The 2024 season will be Ryley van der Velde's 3rd season with the Marlins. She was named the Head Field Hockey Coach at Virginia Wesleyan University in late December 2021.
In her third season as head coach, she achieved double-digit wins for the first time since 2006 and reached 12 wins for the first time since 2005. The team earned a trip to the ODAC Championship tournament for the first time since 2016, which was also the last time the Marlins went .500 in conference play. Three Marlins earned All-Conference accolades, including Goalkeeper Berkley Miller winning ODAC & ECAC Rookie of the Year.
In her second season as head coach the team improved immensely improving to 7-11 overall and 3-6 in the ODAC. They played three Top-25 Nationally Ranked teams, CNU, Lynchburg, and Shenandoah. This season, she had two players on the All-Conference team, Katherine Druiett was named Second Team, and Lauren Hedspeth was Third Team.
The team took great strides in 2022 with Stephanie Hoke being named to the ODAC All-Conference team and had 10 players named to the 2022 NFHCA DIII National Academic Squad.
Before joining Virginia Wesleyan, van der Velde coached field hockey at Rocky Hill Country Day School in East Greenwich, Rhode Island. She is also a former assistant coach at NCAA Division III Salve Regina University in Newport, RI. With the Seahawks, van der Velde was responsible for individual skills, player development, and academic success. She was involved in program operations, formulating practice plans, and planning film breakdown and evaluation sessions.
van der Velde played four years of collegiate field hockey. She received her Bachelor of Arts Degree in Human Development from Connecticut College and her Master's in Clinical Rehabilitation and Mental Health Counseling from Salve Regina University. Van der Velde also served as a Mental Health Counseling intern while coaching at Rocky Hill.
