Gettysburg College Athletics

Carol Cantele holds the rare distinction of hoisting a national championship trophy as both a player and a coach.

A two-sport athlete as an undergraduate at Gettysburg, she helped the Bullets win the school’s first national title in 1980. The field hockey team won the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) Division III Tournament – the precursor to the NCAA Championship. A dual-sport athlete, she also competed on the lacrosse team and led that program to its first national playoff appearance in 1981. She returned to her alma mater in 1992 to take over the field hockey and lacrosse programs from her mentor, Lois Bowers.

For 10 years, she led both programs before relinquishing the reins of field hockey in 2002, amassing 121 victories and five conference championships. Her 30-year run as head women’s lacrosse coach saw the Orange and Blue rack up a .795 winning percentage (446-115), eight undefeated conference seasons, 13 conference titles, 20 NCAA bids, eight national semifinal appearances, and three national championships (2011, 2017, 2018). Her players garnered no fewer than 63 All-America citations and eight national Player of the Year honors under her tutelage. Cantele was four times the national coach of the year, 11 times the regional coach of the year, and three times the conference coach of the year. Among her countless national honors was induction into the IWLCA Hall of Fame in 2021.