Jaclyn Kintzer Briggs Named To USA Field Hockey Hall Of Fame

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – Carolina field hockey program legend Jaclyn Kintzer Briggs has been honored as a member of the USA Field Hockey 2026 Hall of Fame Class, with the organization honoring her and the two other inductees at their annual gala on Saturday night.

Briggs owns one of the most decorated careers in Carola field hockey history. As a player she was a two-time first team All-American, national champion, and All-ACC honoree while also helping the team to an ACC Championship in her freshman season. Then known as Jackie Kintzer, she was the recipient of the team's Carmen and Michael Hooker Leadership Award and the Laree Beans Practice Player of the Year Award as a senior.

After graduation, she served two different stints as a volunteer assistant coach with the Tar Heels spanning three seasons (2012, 2018-19). As a member of the staff, she added another national title and three ACC titles to her trophy cabinet.

All of those incredible accomplishments noted, it is her phenomenal career on the international circuit that has earned her induction into the USA Field Hockey Hall of Fame. An Olympian in Rio 2016 and a reserve for London 2012, Briggs was an outstanding goalkeeper for the U.S. Women's National Team. She joined the USWNT in 2010 and competed in 184 international matches before retiring in 2017.

In 2008, while still at UNC, Briggs helped USA claim gold at the Junior Pan American Championship in Mexico City, Mexico, and was a member of the squad that played in the 2009 Junior World Cup in Boston, Mass., where the team finished eighth.

After joining the senior squad in 2010, one of Briggs' defining moments came just before the 2011 Pan American Games. Originally not on the roster, she got a phone call two days before the tournament started to make a last-minute flight to join the team in Guadalajara, Mexico.

From there, she helped USA upset Argentina in the final, earning the program's first ever Pan American gold medal, and punching the team's ticket to the London 2012 Olympic Games. That same year, she helped USA to a silver medal finish at the Champions Challenge I in Dublin, Ireland before earning gold in the 2013 FIH Hockey World League Round 2 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. She returned to Brazil three years later as the starting goalkeeper for Team USA at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, where they finished fifth.

Briggs was also a member of the 2014 squad that shocked the world with a fourth place finish at the 2014 Rabobank Hockey World Cup and a gold medal at the 2014 Champions Challenge. She was pivotal in USA's gold medal at the 2015 Pan American Games and bronze medals in the 2016 Champions Trophy and 2017 women's Pan American Cup.

Her goalkeeping highlighted the USWNT's gold medal performance at the 2017 FIH Hockey World League Semifinals in South Africa, where she was named Best Goalkeeper of the Tournament following two critical shootout victories. This aided her being nominated for the 2017 FIH Hockey Stars Awards Female Goalkeeper of the Year.

She now serves as associate head coach for the Wake Forest field hockey program and is still actively involved with the USWNT. From 2020 to 2024 she helped the goalkeepers on the and from 2021 to 2023 she was the assistant coach for the U-18 team, and since 2024 she has been an assistant and goalkeeper coach for the U-16 USWNT.

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