Mary Ann Hitchens

Mary Ann Hitchens (born ) is an American former sports coach and administrator. From Milford, Delaware, she graduated from the University of Delaware and was influential in developing the women's athletic program at the school, where she coached the women's basketball and field hockey teams. She was the first woman to be president of the North Atlantic Conference and had several other administrative roles.

Early life Hitchens was born in 1944 or 1945. She grew up in Milford, Delaware, and attended Milford High School, where she played basketball, field hockey and softball. She won four varsity letters there and scored over 1,000 points as a basketball player at Milford. She attended the University of Delaware but the school did not have a women's athletic program at the time, with Hitchens thus playing sports in local leagues and at intramural levels. Coaching career In 1967, Hitchens began serving as a teacher as well as the women's basketball and field hockey coach at Springer Junior High School. She then had the same roles at Brandywine High School in 1968. She was considered a "driving force" in the development of Delaware women's athletics and became one of the school's best coaches. She served as the basketball coach from 1970 to 1978 and compiled an overall record of 75–35, while she was the field hockey coach from 1973 to 1988 and had an overall record of 196–76–30. Additionally, she served on the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) executive council from 1983 to 1986, on the University of Delaware's Commission on the Status of Women, including two terms as chair, was a designated National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) senior woman administrator from 1977 to 2006, was a member of the NCAA Field Hockey Committee for four years, which included two years as chair, and was the first woman to be president of the North Atlantic Conference, in addition to being the vice president, chair of the gender equity committee and member of the field hockey sports committee in that conference. was honored as part of the University of Delaware Alumni Wall of Fame in 2007, and was inducted into the National Field Hockey Coaches Association (NFHCA) Hall of Fame in 2015. Delaware created the Mary Ann Hitchens Award in 2007, which is given annually to a senior "who has exhibited the qualities of hard work, dedication, leadership, fairness and striving for excellence that were the hallmarks of Hitchens' career". She was ranked 13th on The News Journal's 2023 list of the "125 Greatest Coaches in Delaware History".