On a snow-covered field in Colorado in November of 1980, the SUNY Cortland women's soccer teams, under the tutelage of Coach Anna Rush, captured the first U.S. Women's National Soccer Championship ever held. The national title was also the first won by a SUNY Cortland women's team. For Coach Rush, a 1957 Cortland graduate, the real victory came a week earlier. "The most meaningful event was probably our game with Princeton," she recalled, referring to the Eastern Regional tournament. "We were seeded eighth and they were the No.1 seed. We had worked very hard at our weaknesses and finally you could see we were a team. I think we could have made a training film from that game," Rush added. "We were told by the opposing coach that he never saw a team play a cleaner game, and on top of that, we won. That 'together feeling' we got from that game carried us all the way through Regionals and on to being National Champs."
That same persistent "together feeling" is something Rush acquired as a Cortland student between 1953 and 1957. "As an undergraduate, I participated in the intramural program and the club program that existed at Cortland in 1950's," said the Vernon Center native, who was the Winter Carnival Queen at the College in 1956. "I am very happy to see that the same educational values we got out of participating at this level exist for our athletes in the current varsity program. It is the student who is thought of first," she continued. The desire, dedication and determination she experiences through participation will be applied to other goals in her life.
For Anna Boserup Rush, these goals have been many. In 1957 she was an elementary school physical education instructor at the Cherry Road School in Westvale. In 1959 she became an adult fitness teacher at the YWCA in Utica. From 1966 to 1981, she was a part-time instructor at the Cortland State Campus School and the Department of Physical Education. She also served on the EAIAW Soccer Committee between 1979 and 1981. In addition, Anna has been a Girl Scout leader and has served as a community Girl Scout coordinator.
Her other affiliations include: Cortland YWCA Board of Directors, Cortland Youth Bureau Advisory Board, Cortland High Athletic Booster Club, Cortland Country Club Children's Golf Program, NEX Board of Directors, chairman of the Easter Seal Swim-A-Thon and the Advanced Gifts United Fund. As the first women's soccer coach at SUNY Cortland, Anna compiled an outstanding 38-4-1 record between 1978 and 1980. Her first team, in 1978, outscored its opposition 132-2.
UPDATE: Anna passed away on December 26, 2022, at age 87.
