Michigan 2020 Hall of Honor: Gannon Started Championship Fire for Field Hockey
10/14/2021 2:15:00 PM | Field Hockey, Features
The first Michigan field hockey three-time All-American, a member of two Big Ten regular-season and Big Ten Tournament title-winning teams, and 2000 Big Ten Offensive Player of the Year, Kelli Gannon will be inducted into the Michigan Athletics Hall of Honor during a Friday, Oct. 22 ceremony as part of the Class of 2020 along with Sarah Cain (women's gymnastics), Ty Law (football), Jim Paciorek (baseball), Tripp Welborne (football) and Lexi Zimmerman (volleyball).
By Steve Kornacki
ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- Kelli Gannon blazed the trail to the summit for the University of Michigan field hockey team.
The Wolverines had never won the Big Ten championship before Gannon arrived in 1997 as a freshman from Escondido, Calif. That season, they tied for the first of two conference regular-season championship teams of which she was a part.
Michigan had never made the NCAA Tournament, either. But it finished second in the national event in 1999.
Gannon, who scored 49 goals and tallied 126 points over four memorable seasons, was a first team All-American as both a junior and senior, while overcoming serious back problems to excel. She was the Big Ten Offensive Player of the Year and Big Ten Medal of Honor winner in 2000, when she was a finalist for national player of the year. Gannon also was the Big Ten Tournament MVP and a member of the NCAA's all-tournament team in 1999.
She did everything but win a national championship, but was there when her youngest sister, Kristi Gannon, and the rest of the Wolverines won the NCAA title in 2001. However, make no mistake about it, big sister started the field hockey fire at the school.
• • •
Kelli Gannon was the featured guest on the Oct. 14 edition of the Conqu'ring Heroes Podcast, during which she spoke to host Jon Jansen about some of the key moments of her Wolverines career, playing with and following the coaching career of her sister and Michigan assistant Kristi Gannon Fisher, and rehashes some of her great memories in Ann Arbor.
Kelli came so far, so fast with new Michigan coach Marcia Pankratz. And so when Pankratz came up in a discussion about Gannon's Oct. 22 induction into the Wolverines' Hall of Honor, Gannon couldn't hold back the tears.
"Oh, she helped me in so many ways," began Gannon. "Like I am forever grateful ... I'm starting to cry … Those times mean so much more now. She was kind of like your parent, when you are 18 and away from home and your family is your team, basically. She just knew when I needed certain things.
"I was starting to deal with my back injury, and that was a challenge. You'd get to the training room early to do your prep work, and then you'd practice, and then you'd stay after for ice baths and things like that. She had a huge impact, and saw when I was struggling physically and mentally. I went through a lot, and she was there for me to give me the help I needed and see however she could be there for me."
Gannon became acquainted with Pankratz, a member of the U.S. Olympic teams in 1988 and 1996, when she began playing the sport in her hometown just north of San Diego.
"I've known Marcia since she was out here training at the Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista," said Gannon. "When I was in high school, they came and did some clinics. So, I knew her from that.
"We had the (Michigan coaching) trio of Marcia, Tracey (Fuchs) and Peggy (Storrar) that, ironically, would be my teammates for my four years on the national team. So, that was pretty cool. It was like playing with your aunts or uncles or something. The three of them, their knowledge, and how they got along, they just had that fight and level of intensity on a daily basis that just brought you up. They made you believe that you could do whatever.
"And when I went to Michigan to visit, you have to believe in the people that you're going to spend four years with. But, then again, the team as well. They are your family, and I just meshed really well with all of them. I felt like I was at home."
The Wolverines were 19-4 overall and 6-0 in conference play before winning the Big Ten Tournament in 2000. They were 20-7 in 1999, winning the conference tourney for the first time while advancing to the NCAA championship game in Boston -- where No. 1 Maryland beat Michigan, 2-1.
"We had a really good group," said Gannon. "It got to be all the people Marcia had recruited because I was in the first class that she had recruited. We had the same mentality and Marcia had a way of motivating you -- especially in really intense situations, and just believing in you.
"All of us could come together and do kind of impossible things."
Gannon took what she learned from Pankratz and others to build a field hockey program from scratch at Westview High in San Diego, focusing on the elements that make for a true team.
"And we made it to the finals!" Gannon said. "I taught them the basics the best I could, and the strategy against our opponents, and they were willing to work together. We made it to the county championships, but lost there."
However, the strain on her back that caused pain, in addition to the time away from daughter Jordan, 13, and son Mason, 9, caused her to step away from high school coaching. Jordan enjoys playing the clarinet and Mason plays Pop Warner football, and Kelli supports both in their endeavors.
It was her mother, Judy, who encouraged her to take up field hockey ("something new") as a freshman in high school after she'd played travel and Olympic youth development soccer.
"I lost my biggest fan, my mother, Sept. 8, 2019," said Gannon. "She was the matriarch of our family (Kelli is the eighth of 10 children) and made it to every single game. All she wanted to do was go see us play. So, that's something our whole family's been dealing with. We're all checking in on dad.
"But mom got me started in field hockey, and I saw more opportunities for scholarships there. So, I tried it."
Did she take to it immediately?
"No," said Gannon, laughing at the memory. "My sister, Nikki, drove me to the first couple days of tryouts. I asked her to tell the coach that I wasn't coming back, and that I was going to quit.
"So, we got back in the car and the car didn't start. Seriously, someone had to be looking down on me. Nikki said, 'You might as well go back out there. This is going to be awkward. What are you going to do, sit in the car?' I was going to go play tennis, but went back to field hockey."
Gannon graduated from and played at Escondido's San Pasqual High, where she now directs online learning ("Which ties in nice right now.") that covers the entire curriculum. She counsels and directs pacing for individual students. And, incidentally, Nikki also teaches there.
Kelli said: "I tell my students, 'I wanted to get as far away from here as possible so I chose Michigan, and now look where I am.'"
Gannon laughed and added, "But I like what I'm doing now because I get to connect with students. I used to teach 40 kids in a health classroom, and can teach health, (physical education) and math."
She was a physical education major and math minor at Michigan, where she received the Big Ten Medal of Honor awarded annually to the top graduating senior female and male with the highest proficiency in both academics and athletics.
"I hold myself to a high standard everywhere," said Gannon.
She becomes the second Wolverine field hockey player elected to the Hall of Honor, joining Mary Callam (Brandes), Michigan's first big scorer, 1976-79.
"I'm completely humbled and surprised, excited and grateful to be the second field hockey person," said Gannon. "This is something really special. Also, to be thought of in the same realm as all the other inductees is pretty wild."
All-Americans from four other sports join her in the Class of 2020: Ty Law and Tripp Welborne (football), Sarah Cain (gymnastics), Jim Paciorek (baseball) and Lexi Zimmerman (volleyball).
Gannon is one of the most decorated players from her sport, winning numerous national and conference honors. Was there one of those that meant the most to her?
"They're all wonderful," she said. "It's hard for me to think back to that because I've been out of that life for so long, and I stopped coaching because of my back. I had to retire because of that, and all of my energy goes into my two kids and teaching and coaching soccer.
"So, as far as what I preach to my own children and the students I come across, it's about trying your absolute best. Teams do the things that really stick with you, and it's not the titles you get. So, what sticks out to me are those times and those key games, the moments when we did something amazing and great, and the times with my coaches and teammates. That's what sticks out to me."
Gannon was a midfielder on the U.S. Women's National Field Hockey Team for four years before having to retire just prior to the 2004 Olympics.
"I was able to play with a lot of doctor visits and training," said Gannon. "I basically had a degenerative disc that was going away, and part of it was protruding into my spinal cord. So, it just progressively ... I mean, it was a struggle daily, I'm not going to lie.
"But it got to the point where we were up to Olympic qualifiers, that I couldn't really feel my legs. So, that day is stuck in my memory, where I had to say, 'I can't do it anymore.' One of my teammates, who took my place, said, 'I am so sorry, but because of you I get to go.'"
Gannon had a marvelous career that cleared a path for others.
She takes great pride in her sister, Kristi Gannon Fisher, currently a Michigan assistant coach, having a big role in that 2001 national championship. Kristi scored one goal and assisted on the other while goalkeeper Maureen Tasch had 11 saves in a 2-0 win over top-ranked Maryland in Kent, Ohio.
"They got to win the championship!" said Kelli. "My whole family was there, and there's 10 of us. We all stayed in the same suite! Our parents (Judy and Gary) were there.
"They won it for all of us. It was just an amazing moment."
