Eastern's Heilig wins top coaching honors

Eastern field hockey coach Danyle Heilig has been named coach of the decade by Topofthecircle.com.

Heilig last fall set the national record with 11 consecutive state championships. The Vikings also had an unbeaten streak that spanned 153 games.

Her alumnae include a number of NCAA Division I players who are members of the elite high-performance pool for USA Field Hockey. Olympian Rachel Dawson was one of her top players.

In an e-mail, Topofthecircle.com founder Al Mattei said, "People have called the Eastern field hockey dynasty a perfect storm. It is much more than that. It's parents who are engaged with their children, it's athletes who have bought into an entire system to make them better players, and it's a coach whose vision and willingness to get the most possible out of them has tied them all together."