A couple weeks after stepping down from a Glenelg athletics program with which she's spent the greater part of the last 40 years, Ginger Kincaid is preparing for a new chapter.
The longtime coach has announced that she will be trading in the Gladiators' red for Wilde Lake green this fall.
Kincaid, who has had a historic coaching career that includes winning 22 county championships, 25 region titles and six state crowns overall, will be taking over as head coach of the Wildecats' field hockey program.
"After a lot of thought I decided that I still had something left to give to a program that wanted me, so I agreed to take the position," said Kincaid, who had spent the last 39 years at Glenelg. "It is going to be a challenge. After 40 years I might say in the huddle 'Lets go Glenelg.' Not sure I can wear the green and gold, but I am going to give it a try."
Kincaid also added she is, "excited for the new challenge," of taking over a program that combined for five wins the past two seasons.
Kincaid saw great success with the Gladiators field hockey program. She was only the third head coach at the school, filling in for Liz Brigham in 1975, and then later taking over full time in 1978. Through her 39 seasons, Kincaid carries an astounding .727 winning percentage, along with 20 county championships, 17 regional titles and three state championships.
"She started out great. The middle of her career was great and she ended great. There are no words to describe it. It's just fantastic," said new Gladiators field hockey coach Nikki Trunzo. "I just think she just keeps up with the game. She's been involved with the game so much. She started feeder programs here and I think just staying up with the game, being involved. She never took time off."
After spending last season assisting Kincaid, Trunzo will take over the Glenelg field hockey program this fall. Kincaid had her eye on Trunzo since she came into the county in 2010 as the head coach at Oakland Mills.
"Talking with Ginger and talking with everybody else, it was just an easy transition. She made me comfortable in saying, 'This will be yours.' I think she went through the same thing with the woman who coached before her. Hopefully I can make it as long as Ginger did and I could do the same thing," Trunzo said. "It's awesome to see how things are run. I always said coach Kincaid is a legend of a coach. It's awesome, but it can be a little uncomfortable too, because these are some big shoes to fill. She (has) six state championships between lacrosse and field hockey, those are big shoes to fill.
"It's a little nervousness, but an excitement at the same time, because this has been my dream job."
Kincaid and Trunzo first encountered each other in 2010, when a loaded Glenelg team, which featured top talent such as Mary Kate Olson and Alyssa Parker, played against then first-year coach Trunzo and the Scorpions. That Gladiators team was one of the most talented Kincaid has coached, winning back-to-back state titles in 2010 and 2011, and it methodically built a 19-0 advantage with 10 minutes left in that game against Oakland Mills.
But Trunzo didn't let the deficit deter her team, remained positive and kept coaching until the final seconds.
"I was so impressed with Nikki because she was still coaching. She was still positive and she had the kids focused. She really did a good job of having them do the right things on the field, but we were just that much better athletically than they were. And I was just so impressed with how she handled herself and how she handled her team, I thought then — you know, I was looking to the future of trying to find someone to take over the program even then and I had put it in the back of my mind that I would like to bring her into Glenelg at some point," Kincaid said. "I really loved what she did with the hockey program this year. She was my assistant and it was a good transition and we just seamlessly work together. She has her own ideas and she'll make it her own program and I'm really glad for that because it's time for new ideas and new things."
This past fall, Glenelg finished another stellar season, ending with a 13-2 overall mark and a share of the county title. However, its season ended in heart-breaking fashion with a 1-0 loss to rival Marriotts Ridge in the 2A East section finals.
"It was very emotional for me, just because we kind of knew it was her stepping down and me stepping in," Trunzo said. "She always makes light of things when things are not the easiest. Like our last game at Marriotts Ridge… she went around to every single girl and shook her hand and said, 'It was a pleasure to (have) coached you, be proud.' She always stayed positive, always stayed calm."
Grace Olson and Paige Reese were both part of the Gladiators field hockey team this past season and have been coached by Kincaid since joining the Stampede clinics when they were 6 years old.
"She'd always push us and motivate us. Yes she was very shy and very quiet, but she has her ways of getting to us and really pumping us up or making sure we're a team. We finish as a team, win, lose, whatever, we're always a team," said Olson, who enters her senior season with the Gladiators this coming fall. "We're going to miss her a lot. She's just such a sweet lady. Her personality is probably what I'm going to miss the most. Her positive attitude and the way she handles those stressful situations, she handles them really well and it calms me, and calms the team."
"She always made it really fun. Her attitude was always happy, always positive. Even if we lost she was always like, 'It's OK, we'll get them next time, just work harder,'" added Reese, who enters her junior season. "She's helped my hits a lot. I used to have really bad hits and she's helped me get better since I've gotten here. I think she made a point for people to know her on a personal level too. She really opened herself up."
When Kincaid started teaching and coaching full-time at Glenelg in 1978, she took over the field hockey and softball programs at the school, as girls lacrosse had not yet been introduced in the county.
She, Centennial teacher Gail Purcell and Mt. Hebron guidance counselor P.J. Kesmodel pushed the sport on the school board for several years and finally, in 1988, the sports committee unanimously voted girls lacrosse as a county sport. Today Howard County is one of the richest areas for Division I girls lacrosse talent in the country.
In 28 seasons with the Gladiators girls lacrosse team, Kincaid owns an impressive record of 316-144, including two county championships, eight region titles and three state championships.
"Here's somebody who's been around the game and could have easily coasted at that point… but she was just open to ideas and looking at new things," said Gladiators coach Alex Pagnotta, who assisted Kincaid with the program the past four seasons. "She's been so patient and dedicated. When times were tough she just would push through and maybe she didn't have that much talent as the previous year, but nothing ever deterred her from putting the whistle around her neck, going back out there and doing what she loves. She would always push through all those little adversities around the way and some how, some way, would always come up with a team that was competitive and vying for either a county championship or trying to get to states."
This past season Glenelg had an abundance of talent and hit their peak at the perfect time, rolling through postseason play and claiming its third state championship in program history.
"We thought going into this year it would be a good year. We didn't know what it would bring in the end. We felt like if we got everybody together, had parents' support we would be OK. We didn't know about a state championship, but we knew it would be a good year," Pagnotta said.
The Gladiators cruised through the playoffs with impressive wins over rivals Mt. Hebron, county-champion Marriotts Ridge and Atholton, before dismantling C. Milton Wright and Oakdale by a combined score of 29-4 in the state semifinal and championship games.
"It was a storybook ending really to bring a team along," Kincaid said. "It just couldn't of fallen in place any better in the end. The whole way, I mean the way it happened, the fact that we came back and beat the teams that we had struggled against and how the actual ending was such a punctuation (mark). It wasn't even a lucky win or a win here or there, it was such a domination, so it was a good way to end."
Kincaid's achievements have not gone unnoticed through the years. She is a U.S. Lacrosse Hall Fame member — Greater Baltimore Chapter, Howard County Women's Athletics Hall of Fame member and Glenelg Athletic Hall of Fame member.
"Sports are just a way of life for her and her whole family. It's the cornerstone of what she's lived for all these years," added Pagnotta, who presumably will take over the Glenelg girls lacrosse program this spring, although no announcement has been officially made. "She's been the only (girls lacrosse) coach at Glenelg. She started the program. She played the sport. She is probably one of the pillars in the county. I mean she was a part of Hero's way back at the start of Hero's, with P.J Kesmodel and that group. She was on board and helping with the program then. I think she's been so key for the development of the game."
Not only did Kincaid help facilitate a new sport into the county, but also helped bolster the talent in an old one with feeder programs like the Howard Stampede clinics, which was the first recreational field hockey program in the county.
"When I came in (to varsity) freshman year she was my coach, but I've also known her and she's also coached me through our Stampede clinics that we have in the summer. I started either second or third grade, so I've known her for a long time and especially my sister was on the team," said Olson, who's sister Mary Kate aided Glenelg in winning back-to-back state titles in 2010 and 2011. "Everybody respects her and everybody loves her. I remember I'd always come in and talk to her. She was always there. She always knew what to say."
Kincaid, along with Kelly Snyder and Shelly Chamness founded Hericane Hockey, which was one of the first indoor field hockey club teams in Maryland. Kincaid also helped out with Hero's Summer League when it first began in the mid-1980's.
"I think her influence is that she's not demanding things, it's that she's leaving a legacy. She is leaving kids that are well trained. She works with the Hericane's, which was a combination of River Hill, Glenelg and Long Reach originally in field hockey… It really impacted other high schools and eventually Wilde Lake became apart of that, and I think Centennial had a part in the Hericane's for a while (too)," said former Howard County Times field hockey and girls lacrosse beat reporter Carol Gralia. "She really liked the Hero's model in that the coaches weren't paid… it was volunteer, it was give back and she always believed in that. She's trained her kids to give back. She gets her kids to come help with the Stampede in the summer and with her camps at Glenelg."
Athletics has always been a way of life for Kincaid.
She grew up playing field hockey, basketball and softball at Franklin High School in Baltimore County and eventually went on and lettered in field hockey and lacrosse at Madison College — now known as James Madison University. She then seamlessly transitioned from player to coach and gradually became one of the most successful coaches Howard County has ever seen. And now, after her 39th season with the Gladiators, where she eclipsed the 400- and 300-win mark in field hockey and girls lacrosse — the legendary coach is moving on.
"For my family lacrosse and coaching is a way of life… the whole idea of being immersed in athletics has just been our way of life. It's not even just something that we do on the side," Kincaid said. "I have truly been blessed for almost 40 years to be a part of the Glenelg community. Not many people get an opportunity to teach and coach for so many years in a community that they love. I have had an opportunity to work with many, many girls that I have loved like my own daughters, many that I still keep in contact with."
Along with taking on the head coaching position at Wilde Lake, Kincaid will continue serving on both the MPSSAA Field Hockey State Committee and Lacrosse State Committee, will remain as the regional and county representative for both, while also continuing to organize the Howard County/Carroll county play day for both sports.
Kincaid leaves Glenelg with 724 total wins – 408 in field hockey.