NFHS rules writing committees consist of experts in the given sport.  Each committee member is nominated by state associations, as is the chairperson, who guides the members through their work.  Each of the NFHS’s eight sections are represented on the given rules committee.  To allow for equal representation, there is also a member of the NFHS Coaches Association and the NFHS Officials Association on each rules committee.  Each committee member serves a four-year term.

The NFHS is pleased to welcome three new members of the Field Hockey Rules Committee: Sherry Bryant, Kelley Haney and Amanda Warford Combs.

Sherry Bryant, NFHS Officials Association, has led a varied 30-year career at the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association (MIAA). Bryant is the current associate executive director and also currently serves as associate director of the Massachusetts School Administrators’ Association (MSAA). In her MIAA role, Bryant is the association’s liaison to the Tournament Management Committee and the Ad Hoc Technology Committee. During her tenure, she has overseen the sports of field hockey, basketball, gymnastics, skiing, tennis, softball and rugby. More recently, Bryant led the MIAA’s COVID-19 Task Force and the MIAA Blue Ribbon Committee on Gender Equity.

At the national level, Bryant is a leader in the NFHS/USA Field Hockey Advocacy Group and is a current member of the NFHS Strategic Planning Committee. In 2008, Bryant was awarded the NIAAA “Outside the Field” Distinguished Service Award at the Massachusetts Secondary Schools Athletic Directors Association Conference.

Kelley Haney, Section 2, has served as the Assistant Director for Athletics for the Virginia High School League (VHSL) since 2017. She has directed field hockey, golf, gymnastics, soccer, cheer and indoor and outdoor track. Her other responsibilities include rules clinics and the officials program. In addition, Haney currently serves as the University of Virginia athletics spirit coordinator, a position she has held since 1997, managing a team of more than 60 cheerleaders, dance team members, and mascot performers. She also supervises three assistant coaches. 

Before joining the VHSL in 2016, Kelley Haney spent 16 years with Varsity Brands, Inc. (1999-2015) as a sales and service representative managing a territory that included 200 schools and youth groups in Virginia. In addition, Haney is the head coach for Spirit Teams at the University of Virginia. She also served as an assistant director of marketing for the University of Virginia from 1997-1999.

Amanda Combs-Warford, Section 7, has been coaching and umpiring field hockey since 2007. She coached at her alma mater El Capitan High School, and from 2017 to present she has been the head Varsity coach at La Jolla High School. She is also the head coach at University of California San Diego since 2016, where she coaches the club college team that she also played for as an undergraduate student, where she graduated in 2012 earning Offensive MVP of the conference and a Bachelor’s degree in Human Biology.

In addition to coaching her college team and Varsity high school team, Amanda and her husband are the club directors and head coaches of Coastal Clash Field Hockey Club in San Diego, CA. Her goal is to grow the game in San Diego and the west coast and start kids playing at younger ages and find a passion for the sport. You can find Amanda continuing to spread her love of the sport by seeing her on the field coaching 4-year-olds one day and high school and college-aged players the next. 

Amanda also umpired from 2007-2017 and was a board member for the San Diego Field Hockey Officials Association for multiple years. She has umpired Division 2 and Division 3 college field hockey. Amanda is currently the San Diego City league representative as well as the San Diego CIF seeding representative.

The Field Hockey Rules Committee Meeting will take place January 9-11, 2023.