PATTI KLECHA-PORTER INDUCTED INTO CONNECTICUT FIELD HOCKEY HALL OF FAME
(23-Year Veteran Wesleyan Field Hockey Coach Named "College Coach of the Year")

     Patti Klecha-Porter, who is directing the Wesleyan University field hockey team for a 23rd season in 2007, was inducted into the Connecticut Field Hockey Hall of Fame during a ceremony at the Aqua Turf in Southington, Conn., Sunday, September 9, 2007.  She was the lone college coach and one of seven individuals in total inducted during this year's eighth annual ceremony.  Prior to this year, 48 individuals have been chosen for the Hall of Fame, six of them college coaches. This year's group included a college player, two high school players, an umpire, a high school coach and an honorary inductee in addition to Klecha-Porter.
     A 1981 graduate of Ithaca College where she was a team captain and MVP in both field hockey and lacrosse, Klecha-Porter 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. Klecha-Porter earned her M.S. degree from Springfield College while serving as head coach of lacrosse and a field hockey assistant. Before enrolling at Springfield, Klecha-Porter spent two years teaching and coaching in the Phelps-Clifton Springs, N.Y. school system.
      Joining the Wesleyan staff in 1985, Klecha-Porter is an adjunct professor of physical education at the University. In 1999, she was honored as NESCAC field hockey Coach of the Year. Klecha-Porter also served as head women's squash coach for 15 seasons (1986-2001) but will be in her seventh year as that team's assistant coach in 2007-08. She served as an assistant women's lacrosse coach at Wesleyan from 1986 through 1991.  Leading the field hockey Cardinals to back-to-back ECAC New England Division III titles in 1999 and 2000, Klecha-Porter guided the team to its most victories in team history with 13 both those seasons. Klecha-Porter has taken her squads on four international trips, twice to Bermuda, once to Barbados and most recently to Holland in the summer of 2004. Klecha-Porter'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 now has 144 to her credit.  In 2005, Klecha-Porter was honored by the Connecticut Field Hockey Coaches Association with its Chickie Poisson Award for distinguished service to the sport.
     A veteran of the Olympic Sports Festival, competing in field hockey, Klecha-Porter 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.
      Klecha-Porter 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 2001 in Wycombe, England as well as the summer of 2005 in Annapolis, Md..  She has officiated numerous NCAA Division I Tournament contests, including the 2007 title game, over the years.

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