2011 Coaching Staff

      Patti Klecha-Porter enters her 27th year on the Wesleyan staff as head coach of the field hockey team in 2011.  Joining the Wesleyan staff in 1985, Patti is an adjunct professor of physical education at the University. In 1999, she was honored as NESCAC field hockey Coach of the Year. Patti also served as head women's squash coach for 15 seasons (1986-2001) but will be in her 11th year as that team's assistant coach in 2011-12.
     Leading the field hockey Cardinals to back-to-back ECAC New England Division III titles in 1999 and 2000, Patti guided the team to its most victories in team history with 13 both those seasons.  Patti has taken her squads on five international trips, twice to Bermuda, once to Barbados, once to Holland, and most recently to Argentina in the summer of 2008. Patti's first victory of the 2002 season, a 3-1 win over Mount Holyoke to inaugurate a 10-6 campaign, was the 100th of her Wesleyan career.  She enters the 2011 season with 172.
      In 2005, Patti was honored by the Connecticut Field Hockey Coaches Association with its Chickie Poisson Award for distinguished service to the sport and in Sept., 2007, Patti was inducted into the Connecticut Field Hockey Hall of Fame.
      A 1981 graduate of Ithaca College where she was a team captain and MVP in both field hockey and lacrosse, Patti was inducted into her alma mater's Sports Hall of Fame in 1986. In 1989, Patti also was named to a New York State sectional sports hall of fame. Patti earned her M.S. degree from Springfield College while serving as head coach of lacrosse and a field hockey assistant. Before enrolling at Springfield, Patti spent two years teaching and coaching in the Phelps-Clifton Springs, N.Y. school system.
      A veteran of the Olympic Sports Festival, competing in field hockey, Patti also has played internationally. She formerly played in the Hampshire Field Hockey Association and helped her club team, Stars & Stripes, attain renown as a perennial power.
      Always active at summer field hockey camps, Patti directs the Cardinal Field Hockey Camp at Wesleyan. 
      She holds an International Umpiring rating, the highest level for umpires in the game of women's lacrosse, and umpired at the IFWLA World Cup during the summer of 2009 in Prague, Czech Republic ; 2005 in Annapolis, Md. ; and 2001 in Wycombe, England and has officiated countless NCAA Tournament contests including title games at all levels.

Jen Lane - Assistant Coach

(860) 685-2436 - jslane@wesleyan.edu

     Jen Lane will be in her 11th season at the helm of the Wesleyan softball program in 2012. Also an assistant with the Wesleyan field hockey team most of her years, Jen is an adjunct associate professor of physical education at Wesleyan.
      Jen led the Cardinals' softball team to a school-record 24 victories in 2010 after back-to-back 21-win seasons in 2007 and 2008 and back-to-back NESCAC West titles in 2008 and 2009. The Cardinals captured their first overall NESCAC crown and automatic berth in the NCAA tournament in 2010.  For that effort, Jen was named NESCAC Coach of the Year.  During the 2008 season, the Cardinals won the NESCAC West title for the first time and earned the right to host the NESCAC championship where they finished as runners-up. Wesleyan repeated the effort in 2009 and finished second to Tufts once again.  The Cardinals also won their first Little Three title in 2008. School record have been falling consistently each year under Jen's tutelage.  For her team’s success in 2008, Jen received her first NESCAC honor as Co-Softball Coach of the Year.
     Jen is the director of the Cardinal Softball Camp at Wesleyan, and also instructs at other softball and field hockey camps in Connecticut. Since 2005, Jen has been the training director for Middletown Youth Softball. She has gotten the Wesleyan players involved in the youth program as well, serving as volunteer coaches during the various teams’ practices. Jen attends the National Fastpitch Coaches Association’s annual convention and has achieved the level of 2-star Master Coach through the National Fastpitch Coaches College. She is also the treasurer of the New England Intercollegiate Softball Coaches Association and was a member of the NCAA Division III New England Region Softball Committee from 2006-08, a three-year term.
     Before coming to Wesleyan in the summer of 2001, Jen coached at her alma mater, NESCAC and Little Three rival Amherst College, while earning her Master's degree in exercise and sports studies at Smith College. In 1999, she was an assistant with the Lord Jeffs' softball team before moving into a co-head coach position for 2000 and 2001. She was an assistant with the field hockey program at Amherst as well for two years, including the 1999 season when the Lord Jeffs were the NCAA Division III national runners-up. During her undergraduate years at Amherst, Jen captained both the softball (1997 & 1998) and field hockey (1997) teams. As a pitcher, Jen helped lead the Lord Jeffs to a #16 finish in the country her senior year and was named to the New England Regional All-Tournament Team. A sweeper in field hockey, Jen played in the Division III North-South All-Star game in 1997. Originally from Hatfield, Mass., Jen was a four-year, three-sport (field hockey, basketball & softball) varsity standout at Smith Academy.

Kate Gedney - Assistant Coach

     Originally stepping in to cover for long-time assistant coach Jen Lane while she was on maternity leave, Kate Gedney got her first college coaching opportunity at Wesleyan in 2009 and continues into her third campaign in 2011.  A 2009 graduate of Southern Connecticut St. U., Kate was a two-year field hockey team captain and earned NFHCA Division II All-America laurels.  She also was a Northeast 10 all-academic team selection and was an NFHCA national academic squad choice.  Named SCSU's female scholar-athlete of the year in 2007-08, Kate earned her degree in graphic design.
     From 2005 through 2009, Kate coached high-school aged field hockey players at the Breakaway Field Hockey Camp.

Lindsay Wasserman - Assistant Coach

     After assisting Patti at the Cardinal Field Hockey Camp for the first time in the summer of 2007, Lindsay Wasserman returned to her alma mater as an assistant coach that fall and will now be in her fifth season in 2011.  She also has been an assistant coach for the Wesleyan softball team during the spring through 2010.  A 2003 Wesleyan graduate, Lindsay was a standout two-sport athlete for the Cardinals, serving as a team captain in both field hockey and softball as a senior.  She also received team MVP honors in the latter sport that year.  As a four-year goalie and two-year starter, Lindsay played every minute in net for the field hockey squad in 2001 and 2002.  She ended her career with a 19-15 record which included eight shutouts and was named second-team all-NESCAC in 2002. As a starting pitcher in softball, Lindsay still holds team marks for appearances in a season and career (29/104), starts (25/81), complete games (20/75) and innings pitched (154/552).  She also is third in career strikeouts with 277. Lindsay went on to earn her M. Ed. degree from Quinnipiac University in 2005 and taught high school for two years before accepting a position at Polson Middle School in Madison, teaching eighth-grade history.  She had been the pitching coach for the Branford High School softball team for five seasons.