"I always wanted to be a mom. I wanted to be a parent. I like to listen; I like to watch people grow, improve in something," she says. "But the reality of what I was doing in my life at the time didn't put me in a position to be a mom. Everything I did was completely committed to playing and then to coaching. Then this message came and it hit me - this is what my calling is."
Within a year, Meharg was in Russia. She brought home two young boys, neither of whom spoke any English.
"There was no question that Missy could do it from the start," said Carol Miller, Delaware's field hockey coach and Meharg's former teammate there. "Missy is so charismatic and has a wonderful life force. It just made sense for her to be able to share that with two other people."
The boys almost instantly changed not just Meharg's perspective, but her coaching style, too.
"She was always a great coach," says Dina Rizzo, who played at Maryland from 1998 to 2001 and has been on the U.S. national team since 2002. "But there's more to life than field hockey. It's your job, your career; you want to be competitive. But having that balance in life, that's what makes you successful."
In the years since, Meharg says she's become a better listener and a stronger leader. She has more patience and tolerance with her players. She's an experienced text-messenger and is able to separate her life as a coach with her life as a mom. She's careful with her time and with her players', stressing quality over quantity.
"It's nice to win championships," she says. "But we talk about their quality of life, how much you love sport, doing things really well. That's what's important. What you take from sport here is what you'll take into the rest of your life."
Andre is a senior at a boarding school in Utah and plans on playing lacrosse next year in college. Genya is a sophomore at Severna Park, where he's on the soccer team. Both have been fixtures around Maryland games for the past decade. Win or lose this weekend, Meharg says both sons have helped her get to this point.
"There's something bigger than winning. We try to identify that with our players," she says, "and the boys have helped me to really identify what that is for me."
