so proud of Kylie because she’s gotten to where she is in the field hockey program out of sheer hard work, and that’s a great example for all of us.”

—Staff writer Paul T. Hedrick can be reached at phedrick@fas.harvard.edu.