Houser leaves legacy across two sports

Aug. 31—Much like a tree that falls in an empty forest, the biggest offseason news in area field hockey — if not Valley sports as a whole — wasn't widely heard.

Kent Houser stepped down at Greenwood, ending a remarkable coaching career that spanned 33 years and 64 varsity seasons across three sports.

Houser amassed more than 500 wins in both boys basketball and field hockey. He helped the Wildcats emerge from the ashes of the state's longest losing streak on the hardwood, and he simultaneously created a field hockey legacy that transcended the concept of "a program."

"I always looked at it as that's what the job is — trying to build a program," he said. "Not just come in and coach a couple of years and move on."

Houser rarely called attention to the goings-on in Millerstown, choosing to let the success of his Greenwood teams speak for itself. The numerous Tri-Valley league championships, seven District 3 titles, and even the Wildcats' 2017 Class A state field hockey triumph, were celebrated before becoming part of his amalgam of athletics excellence.

Perhaps his crowning achievement was establishing Greenwood among District 3 field hockey's perennial contenders during the artificial turf era in spite of the team's natural grass field.

"I think I feel most proud that I did it right," said Houser, 71. "I worked hard at it, always wanting to do the best I can do, and I tried to help the kids get an idea of trying to do your best.

"That's always been our motto: Work as hard as you can, and try to do your best."

'He's a great man'Houser began coaching Greenwood field hockey in 1990, following 18-year coach Rose Ann Shipp.

Two years later, he was approached by Principal Ed Burns about filling the softball coach vacancy. The spring season was fast approaching, and the Wildcats were in jeopardy of folding. Houser took the job, recalling, "Some of the kids were hockey players, and I didn't want to see any of the girls lose their season playing softball."

That same year, 1992, he began the first of 26 seasons on the boys basketball bench.

The rest, as they say, is history — and brilliance by any measure.

Houser finished with 1,147 wins and an astounding .750 winning percentage over those 64 seasons. He inspired numerous student-athletes who went on to compete in college athletics and benefit from scholarship opportunities. Many of his former players joined the coaching ranks.

"With Coach Houser being my coach and my mentor, his philosophies are what I know," said Carrie (Shea) Guarente, a longtime Greenwood field hockey assistant coach tapped to replace Houser. "I brought my own skills, observations and personality to our coaching team ... but I do not see anything drastically changing. Coach Houser and I talk several times a week, (and) he has answered all of my questions — sometimes questions I do not even know I have."

Houser inherited a field hockey team on solid footing, but the boys basketball program was only six years removed from ending an 89-game slump. Within three seasons, though, the Wildcats started a string of four District 3 basketball championship game appearances, winning two. That streak was surpassed when Houser's boys went to five consecutive district finals from 2009-13.

Greenwood played in 11 district basketball finals in his 26 seasons, winning four titles (1996, 1997, 2009, 2012) to highlight a 525-193 career record (.731).

Greenwood field hockey sustained its success throughout Houser's three-plus decades at the helm, winning 12 consecutive Tri-Valley crowns through 2019 and upping the program's total to 23 TVL titles just last year. The Wildcats played in back-to-back District 3 finals in 2011 and '12, losing both times, but they broke through in 2018 with the first championship of three in a row.

Interestingly, their 2017 Class A state title — a 2-1 win over national powerhouse Wyoming Seminary — preceded the program's first district crown and subsequent three-peat.

"I just felt like it was my job to win (in 2017) for Mr. Houser, for all the years and everything he's done for us as a team. He's a great man. We love him," said then-junior Paityn Wirth, a two-time prep All-American who is now a fifth-year senior forward at North Carolina.

Greenwood returned to the state final in 2020, further validating a program that learned to excel on turf despite calling the grass of Dar Roush Memorial Field home.

Houser went 567-146-22 in 33 field hockey seasons, an incredible .786 winning percentage.

'It's their time'

Guarente was named Tri-Valley League MVP in her 1994 senior season, and at the time Houser noted that she "does everything superbly, (and is) a tremendous leader." She played at Lock Haven University (1995-1998), where she was a member of the 1995 NCAA Division II national championship team and a co-captain in her senior year.

Guarente spent the majority of the past two decades coaching Greenwood field hockey alongside Houser. A teacher in the school district with a girl in the junior high program, she was the obvious choice to follow Houser.

"I knew his retirement was coming, we spoke openly about it," she said. "I am thankful he waited until this point, and my daughter Molly got to have him as a coach for one middle school season this past spring."

Houser's decision was accelerated when his daughter, Bayley (Vohs) Leonard, was hired to coach Boiling Springs field hockey this year. The Bubblers went 26-0 and won the 2022 Class A state title in Kortney Showers' sixth season as coach. Showers announced plans to step down a few weeks after the season ended, and Leonard, a former assistant at Big Spring, was hired.

Leonard and her husband have a four-year-old daughter and two-year-old son.

"That means they need a babysitter," Houser said with a laugh. "I'd been thinking about (retiring) for a while, and that was one of the factors that made it kind of easy."

Houser has commuted to Millerstown from the Carlisle home he shares with his wife, Aileen. He vowed to help Guarente and assistant Kate Gantt as a volunteer coach for the Wildcats, while also catching as many Boiling Springs games as possible.

"Carrie deserves the opportunity; she's been an assistant for almost 20 years. She and Kate, it's their time," he said. "I'll just kind of be there when needed to let them know what I see. I guess it's kind of 'coach emeritus.'

"I think (the players) are pretty well tuned to Carrie and Kate being in charge. If I have something to say, I do, but the girls know who's running the show."

The Wildcats graduated 10 seniors — nine starters, including leading scorers Jordan Stroup and Audrey Weger, and three-year goalie Lydia Miller — from a team that went 18-5 last season, marking the program's 39th district playoff appearance and earning an eighth consecutive state tournament berth. They've since lost two projected varsity contributors to knee injuries, boosting the degree of difficulty for Guarente.

"'Faces may change, expectations don't' — Coach Houser made this statement every year on the first day of practice, but never have our faces changed so much," she said. "This season will be a lot of different faces. But there is no face that says 'Greenwood field hockey' more than Coach Houser."

Whatever fate throws her way, the wind will be at Guarente's back.

An extraordinary level of enthusiasm surrounds the program, from the vociferous fans who line the hillside above Roush Memorial for every home game to the young girls who buzz around carrying hockey sticks that are yet too big.

The star Wildcats of tomorrow continue to be inspired by the greats of the past, a lineage that includes Shannon Spease, Abby Rehkamp, Ashley Heckard, Autumn Pellman, Taylor Tompkins, Kelsey Keener, Paityn Wirth and Emma Rolston, to name very few. And when they reach high school, they strive for the high bar Greenwood teams have raised for decades.

They have Houser to thank, the sequoia of a coach whose roots spread far and wide.

"I'll miss it," he said, "but I'll be OK."