Waxahachie’s Haley Schoolfield named Big 12 Coach of the Year, leads equestrian team to national tournament

KBEC Sports report

FORT WORTH — Waxahachie continues to leave its mark on the collegiate equestrian national scene through longtime director Haley Schoolfield. The Big-12 Conference has also recently recognized the head coach as the most outstanding in its conference. 

Schoolfield, a Waxahachie resident and Director of Equestrian at Texas Christian University, has the Horned Frogs on horseback galloping into the NCEA National Championship on Thursday, April 14. The opening round will feature TCU, ranked as the fourth seed, against No. 5 Georgia at the World Equestrian Center in Ocala, Fla.

It is TCU’s 15th national championship appearance, with the equestrian program having made the championship every year since its inception in 2006-07.  

“I am excited for our team to have another opportunity to compete against very high-level competition,” Schoolfield told TCU Athletics. “Our group learned a lot from this last weekend and we are hungry after the way everything ended up. We know the competition will be fierce, but I am confident in our girls and our team.”

TCU and Georgia will match up for only the third time in the postseason. TCU fell to then, No. 3 Georgia, 10-6, in the opening round of the National Championship this past year.

Schoolfield and the TCU equestrian team will also head to the 2022 National Championship — set for April 14-16 in Ocala, Fla. at the World Equestrian Center — as well-decorated riders.

Schoolfield, along with senior Isabella Baxter and sophomore Jessica McAllister, highlighted the recently announced All-Big 12 Conference Team awards.

Schoolfield was named Big 12 Coach of the Year for the second time in her career, the first since her 2014 campaign. Schoolfield, who is in her ninth season with the Horned Frogs, becomes just the third head coach in the Big 12 to earn multiple coach-of-the-year honors, joining Oklahoma State’s Larry Sanchez and Kansas State’s Casie Maxwell.

Schoolfield guided the Frogs to a 10-5 regular-season record, including a season-ending seven-match win streak. All seven wins came against ranked opponents.

TCU is fresh off a second-place finish in the Big 12 Championships. 

In 2015-16, Schoolfield was named the National Collegiate Equestrian Association National Coach of the Year. She guided the Horned Frogs to the program’s first National Championship Runner-Up performance at the 2016 NCEA National Championships in Waco. The Horned Frogs made NCEA history by becoming the lowest seed ever to advance to the finals under the current format.