LANCASTER — Conestoga Valley High School field hockey coach Lee Gerdes has retired after 37 years at the helm, the school district announced Tuesday.
Gerdes, who began her career at CV in 1981, has a coaching record of 298-292-49, and led the Buckskins to a Lancaster-Lebanon League championship in 2003.
“It’s time for someone young and energetic with new ideas to take over the program,” said Gerdes in a press release issued by the school. “I loved working with students and spending my time coaching at CV. It’s been a great place to work.”
Gerdes was voted L-L League Coach of the Year several times, according to CV athletic director Zac Kraft.
“(Her) overall record is deceiving because for many years, we competed in Section 1 when we could have
been in Section 2 based on our student enrollment numbers,” Kraft said. “Coach Gerdes never defined success for her program in terms of wins and losses; it was always about the journey and improvement.”
Gerdes retired from her job as a physical education teacher at Conestoga Valley at the end of the 2015-2016 school year. Now that she’s retired from both teaching and field hockey, Gerdes, who says she will “forever be interested in field hockey,” plans to spend retirement traveling, with the hope to one day see the Hockey World Cup.
Conestoga Valley has begun the process of searching for its next head field hockey coach.
