OLYMPICS: Snow flurries: San Pasqual grad is top scorer for U.S. Olympic field hockey team

San Pasqual grad is top scorer for U.S. Olympic field hockey team

By JOHN MAFFEI - Staff Writer | Monday, July 21, 2008 12:16 AM PDT ∞

Former San Pasqual star Tiffany Snow is headed to the Olympics with the U.S. field hockey team. (Photo by Jeff Gamza - USA Field Hockey)

Lee Bodimeade was looking for a spark, something to ignite a lackluster U.S. women's field hockey team and fuel its drive to a 2008 Olympic bid.

Almost immediately after he took the job in 2005, Bodimeade turned to Tiffany Snow, a self-proclaimed "bull in a china shop." Known as an aggressive, attacking coach, Bodimeade hired Terry Walsh as technical director. They turned Snow loose.

And the former San Pasqual High great and college player of the year at Old Dominion embraced the role. She was a key factor as the U.S. team beat Belgium in Russia in April to win an Olympic qualifier and gain a spot in the Olympics for the first time since 1996.

Snow had a goal in the 3-1 championship match victory over Belgium. She had a three-goal hat trick in a 7-0 win over Russia, a goal in a 7-0 win over France and goal in a 3-1 win over the Netherlands.

"Tiffany is a powerful athlete with a goal-scoring flare," Bodimeade said. "She fits my style perfectly, a player who looks to put the ball in the net.

"She's free to attack. She puts pressure on the defense."

Snow's nickname is Taz, as in Tasmanian Devil, the ill-tempered marsupial of cartoon fame.

And she knows how to score. She scored 30 goals and had 15 assists in 2002-03. For her college career, she finished with 71 goals and 40 assists.

Snow is a veteran of USA Field Hockey, first being named to the U.S. national team in 2003, just months after wrapping up her college career. She was on the U.S. team in 2004 when it failed to qualify for the Olympics, and in 2007 when it finished second in the Pan American Games in Brazil.

And she is a leader of the 2008 Olympic team.

"This is a dream come true, the top of the top," Snow said. "We failed to qualify in New Zealand four years ago. We finished sixth in a tournament and needed to finish fifth. That was a huge disappointment, hurt a lot. And a lot of talented girls left the program.

"We've worked so hard. So this is so sweet."

One of the players who left the team, then came back, is Kate Barber, who has played a record 210 international matches. She came back because she knew Bodimeade's style gave the U.S. a better chance to be competitive on an international stage.

"In previous years, we were a defense-minded team, hoping to keep it 0-0 with the hope of getting a sweet goal," Barber said. "When Lee and Terry came in, they made us have an attacking mind-set."

The U.S. opens play on Aug. 8 in Beijing against 2007 Pan Am Games champion Argentina. Japan, New Zealand, Germany and England are also in Pool B with the U.S. in the 12-team event.

China, Spain, Australia, Korea, Russia and the Netherlands ---- the top-rated team in the world ---- are in Pool A. Only the top two teams in each pool advance to the medal round.

"I think we have a chance," Snow said. "We have a new coaching staff, and we've made some roster changes. We now have a true team atmosphere both on and off the field.

"Bodimeade makes us work, but he makes it fun. We laugh a lot on the field, but he kicks our butts, too. He has provided the leadership that has brought the team together."

USA Field Hockey is based in hot, humid, rainy, bug-infested Virginia Beach, Va. But the Olympic team trains in Chula Vista. The team is at the Olympic Training Center now, training and waiting to depart for China.

"And that's so great," Snow said. "For me, it's blessing being so close to home.

"All the facilities we need to succeed are in Chula Vista: weightrooms, meeting rooms, playing field, cafeteria. In Virginia Beach, it's a 25-mile drive from the complex just to lift weights.

"And I like Chula Vista because we're there with other Olympic teams ---- softball, archery, BMX racers and track and field. It's inspiring to see how hard everyone is working to bring home gold."

Make no mistake, the field hockey team has some work to do. In the Four Nations tournament in early July in Germany, Team USA lost 5-3 to Korea, tied India 1-1 and lost to Germany 7-2. Snow had two of the U.S. team's six goals.

The next week, Team USA played a three-game series with the Netherlands, losing 2-0, 4-0 and tying 2-2. Snow scored the first goal of the series for the U.S.

Snow has played 95 international matches and is the team's leading scorer heading to China.

"This program has come so far in a short time," Snow said. "We didn't know how hard we could work until we got into it.

"You really don't know yourself until you're tested on the world's biggest stage. For us, that's the Olympics."

For Snow, who turns 27 in December, this could be the end of the line as a player. When not playing internationally, she's an assistant coach at Boston University.

She had an opportunity to take over as head coach at San Pasqual for the upcoming season, but couldn't commit before seeing what happens in Beijing.

"I'd love to coach at San Pasqual, but I just couldn't commit to anything full-time just yet," said Snow, who played on San Pasqual's CIF San Diego Section championship team in 1997. "Everything is up in the air with the Olympics.

"San Pasqual is such a great school, and the field hockey program has been so great. I'd love to coach there, give back to the place where I got started.

"The timing just isn't right."

Snow didn't start playing field hockey until high school. Like so many girls growing up, she played softball and soccer.

"Field hockey was a budding sport at San Pasqual, and soccer skills translate very well to field hockey," Snow said. "I gave it a try, and fell in love with it.

"The sport has opened so many doors for me, given me an opportunity to travel all over the world, and play at the highest level."

Bodimeade knows what it takes to compete at that level. He was a member of Australia's men's national team from 1991-98. That team won an Olympic silver medal at Barcelona in 1992.

"This is an opportunity of a lifetime," Snow said. "We have a veteran team, a system we believe in and a coach who believes in us."

Contact staff writer John Maffei at (760) 740-3547 or jmaffei@nctimes.com.