Erin Matson

A Gen Z role model not only for what she's already achieved-but for what she still has ahead of her.

- By Amy Wilkinson

ERIN MATSON HAS A TATTOO etched across her right hand that reads simplicity. It's an ethos her dad instilled from an early age and one that Erin has embraced as the head coach of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Tar Heels field hockey team. Though her goals are ambitious, simplicity dictates that she and the women she leads tackle them step by step, day by day. This approach has already garnered her an NCAA title—as a 23-year-old first-time coach, no less. (One of the youngest ever in Division I athletics.)

Raised in suburban Pennsylvania, Erin had a field hockey stick in her hands from the age of 6, when her mom—a former collegiate field hockey and softball player—enrolled her and her best friend in a field hockey clinic. "It was on this horrible grass field," Erin, now 25, recalls. "With all the divots, it's not a fun game, but for some reason, I fell in love with it. I knew then and there that it was the sport I wanted to play."

And play she did. By 13, she was traveling with the U.S. Women's National Indoor Team, and at 17, she officially made the U.S. Outdoor Team. Just how good was Erin at that age? When she joined the U.S. team at 13, she routinely faced off against 30-year-olds. She's the type of player sportswriters describe as a "prodigy" or "wunderkind."

By the time she was recruitable at age 15, she'd already spent a significant amount of time playing with collegiate-level women, many of whom were Tar Heels. She liked what she saw; there was something about UNC that just felt right, Erin says.