MICHELLE ANDRE

Head Coach

In just five seasons as Rowan’s head field hockey coach, Michelle Andre has amassed a 76-25 record, which includes two NCAA Tournament appearances and a berth in the national semifinals. All told, the Rowan alum owns 16 years of head coaching experience with an overall career record of 171-136.

A former field hockey and softball standout for the Profs, Andre returned to Rowan in 2015 as its sixth head field hockey coach. That followed stints as the head coach at Stockton University and the University of Rochester, as well as serving as an assistant coach with the Profs from 1998 to 2001 and 2007-08.

The 2019 team went 15-5 and reached the NJAC Championship game, while achieving a final national ranking of eighth. The Profs earned an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament for their second straight appearance and Kristiina Castagnola and Casey Wagner received NFHCA All-America honors, while Wagner was named the NJAC’s Defensive Player of the Year.

In 2018, Andre’s Profs broke the school record for wins in a season with a 22-1 mark, won the NJAC title and advanced to the semifinals of the NCAA Championship for the fourth time in school history. Andre was tabbed the conference’s Coach of the Year and Rowan was recognized as the South Atlantic Region Coaching Staff of the Year by the NFHCA. Rachel Galante and Julie Johnson earned All-America First Team honors with Galante being named the South Atlantic Region Player of the Year and the NJAC Offensive Player of the Year, and Johnson taking the league’s Defensive Player of the Year award.

In 2017, Rowan posted a 13-6 record and advanced to the New Jersey NJAC Championship Tournament for the seventh year in a row, following a 12-7 campaign in 2016 which saw Jacqui Rosati earn All-America Third Team honors and Bridget Boyle chosen as the NJAC Rookie of the Year. In Andre’s first season back at Rowan in 2015, she guided the team to a 14-6 record, including a 5-1 NJAC mark, and had an All-America Second Team selection with Marisa Marini and the conference’s Rookie of the Year with Galante.

While at Stockton from 2009 to 2014, Andre compiled a 42-68 record but oversaw great improvement in the program, as the Ospreys posted 28 wins from 2011 to 2013, exceeding the win total of the previous six years combined. Stockton earned a spot in the NJAC Championship Tournament in 2013 and posted a school-record 12 victories, as Andre earned the conference’s Coach of the Year Award. Under her tutelage, 13 Stockton players received All-Conference honors and the program also saw success in the classroom, finishing in the top five in the nation in grade-point average four times while grabbing the top spot in 2014.

Andre served as the head coach at the University of Rochester for five seasons from 2002 to 2006 where she posted a 53-43 record. In her debut as a head coach, she led the Yellowjackets to a school-record 12 victories and the program’s first winning season in 10 years. Rochester improved on that mark with 13 wins in her final season and in those five years, guided two All-Americans and 12 All-Region honorees.

While an assistant at Rowan, the Profs went 96-23, captured two NJAC titles (1998, 2000) and reached the semifinals of the NCAA Tournament twice (1998, 2000) and the NCAA Quarterfinals four times (1999, 2001, 2007, 2008).

Andre was a two-sport standout in field hockey and softball at Rowan from 1994 to 1998, earning All-America and All-Conference honors in both sports. She was the named the 1997 NJAC Midfielder of the Year, the Field Hockey Club of South Jersey Division III Offensive Player of the Year and a First Team All-America. With 94 career points, including 38 goals, Andre was the Profs’ all-time scoring leader at the time of her graduation and still ranks among the top 10.

She earned similar honors as a third baseman for the Profs’ softball squad, being named to the All-America Second Team in 1996 and earning All-Region and All-Conference recognition three times each. Still ranking as one of the program’s leaders with a career batting average of .374, Andre helped the Profs to four consecutive NCAA Tournament berths, and the regional title and trip to the national championship in 1995.

Andre, who was also an All-Region honoree at goalkeeper for the Rowan women’s lacrosse team in 1999, received her bachelor’s degree that year and then earned a master’s in higher education administration in 2002. She was inducted into the Rowan-Glassboro State Athletic Hall of Fame in 2009 and was also honored with induction into the Pennsauken High School.

Originally from Pennsauken, NJ, Andre has previously served as the chair of the NCAA Division III Field Hockey National and South Atlantic Regional Advisory Committees and the NFHCA Division III Group Representative.

ERIN SMALL

Assistant Coach

Rowan alumnus Erin Small is in her fifth season as an assistant field hockey coach at Rowan in 2021.

Small was a two-sport athlete for the Profs, as a goalie with the field hockey team from 1995 to 1998 and a catcher on the softball team from 1996 to 1999.

She graduated from Rowan in 2000 with a bachelor’s in health and exercise science and went on to teach health and physical education, while serving as the department chair at Gloucester City High School.

Small was the head field hockey coach at Gloucester City High School for 14 years and enjoyed great success. She accumulated a record of 178-62-34, won six division championships and two South Jersey Group Championships, and in 2008, was named Coach of the Year by the South Jersey Times.

Currently the head softball coach at Audubon High School, she was named the 2010 Coach of the Year by the South Jersey Softball Coaches Association.

DANIELLE ALTERSITZ

Assistant Coach

Danielle Altersitz joined the Rowan field hockey coaching staff in 2021 as assistant coach.

A former standout at Montclair State from 2006 to 2010, she was named the Most Outstanding Player at the 2009 ECAC Championship won by the Red Hawks. Altersitz also earned an NJAC Defensive Player of the Week honor during her senior season.

Following her senior season, she competed for the United States at the 18th Maccabi games in Israel in 2009, helping the U.S. to a silver medal, and to a bronze medal at the 2011 European Maccabi Games in Vienna, Austria.

She took that international playing experience and transitioned into coaching becoming the assistant coach with Maccabi USA Field Hockey and participating in the 14th European Maccabi Games in Berlin, Germany in 2015 and then guided the U.S. to a silver medal at the 20th Maccabiah Games in 2017.

The native of Swedesboro, NJ, has served as the assistant club director and head coach for the South Jersey Edge since 2010 and is a STEM/Math teacher at Kingsway Regional Middle School.

A 2010 graduate of Montclair State with a degree in biology, Altersitz and her husband, Andrew Finger have one son, Barrett.