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09/25/2023 11:47 AMOn Sept. 10, at the Aqua Turf Club in Plantsville, more that 150 guests celebrated six inductees into the Connecticut Field Hockey Hall of Fame, including shoreline coaches and players, Kara Suhie Bell and Janet Dickey.
Kara Bell
With a mother and two sisters playing the sport of field hockey, it was only natural that Kara Bell would pick up a stick and learn to play as a young girl. She was also fortunate to grow up in Old Saybrook with the opportunity to play for legendary coach Lorraine Splain.
Bell played field hockey, basketball, and softball at Old Saybrook High School, graduating in 1995. She was a three-year varsity starter in field hockey, earning All-State and All-Shoreline Conference honors, in addition to helping her team advance to the Class S state championship game in 1993. Bell was a four-year varsity player for softball and also earned All-Shoreline Conference honors for her talents on the field.
Bell’s skill in both sports continued to grow when she moved on to the college level. She was a high-performing student-athlete at Keene State College and earned many accolades for her hard work. Bell played field hockey and softball all four years, serving as a captain for her field hockey team in her senior year. She helped her field hockey team win the Little East regular season title and the Little East Tournament championship title in 1998. Bell’s team also made it to the NCAA Tournament that year, and she was named to the Little East Conference First Team. Bell is No. 7 on the career assists list at Keene State with 98, and she is on many top 10 lists for softball, as well.
In her four-year softball career at Keene State, Bell was a versatile player, serving as a pitcher, outfielder, and first baseman. She led her team to a Little East regular season championship title and a Little East Tournament championship title in 1999. Bell received Honorable Mention recognition in her conference in 1998 and was named to the All-Little East Conference First Team in 1999. In addition to her sport-specific honors and awards, Bell earned the Keene State College Athlete of the Year Award in 1999. She has since been inducted into the Keene State Hall of Fame in two categories—one time as an individual athlete in 2004 and again in 2017 as part of the 1999 softball team.
Since graduating from Keene State, Bell has been working for the past 24 years as a teacher and coach at Old Saybrook High School. When she first started, Bell had the chance to serve as Lorraine Splain’s assistant for two years before taking over as head coach. Bell led the program for 15 years, earning Class S Coach of the Year honors from her peers during her tenure. Bell also coached the softball program at Old Saybrook for eight years. While working as a teacher and coach, Bell pursued her Master of Science in computer science and information technology from Sacred Heart University in 2006, and she earned a sixth-year degree in educational leadership from Southern Connecticut State University in 2018.
Bell eventually retired from her coaching experiences to spend more time with her husband Jason and their 10-year-old son Gavin, but she feels very grateful to be a part of the Old Saybrook community that shaped so much of her life growing up.
Janet Dickey
As a lifelong resident of Westbrook, Janet Dickey’s love for both the town and the sport of field hockey runs deep. Dickey grew up watching her sister Lynn play field hockey, and she was drawn to both the finesse of the stickwork and the camaraderie of the team as a young girl. Once she had a chance to try it herself, Dickey found that she excelled at the sport and greatly valued the friendships she built with her teammates.
Dickey was able to bring her passion for field hockey to the sidelines when she took over as the head coach of the Westbrook High School field hockey program in 1990. As a young coach, Dickey was fortunate to have guidance and encouragement from Connecticut Field Hockey Hall of Fame coach, the late Patsy Kamercia of Haddam-Killingworth High School, and she worked hard to grow the sport each year. With longtime assistant Emily Alger by her side, the Westbrook field hockey program has developed into a competitive and successful force on the shoreline. Under her leadership, Dickey’s teams have won four Shoreline Conference titles and one Class S state championship, sharing the title with Haddam-Killingworth as co-champions in 2016. Her career record includes 247 wins, 201 losses, 66 ties, and 10 overtime losses, and many of her players have gone on to successful collegiate careers. Dickey was honored as the Class S Coach of the Year in 2001 and 2016, and she was named Coach of the Year by the Connecticut High School Coaches Association in 2006. Dickey was also named as the New Haven Register All-Area Coach of the Year in 2016.
Over the course of her tenure, Dickey has volunteered for several field hockey committees and organizations. She has been responsible for compiling the Top 10 Poll for the Hartford Courant since 2004, and she has been part of the US Field Hockey Ethics Committee since 2011. From 2010 to 2014, Dickey served as a member of the National Field Hockey Coaches Association (NFHCA) All-American Committee and the NFHCA Academic All-American Committee, serving as National Chair for the Academic Committee from 2012 to 2014. Never one to sit still, Dickey is currently working on setting up a CT Chapter for US Field Hockey. In addition to coaching her high school team and serving the wider field hockey community both in Connecticut and nationally, Dickey worked to increase playing opportunities for young women in the shoreline area by co-founding the Tsunami Club with her husband Jeff and Coach Alger in 1996. Their club teams participated in tournaments to prepare for play at the college level long before other clubs were established in Connecticut, and they ran the club through 2019.
Beyond field hockey, Dickey has served her local community as a member of the Board of Directors for the Westbrook Foundation (2005-’13) and as one of the Board of Directors for The Oxford Academy (2013-’19). She also teaches spinning and Pilates and is the owner of Victory Mindsets, working with coaches and teams to help them win the mental side of their athletic pursuits. Dickey has been married to her husband Jeff for 30 years, and they have raised three children together: Geoff, Lili, and Kevin.