Latest in a series of "Where are they now?" features on members of the Colgate athletics family. Click HERE for previous profiles.

HAMILTON – Passion clearly drives Jen Hughes '97.

It carried her through a brilliant soccer playing career at Colgate and in the professional ranks, and it motivates her today as she's about to complete a magical first decade as head women's soccer coach at Amherst College.

"The one thing I always come back to about Colgate people is the passion they have for the school," Hughes said. "As soccer players, we were so inspired – not just about soccer, and not just about playing college soccer, but about playing for Colgate.

"Colgate students and alums are so passionate about Colgate. Not a lot of people have that same fire for their alma mater or for their school while they are students."

Hughes transferred that same energy – and passion – to her current campus in the western portion of Massachusetts. Amherst is off to another winning start this season after Hughes entered her 10th year at the school with a record of 105-30-21 (.740).

Her résumé includes three NESCAC regular season titles and one tournament championship, three appearances in the NCAA Division III national quarterfinals, and a spectacular 20-1 record in 2011 when the Jeffs won their first 20 games.

"That was amazing; there really are no words for it," Hughes said of the season two years ago. "Everything just clicked. We had a ton of talent, we had amazing chemistry, and we had incredible leadership, which, in my experience, is the X-factor.

"We worked really hard before the fall season on leadership and developing that and how to react or respond to certain situations. And that paid dividends."

Coaching Honors
In 2001, Amherst advanced to the NCAA quarterfinals, where the Jeffs fell to eventual national champion Messiah. For her efforts, Hughes was named NESCAC and NSCAA New England Coach of the Year.

"We had all the ingredients and we also got a little lucky, which helps," Hughes said. "It was an amazing season. And because we were able to play Messiah, we were able to assess where the program was relative to the best.

"One of the most encouraging things about that game and that season is we discovered we could compete with the best team in the country."

Hughes credits her Colgate head coach, Kathy Brawn, with not only being an important mentor in her life but also instilling in her the important nuances that make for a successful college head coach.

"Kathy has this uncanny ability to detect things about a game in general and the way individual players are playing that a lot of other people don't notice, don't recognize or simply can't see," Hughes said. "She would give players feedback and I just remember thinking, 'Gosh, I never would have thought of that;' or, 'I never realized that.'

"Now as a coach, she makes me think about things that just aren't obvious. That has helped me understand the game in a different way."

Hughes played the game differently as well. The Syracuse native lettered four years for the Raiders from 1993-96, serving as a co-captain her senior season. She graduated as Colgate's all-time leading scorer with 106 points, and still ranks third on the current chart.

All-League Four Times
A member of the Patriot League's All-Decade Team for the 1990s, Hughes was a first team All-League performer four times and the conference's 1996 Offensive Player of the Year. She played on three Patriot League championship teams and twice was named Patriot League Tournament MVP.

She had her No. 2 jersey retired in 2002 and was inducted into Colgate's Hall of Honor in 2006.

Hughes and the Raiders put together quite a season in her final year of 1996. Colgate went 19-2, with the only losses coming to top-10 opponents on the road at Connecticut and at Virginia. The Raiders defeated Army 3-2 in sudden death overtime on Van Doren Field to win the Patriot League championship, and then knocked off Army and Yale to claim the ECAC Tournament title.

Yet one tournament bid went missing. The Patriot League didn't have an automatic NCAA bid back then, and an at-large berth wasn't offered.

"I have really mixed feelings about my senior year," Hughes said. "Statistically, it was an incredible season. And probably the best thing about that season was we ended on a win; not many people can say that. So not only did I finish that season on a win, but I finished my career on a win."

But Hughes wanted the test of playing against the nation's best.

"We had finally for the first time in program history cracked the top 25," she said. "At the end of the season, we were ranked No. 23 in the country. They took 32 teams to the NCAA tournament that year, and we did not get a bid.

"My co-captain, Lindsey Barnett, and I wanted so badly to be the first (women's) team in Colgate history to make the NCAA tournament. We felt we had done all the work to get there and we got kind of the cold shoulder from the NCAA.

"That was tough, and that was the biggest disappointment from my career."

European Experience
After graduation, Hughes was able to reach one goal through soccer that she had not been able to accomplish – because of soccer – during her Colgate career. She signed to play professionally overseas.

"That's one of the reasons I wanted to go to Sweden," Hughes said. "It's very popular to study abroad at Colgate and I really wanted to do that. I wanted to go over on the Colgate Economics Study Group, but it was in the fall and I couldn't do that being a soccer player."

When the pro chance came along, Hughes was 18 months into a two-year analyst program at Goldman Sachs in New York City. And while she felt very fortunate to have such an amazing first job out of college, she hesitated only briefly before making her choice.

"It was a tough decision for about a second," Hughes recalled. "I knew it was something I had to do – an opportunity first of all to go abroad and second to play abroad. It's an opportunity not a lot of people get, so I jumped on it."

Hughes played seven month in Sweden, from April to October 1999, facing some of the best talent Europe had to offer.

"It was an incredible experience and the soccer was off-the-charts," Hughes said. "It definitely was the highest level of soccer I had ever played. Most of my teammates were national team players, and the entire Swedish National Team was in that league along with players from Norway, England and other international locations.

"It was very challenging just being in another country, where you don't speak the language and your support system is far away. But it was an experience I would not trade for anything. I grew up a lot over there and my priorities changed a little bit."

Consistent Missions
Those priorities are now firmly planted in Massachusetts soil. Hughes after her playing days spent two seasons as a Colgate assistant coach under Brawn before making what she called the easy transition to Amherst.

"Honestly, there are more similarities than differences," she said of the two schools. "Sure, the level of player at Colgate might be slightly higher than at Amherst. But the talent we have to work with at Amherst is pretty incredible, which makes it a lot of fun."

Consistent with the missions of both Colgate and Amherst, education remains a big part of Hughes' life. She owns an MBA and MS in Sport Management from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and most recently completed her Juris Doctor from the University of Connecticut.

Hughes also passed the Massachusetts bar exam in June to become an attorney.

Hughes says the Amherst student-athletes she coaches want to succeed not only on the field but also in the classroom and beyond. She feels honored to be part of the continual growth process of successful student-athletes.

"I love coaching at Amherst," Hughes said. "I love coaching in general, but the type of student-athlete at Amherst is very similar to the type of student-athlete at Colgate. So it's a model I'm very familiar with."