More than 500 career wins. Thirteen Group Two State Championships. A record of 517-44-12. A plethora of honors and awards. These are some of the few accolades at a high school level for Jill Cosse, the field hockey coach at West Essex High School, for 25 years.
On Jan. 14, 2022, Cosse received her highest honor yet: the 2021 USA Field Hockey National Coach Award. This is a prestigious award given to the coach who portrays “the values of sportsmanship, fair play and healthy competition,” according to USA Field Hockey. Cosse is a coach that not only works effortlessly to create a beneficial environment for her team, but the community around her as well.
“I am deeply honored by USA field hockey for naming me as the recipient of this 2021 National Coach of the Year Award, because an award like this doesn’t just represent me, it acknowledges the work that my players, parents, administration and my own family have sacrificed to earn this,” Cosse said. “I am a very lucky person because field hockey has been one of the strongest positive influences on my life.”
In addition to high school, she has experience coaching at a collegiate and club level. In 1995, she was a field hockey assistant coach at Kean University for two years, and the head coach for the lacrosse team. She established the club field hockey team, GRIT, with her husband in 2020. Prior to this, she was the head coach, director and co-owner of New Heights Field Hockey club for 15 years.
Being a leader is something that comes naturally to Cosse. Not only does she lead within the community at West Essex as a physical education teacher and coach, but she has held an abundance of leadership roles outside of school. From 1998 to present, she has been the North Jersey Field Hockey Association Vice President and Banquet Chair. In 2011, for four years, she was the Regional Chair of the National Field Hockey Coaches Association (NFHCA) New Jersey All-American Committee and on the NFHCA National All-American Committee.
“We are a family built on the love we create, and it’s a love that transcends much else in this world,” Cosse said. “I am grateful for every win, loss and lesson learned on the road here. Thank you to all those women before me and those players and coaches that will come after me. I pray every day that my daughters get the gifts I received from this beautiful game.”