Sweet Briar mourns a coach

Jennifer Crispen, a Sweet Briar College faculty institution who was synonymous with field hockey, collegiate coaching at the school and nationwide and as a role model for students, died Friday.

She was 62 and had cancer.

Kelly Morrison, Sweet Briar’s athletic director, was at the hospital before Crispen died.

“The love that was in that room, and the caring, was bigger than any words could imagine,” Morrison told a colleague. “That’s what Jennifer did, she brought everybody together.”

Crispen, an associate professor of physical education, had nearly 40 years of collegiate coaching experience and was honored by her peers as Coach of the Year four times by the Old Dominion Athletic Conference.

In 2002, she coached her 500th field hockey game and won her 270th game. Sweet Briar won the Virginia Women’s College Championship for the seventh year. In 2005, she was inducted into the National Field Hockey Coaches Hall of Fame.

Jennifer Leigh Crispen was born in Clarksville, Tenn. She loved nature, growing up on the family farm in Massachusetts. An avid mountain biker, she lived on the Sweet Briar campus and frequented the trails with her black standard poodle, Mattie.

She also was well-known in the Lynchburg art community. Her watercolors have appeared in Sweet Briar publications and in offices and homes on campus. Her work has been features in several shows at the Lynchburg Art Club and honored at local festivals.

Crispen earned a bachelor of science degree from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and a master of science degree from Smith College.

Before joining Sweet Briar, she coached at Skidmore and Mount Holyoke.

At Sweet Briar, she coached lacrosse and field hockey for more than 30 years and also fencing and diving and taught popular academic courses such as Women, Sport and Culture. Recently. She was the first woman to serve as the chair of the Sweet Briar Faculty Senate. She had a key role in a new fitness and athletic center under construction at the college.

She worked with the U.S. Elite and Olympic Development Programs, playing on the United States squad, which played against Germany, Wales, Canada, Holland and England. She was a field hockey media consultant for the Olympic Games in 1984 and 1996. While chair of the U.S. Coaching Committee, she was responsible for the first U.S. Coaching Certification Program.

Crispen is survived by her mother, Jean Livingston Crispen of Bolton, Mass; brothers Reese Crispen and his wife, Marie, of Tyner, N.C., and Cullen Crispen of Billerica, Mass.; and a sister, Whitney Hagins and her husband, Mack, of Chelmsford, Mass.; and aunts and cousins.

Students and friends gathered informally this week at Sweet Briar Memorial Chapel. A memorial service will be announced later. Memorial Contributions may be made to Sweet Briar College, Jennifer Crispen Fund, Box G, Sweet Briar, VA 24595.

Tharp Funeral Home and Crematory, Lynchburg, is in charge of arrangements, (434) 237-9424.

Visit www.tharpfuneralhome.com or sign the online guest book here.