Erin Matson says change in USA Field Hockey is ‘necessary’ after being denied an Olympic tryout

North Carolina field hockey coach Erin Matson released a statement on social media Thursday night about being denied an Olympic tryout spot, saying she’s moved on, but change in USA Field Hockey is “necessary.”

“I have represented the United States with great pride on numerous occasions since I was 13 years old,” wrote Matson, a 24-year-old Chadds Ford native whose Tar Heels won the NCAA championship last November in her first season at the helm. “I hope to do so again in the future.”

In February, Matson, a four-time NCAA champion at UNC, requested a tryout for a spot on the 2024 Paris Olympics roster with Team USA. She said she met all criteria of the selection process policy of the USA Field Hockey bylaws, yet was said to be ineligible.

» READ MORE: Chadds Ford’s Erin Matson still hopes to be an Olympian, but she’s ‘living my dream’ coaching UNC

USA Field Hockey did not give specifics as to why, Matson said, but asked her this week in an email to travel to Charlotte, N.C., to discuss her involvement in the 2026 World Cup and 2028 Los Angeles Olympic Games.

“There is plenty of time after the Paris Games to talk about my involvement in 2026 and 2028,” Matson wrote. “And I look forward to having that discussion.

“I believe change in USA Field Hockey is necessary. We should be focused on naming the strongest possible roster in order to be successful on the world stage.”

USA Field Hockey released a statement Friday afternoon, stating there are two paths to determine an athletes’ selection. First, a number of athletes are invited to tryout in early 2023 for consideration into the pool for the Olympic qualifier and Olympic Team. The second qualifying route is by “ongoing observation” by the USA Field Hockey selection committee.

“Erin Matson did not meet the qualification requirements and requested a special exception to the published Olympic Selection Process policies,” USA Field Hockey wrote. “This came after the team qualified for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games and in the final stage of preparing the team for Olympic level competition. Erin was invited by USA Field Hockey to tryout in early 2023, but turned down the opportunity, which established the main pool of candidates for potential selection.

“Subsequently, Erin has not played in national or international competitions necessary to be evaluated on an ongoing basis since the original selection of the centralized athlete pool in early 2023. It was not possible for the selection committee to fairly evaluate the inclusion of Erin. As a result, Erin did not qualify under the mandatory terms of the selection criteria that all athletes had to follow for possible inclusion on the team.”

However, Brian Matson, Erin’s father, chimed in Friday night on X, formerly known as Twitter, after the USA Field Hockey statement came out, saying Matson never requested a special exception and players were added to the Team USA roster in February who were not part of the USA pipeline for four to six years.