field hockey, always.

sav in an olympic club jersey, driving the ball upfield on green turf
who i am as a leader is inseparable from who i am as an athlete.

where it started

family before it was ever a sport.

It all started in a Vermont backyard. My oldest cousin, Zarabeth, was the first of us to pick up a stick, and on holidays she'd teach the rest of us to play. I thought my big cousins and my big sister were the coolest people alive, so of course I did whatever they did. Zarabeth later coached me in middle school in Milton, while she was at UVM.

My freshman year, our varsity team hadn't won a game in something like ten years. In the season opener we went to overtime, and I scored the game-winning goal. It was the first time I felt the raw power of sport: what becomes possible the moment a group of people believes they can.

My parents drove me all over New England for state teams, regional squads and USA camps, and showed up to every game with their lawn chairs. I can still picture my dad running the sideline yelling “Go, Vanny-O!” When I was graduating, I crossed games off the calendar on our fridge and cried, wondering if each was my last. it wasn't.

And these days, my biggest supporter is my wife, Kate: neuroscientist, artist and founder of Moxie Therapeutics. She makes room for me to keep playing, to travel for this sport, and to chase it at the highest level I can. She inspires me every day and pushes me to be bolder than I'd ever be on my own. Building a life where we dream big together is my favorite thing in the world.

a faded print: teenage sav on a vermont field in a stars-and-stripes headband, stick in hand, green mountains behind
senior year, 2001. our team made USA headbands for our first game after 9/11.
sav in a winged-O field hockey tank, stick in hand, between her mom and dad beside the turf at dusk
my parents, still on the sideline. they never stopped showing up.
sav in a burgundy blazer and kate in a hot-pink suit, cheek to cheek and smiling under a chandelier
kate and i at my 40th, at the olympic club.

sports timeline

  1. 2022—26

    · USA masters national teams.

    • 2026 · O40 · masters world cup, schiedam · meet the team
    • 2023 · O35 · pan am continental cup, buenos aires · silver
    • 2022 · O35 · masters world cup, nottingham

    national

  2. 2024—

    · USA field hockey masters · chair, sponsorship committee.

    boards

  3. 2015—

    · olympic club field hockey · player.

    · national champions

    • 2019
    • 2022
    • 2024
    • 2026

    the first team, men or women, to win four.

    · a typical season

    collegiate scrimmages
    fall + spring, on campus at cal, stanford and davis. a win-win, and how we recruit graduates to stay in the bay.
    grand canyon tournament
    january, at phoenix hockey club's growing complex.
    cal cup
    may. 50+ years running, international clubs, supers division every year. finalists many times; winning it is our last quest.
    USFHL
    every year since it began: regionals (RCC) in california → nationals (NCC) in delaware.

    player

  4. 2015—19

    · olympic club field hockey · founder + commissioner, with nicole (ng) rose.

    founder

  5. 2013—14

    · pitched field hockey to the olympic club board.

    founder

  6. 2011—14

    · JV + varsity coach, st. ignatius.

    coach

  7. 2010—22

    · NCFHA, san francisco · player; 4 years on the board as treasurer + vice president.

    boards

  8. 2005—09

    · UNSW, sydney metro hockey league.

    club

  9. 2002—05

    · mcgill university varsity · captain 2004 + 2005.

    college

  10. 1999—01

    · futures elite NE · VT all-state 2000—01 · VT twin state 2001.

    state

  11. 1998—01

    · high school varsity, milton VT · captain 2000 + 2001.

    school

  12. age 9

    · first stick. never missed a year since.

    origins

years with a stick
30+
national titles
4
USA masters teams
3

usa field hockey

with team usa

Masters has been a goal since my club days in Sydney, when a teammate tried out for the Australian Masters team and I couldn't wait to turn 35. Then two years of herniated discs made me think I'd never play again, so every Masters year since has come on the other side of that recovery.

Nobody here is by accident. We've all chosen to keep showing up for this game and for each other, and some of our O65 players have been teammates for 40+ years. Because Masters draws women from all over the country to one team, it keeps old friends playing together too: Maisa Badawy and I have been friends for 15 years, since coaching at St. Ignatius together, and even though she moved away from San Francisco, we never missed a beat.

My whole Masters career has happened at BILL. The years I was learning to lead in a brand new field were the same years I was building the Olympic Club program, and leading a team on the pitch made me a better leader at my desk, and the other way around.

the USA women's O40 team crouched together on green turf, an american flag hung on the fence behind them
the O40s at the masters world cup, netherlands, 2026.
the USA masters team on blue turf in buenos aires, wearing silver medals and holding an american flag
the first pan am continental cup, buenos aires, 2023. silver.
sav and lisa lohre in navy USA singlets, smiling on the shore with the golden gate bridge behind them
with lisa lohre: olympic club teammates for 11 years, USA teammates for two tours.
sav and maisa badawy in white USA field hockey practice tops, arms around each other on the turf at amherst, sav barefoot
with maisa badawy at USA masters training: friends for 15 years.

the olympic club

building a legacy in san francisco

the olympic club field hockey team, wearing their medals, in front of the golden gate bridge

When I moved to San Francisco in 2010, I played in the local league and coached at St. Ignatius. A mentor on the Olympic Club board encouraged me to bring field hockey to the club. It took a few years of pitching the board on the team we could build, and in 2015 we played our first season.

The founding teammates who joined me that year have become sisters: Lisa Lohre, Nicole (Ng) Rose, Kendall (Beveridge) Liss, Caitlin Beatty + Maisa Badawy. 11 years and 4 national titles later, it's one of the top adult women's programs in the country, and I get to watch generation after generation of women play the sport they love.

Nicole and I were the original commissioners: I led through 2019, and Nicole through 2022. Since 2023, Brittany Knouse and Janaye Sakkas have led a new generation, with Brynn Gitt, Agustina Singh + Michael Barminski, taking it to levels I never dreamed possible. I feel lucky to still be playing, now for the team they're leading and building.

four olympic club teammates in black and red jerseys, arms linked, smiling in front of the golden gate bridge
four of our founders: teammates for decades, in the city we love.
the olympic club team in maroon, arms up and cheering in front of a goal cage, the trophy at their feet
our very first national title, 2019. that one will always be special.
olympic club players in white and red, every hand reaching up to hold a gold trophy overhead
our 2022 national title, and a culture that's powerful, positive + fun.
big dream

a home for field hockey in SF

build the home for the sport i love, in the city i love.

Field hockey is a growing sport in the Bay Area, and it doesn't have a home yet. Someday I want to build one.

open to co-conspirators.

concept render: a field hockey pitch on a pier in the bay, with the golden gate bridge and the san francisco skyline behind
obviously ai 🙂 but a big dream deserves a high-fidelity visual!

beyond the stick

other sports i love

  • running
  • hiking
  • biking
  • swimming
  • surfing
  • kayaking
  • pickleball
  • handball
  • tennis (trying)
  • basketball (fan)
  • soccer (fan)
  • volleyball (fan)
bingo, a curly black-and-white dog in a red olympic club field hockey shirt, tongue out, the golden gate bridge behind
bingo, in team colors.

the outdoors

an awe chaser.

I love feeling small: a trail, a summit, a view that takes my breath away. I always wondered why nature felt so powerful, and Johann Hari's Lost Connections, one of my favorite books, gave me the aha: living life inside walls makes us feel bigger than we're meant to feel. We're such a small part of this earth, and we should always feel that way.

I love California and Vermont equally. I grew up in Milton, Vermont (Vert Mont, the green mountain), and didn't realize what a privilege that was until I started coming back as an adult.

sav on the summit of mt. mansfield in a pink cap and sunglasses, green vermont ridges rolling away under the clouds
on top of mt. mansfield, vermont.

women's sports

san francisco is a dream city.

I'm head over heels in love with this city: boldly creative, incredibly fun, fiercely free. A place where wild ideas are celebrated and love is love, where we build businesses on weekdays and hit the trail, the road, the court or the pitch on the weekend.

It's the epicenter of women's sports, with a professional team in all the major leagues: basketball (the Valkyries), baseball (the Firebells), volleyball (the Signal) and soccer (Bay FC). Only here could the first billion-dollar WNBA franchise be born. Kate and I were there for the Valkyries' very first game.

It's such a privilege to live here, in this moment.

sav in her olympic club jersey, stick held out in a low ready stance, the golden gate bridge behind her
i love representing my favorite city for my favorite sport.
sav at bay to breakers, glitter on her cheeks, grinning in a golden state valkyries jersey, runners behind her
bay to breakers, in my valkyries jersey.
sav and kate in matching pink caps in the stands at chase center, before the valkyries' first game
with kate at the valkyries' very first game.
sav sitting on the seawall, hugging bingo, a curly black-and-white dog in an olympic club field hockey shirt, the golden gate bridge behind them
bingo + me.

in the olympian

the team, in print