FORMER OWEGO FIELD HOCKEY COACH HREHOR, A THREE-SPORT STANDOUT AT WHITNEY POINT, JOINS SECTION IV HALL OF FAME (2020-03-30)

Tioga County Sports Report
TIOGA COUNTY — Kylie (Burghardt) Hrehor is part of a family act which has been inducted into the Section IV Hall of Fame Class of 2020.

The field hockey coach at Owego until recently, Hrehor is a 2005 graduate of Whitney Point. Her sister, Briana Burghardt, is a 2000 grad, and their mother, Linda (Shrauger) Burghardt, is a 1976 grad. Hrehor's father, Steve, was inducted in 2016.

"It's kind of unbelievable," she said. "My dad was inducted four years ago, and my mom and my sister and I, all three of us were inducted this year, so not only is it a huge honor as an individual, but for our family as well. It's unbelievable that we were nominated and thought of this highly as athletes. My dad went in as a coach, and my mom and sister and I went in as athletes."

Hrehor competed in three sports for the Golden Eagles, earning 11 varsity letters.

In field hockey, Hrehor was a four-time letter winner teams posted a 60-18-4 record, winning two division, three sectional and three regional titles as well as three state playoff berths.

She scored 25 goals, dished out 22 assists, was a tough end-to-end competitor and excelled on penalty corners. A four-time first-team all-star, she was selected to the state tournament team and named an all-state player. The National Field Hockey Coaches Association named her a national youth volunteer award recipient.

"Field hockey was always my first love," Hrehor said. " I played field hockey and basketball year-round, but field hockey was always my first love. I think the challenge of it and because I was naturally drawn to it, I found that even though it was challenging, I was good at it.

"There was just something about it. It wasn't a very popular sport, but I was just drawn to it, loved it."

Hrehor was also a four-time letter-winner in basketball, being called up to the varsity early in her freshman season. An 80-percent free throw shooter, she sank 28 consecutive foul shots at one point.

Whitney Point won the league title its first year in STAC, won a sectional title and was a runner-up another time. Hrehor received first-team, second-team and honorable mention all-star recognition pick during her career, and was selected to play in the Stars and Stripes and Exceptional Senior games.

She was also a three-time letter winner in track and field. She missed her senior season due to a torn ACL suffered in the senior game.

Hrehor would go on to attend Cornell University, then transferred to SUNY Cortland. The Red Dragons went 53-8 during her three seasons there and won three SUNYAC championships to qualify for nationals. She earned NFHCA All-North Atlantic first-team regional honors in 2007 and second team in 2008. She also received first-team All-SUNYAC honors in 2007 and was second-team All-SUNYAC in 2008.

"At the high school level, you're still considered a student-athlete first and that's how you did a lot of socializing, at least I did, was through athletics, but also playing year-round and playing club, it taught you a lot of life lessons, like you could still have friends who were on the opposite team. I had a lot of friends that played for Marathon and Greene that I played club with."

Hrehor noted there were significant differences between high school and college.

"You go from living at home, you have a schedule, then you got to college and it's this huge freedom," she said. "Two months after graduation at 17 or 18 years old, you are expected to (do) time management, you don't have your parents to do this for you. I didn't think was it so much of a challenge as it was eye-opening and you had to grow up pretty quickly, especially going to a campus as big as Cornell, and just making sure you're getting your workouts in, the academics were being taken care of.

"On the flip side of that, especially SUNY Cortland, had such a great support system for their athletes with their coaches, study tables and they even had a coordinator for transfer students like myself that were helping me with my schedule, so that was really awesome."

Hrehor coached field hockey at Bethany College in West Virginia, Trine University in Indiana and at Ithaca College, and coached field hockey and lacrosse at Wells College in Aurora, New York.

A teacher in Johnson City, a move from the high school to the elementary has caused a scheduling conflict with coaching at Owego, forcing Hrehor to step down from her coaching position she held there the past three seasons. She said she didn't feel it was fair to the Indians' program to continue coaching there.

Hrehor will continue to coach at JC, switching from an assistant track and field coach to assisting with lacrosse.

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IN PHOTO: Former Owego coach Kylie Hrehor during her college days. ... PHOTO COURTESY OF SUNY CORTLAND.