After two seasons of being an assistant coach at at James Madison University and a one-year head coaching stints at Davis and Elkins University, Cristy Freese came to CMU ready to build on and improve an already successful field hockey program.

Today she sits just one win away from earning her 200th field hockey victory at CMU. Freese began her field hockey career playing for the Buckeyes during the mid-70s.

"The reason why I decided to apply and eventually took the head coaching position at CMU was because of their high quality play on the field," Freese said. "I played against CMU as a player and I don't think I would have ever came to Mt. Pleasant if I did not compete against the Chippewas."

Freese's first head coaching job in 1985 only lasted a year after leaving Davis and Elkins University to join CMU. At this time, Freese got some career advice from someone very close, her mother.

"After I left my first coaching job after just one year, my mother told me that I couldn't jump from team to team every year if I wanted to be successful," Freese said. "I never would have expected to be still coaching here 25 years later, but I know that coaching here is the best decision I have made in my career."

Freese lead CMU to a 10-7 record in her first season.

Freese has compiled a record of 192-285-6 in her 25 years as head coach. She has won the Mid-American Conference Coach of the Year Award three times and has lead the Chippewas to two Mid-American Conference Tournament titles in 1990 and 2005 and one regular season championship in 2002.

She has also coached CMU to five MAC Conference Championship games and six semifinals.

Freese is already the all-time winningest coach at CMU and her squads have won up to 12 games in one season.

Most people measure coaches only by win percentage, but Freese knows that it's so much more than that.

"My philosophy as a coach is to make my players better performers on and off the field," Freese said. "I learned early in my career that sports can teach people to be a quality person in life and I want all my players to be great at everything they do."

The Chippewas have had 46 players have earned NFHCA National academic squad honors over the past four years and 20 players have been placed on the Academic All-MAC team since 2001, under the guidance of Freese.

"Cristy has been a great coach and pushed us on and off the field," senior captain Paulina Lee said. "We are all very excited for her to win her 200th victory and the team will definitely get it for her this weekend."

Freese is always focused on getting the team prepared, but also makes sure to take time for her players.

"She is one of the reasons why I chose to play at CMU," Lee said. "She is so welcoming and takes care of every member of the team and has made my experience being a Chippewa that much better."

The 200th win mark is nice to Freese, but the team has bigger goals to focus on.

Freese will continue to coach at CMU and has no intention of coaching anywhere else for the rest of her career. Although 25 seasons might seem like a long time, she has no intention on retiring from coaching anytime soon.

"I love it here and I will finish coaching in Mt. Pleasant," Freese said. "I think it took too long for me to reach 200 wins and I'm hoping to get the next 50 within the next four to six years; I want to get to 300 wins at CMU"