ORONO – The Long Island accent is still noticeable as University of Maine field hockey coach Terry Kix discusses her program in her office, which she pronounces AWWWWFIS.

However, her players admit that one of the staples of the Maine dialect, the word “wicked,” has crept into her vocabulary.

No matter what accent she uses, she has been getting her message across to her players loud and clear and has elevated the program to the point where the Bears have been nationally ranked the past two seasons.

She will enter Sunday’s game against Drexel with a 63-39-5 record in her six seasons at Maine, including a 48-23-2 mark over the last four campaigns. That includes this season, one in which her Bears are 11-3 overall, 5-1 in America East.

“This is my best team based on our overall depth and their attitudes,” said Kix.

The 33-year-old Kix, a native of Lake Ronkonkoma, N.Y., has been chosen the North Atlantic Conference (now America East) Coach of the Year twice.

“I’m very happy with the progress of the program,” said Kix. “I really feel our success has stemmed from two very important ingredients. First, I’ve been fortunate enough to surround myself with an excellent support staff. Our assistant coaches spend a lot of time really developing the technical aspect of our players’ games. Second, we’ve been successful in being able to recruit athletic and extremely coachable players.”

To those who know her best, it’s no surprise she has been as successful as she has been.

“Terry has so much energy. She loves the game and she loves working with people,” said Nancy Cole, Kix’s former coach at Centereach High School. “And Maine is the perfect place for her.”

“She relates to the players and she really cares about them. She wants the girls to win for themselves, not just for her,” said former Bear captain Margaret Henrick, who is now an assistant coach for Kix along with 1996 U.S. Olympian Diane Madl.

“She’s very understanding,” said sophomore goalie Cindy Botett. “She’ll listen to your problems. I have tremendous respect for her. She’s an excellent coach.”

Botett also said Kix isn’t afraid to chew them out if the situation warrants it.

Senior fullback and co-captain Dawn Porter said Kix is an excellent motivator and agreed with Botett about Kix’s accessibility and willingness to act as a sounding board for her players.

Friendly and competitive

Terry is the fifth of seven children of Marie and the late Fred Kix.

Marie Kix said Terry “has always been able to get along with just about anybody, whether it be a low-income person or a millionaire. She treats all people the same. She’s interested in them and is a caring person. She has my husband’s drive and desire to excel and my caring and loving of the family.”

She also said her daughter is “very competitive,” and Maine sports information specialist Matt Bourque concurred as he has witnessed her competitiveness during the noon floor hockey games at the university involving several members of the various coaching staffs.

“She refuses to lose. She’s aggressive. She isn’t afraid to mix it up,” Bourque said.

Kix said her close-knit upbringing has shaped the foundation of her personality.

“Financially, we were average or a little below average. But we had a lot of family unity and closeness. We learned at a young age the real values of teamwork and being able to sacrifice things. And the things I remember most from my childhood is to not be judgmental and to always look for the good in people,” said Kix, whose father owned a cleaning business and was a gear inspector while her mother was a financial analyst-billing clerk.

Kix, who is from a sports-minded family, credits all of her former coaches with making an impact on her coaching style and said former University of Connecticut coach Diane Wright taught her the value of being sensitive to the needs of her players. Kix was an All-American goalie at UConn, was a finalist for the Broderick Award given to the nation’s top field hockey player, and was selected as the Connecticut Female Athlete of the Year in 1985.

“The thing I learned and valued from that experience was to let the student-athletes be themselves and provide a comfortable and relaxed environment for them. That is something that has been extremely important in our success at the University of Maine,” she said.

Kix considers herself a coach “who has been gifted with an ability to be very emotional and very instinctive. I rely on my instincts. I’m very spontaneous.”

Her players say she is a defensive-minded coach and a good recruiter who brings a genuine honesty to the table. Her knowledge of the game is evident.

“She knows what she’s talking about. She’s a great coach,” junior midfielder Becky Blue said.

All-around athlete

Kix got into coaching after an outstanding athletic career in high school and college. She played basketball and softball at Centereach High in addition to field hockey and turned down basketball scholarships to St. John’s and Villanova. She was chosen to several all-conference and all-state teams in all three sports.

Cole considers Kix to be one of the top two goalies she has coached in 27 years at Centereach thanks to her aggressiveness, quickness, and fearlessness.

“After my junior year in high school, I really thought I’d be playing basketball in college. But I went to a U.S. field hockey development camp prior to my senior year and I made the “B” camp, which is where most of the top college players were. I was one of the few high school players to ever make it. After that, the recruiting for field hockey went off the wall,” said Kix.

Kix discussed the situation with her parents and coach Cole and reached the decision that she had a better chance to go farther in field hockey than in basketball. Her ultimate goal was to make the U.S. Olympic team.

Kix had been a wing in field hockey, but divided her time between wing and goalie her freshman and sophomore years. She got into goaltending by accident as a freshman “because nobody could really play the position. They volunteered me to try it because of my last name.”

She was a full-time goalie her last two years.

She chose UConn because former Centereach players had gone there and had “an excellent experience there.”

She didn’t play as a freshman and played sparingly as a sophomore.

“It was a really frustrating period in my life,” said Kix. “But I really learned some valuable lessons. It made me a more hungry and a more appreciative player. So when I finally had my opportunity, I wanted to make the best of it. That has really helped me in my coaching career when it comes to handling players.”

After graduating from UConn, she decided to set her sights on the U.S. national team camp which would be held a year later. She stayed on at UConn as a part-time assistant coach in order to train for the camp. She was also a softball assistant.

“They had eight goalies at the start of camp and were down to three. I was one of the three, but I blew my hamstring out. That was a career-ending injury,” said Kix.

Turned to coaching

She eventually became a full-time coach at UConn. A less-than-enjoyable part-time venture selling mutual bonds helped reaffirm her passion for coaching early in her career.

Coach Wright retired and Kix thought she was being groomed for the job. However, Northwestern University head coach Nancy Stevens got the job and Kix said she was devastated. She stayed on for a year to give the program some stability, and then the Maine job came open.

“I was happy in my position at Connecticut financially, but I really wanted to be a head coach,” said Kix. “The players at Maine sold me. It was very obvious to me they had been in a difficult situation. They were so hungry for a leader, and I really felt it was the right fit for me. Being my first head coaching job, I thought the only way to go was up. So it wasn’t risky for me.”

Kix has watched her program go from partially funded with four or five scholarships her first year to the full NCAA allotment of 11.

“We’ve been fortunate here. There are some real strong programs in the state. Maine players have been our bread-and-butter since I’ve been here, and we feel if we can keep the best Maine players here, we’ll have a real good base. The coaches have done a good job developing some real athletic field hockey players in the state,” said Kix.

Her philosophy is to build her team from the goal out.

“Goalkeeper is the most important position we look to recruit,” said Kix. “Then we look to get really athletic midfielders and then we look for someone who can score. Then we plug in the holes accordingly.”

Kix is pleased with her program, but said the Bears need an artificial turf field, which is supposed to become a reality in the near future, in order to compete with the top teams in America East such as Boston University and Northeastern, both nationally ranked.

“In the last poll, only four of the top 20 teams play on grass,” she said. “It’s our hope we can someday win the America East Tournament and get the automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. I feel we’re very close to doing that, but we need to play on the artificial turf every day if we’re going to compete with Boston University and Northeastern on a consistent basis.”

As for her home life, she has become happily entrenched in Maine and is building a house in Glenburn.

“I think the state of Maine has some overall values or feelings that you don’t get anywhere else in the country,” said Kix. “The people here are really good, wholesome laid-back people. They are extremely friendly. I really enjoy the people here.”

The Terry Kix File

Born: June 3, 1963, Smithtown, N.Y.

Parents: Marie and the late Fred Kix

Hometown: Lake Ronkonkoma, N.Y.

High School: Centereach High, N.Y.

College: University of Connecticut

Favorite TV shows: Cheers, Friends

Favorite food: Mushroom and black olive pizza

Hobbies: Running, biking, reading, cardiovascular exercise, shopping, house projects

Favorite books: The Road Less Traveled; High Hopes

Favorite musical groups: U2, Police