After a superb tenure that included multiple Prep and Mercer County Tournament (MCT) titles, Missy Bruvik stepped down in 2006 from her post as the head coach of the Stuart Country Day field hockey team.

Bruvik, who guided the Tartans to a second straight MCT title and an 18-1-1 record in her final campaign, decided to devote her time to watching her daughter, Kelly, as the former Stuart star graduated and joined the Bucknell University field hockey team.

With Kelly having graduated in 2011 after a stellar career that saw her serve as a team captain for the Bison and the Stuart head coaching job coming open after the departure of Julie Martelli, Bruvik has returned to the helm of the Stuart program.

As Bruvik begins her second act as head coach, she is relishing the challenge of rebuilding a program that went 5-7-1 last fall.

“I feel like I am starting over,” said Bruvik, whose team opens the 2012 season with a game at the George School on September 7.

“I am trying to develop the program and get the numbers back up. I am enjoying this group of kids. I am excited to be back as head coach.”

Bruvik senses excitement around Stuart and the program with an influx of new faces. “There are a lot of new kids in the school, I feel that they can be a foundation,” said Bruvik, noting that she has eight freshmen on her roster.

“It will be fun keeping the kids in the program over the next four years. The attitude around the team has been great.”

The Tartans have been getting some great play and leadership from a trio of veteran stars, seniors Olivia Neubert and Nikki Starke together with junior Amy Hallowell.

“Olivia plays in the back, she is going to be the QB back there for us,” said Bruvik, who kept her hand in coaching over the last five years by guiding the Stuart middle school team and helping out with the varsity.

“Amy is smack in the middle of the field; she is the center back and will be one of our key players on defensive and offensive corners. Nikki is controlling the midfield; she is really helping in transition. The returning varsity players are doing a good job of helping to coach and communicating on the field.”

Another key returner is junior Meghan Shannon, who will be helping to anchor the Stuart backline.

“Meghan is playing in the backfield with sophomore Asha Mohandes,” said Bruvik.

The pair of junior Margaret LaNasa and freshman Queen Johnson will be handling the difficult task of replaced graduated star goalie Margo Schmiederer.

“Margaret is our most experienced keeper, she is looking good,” asserted Bruvik.

“Queen Johnson is a freshman who is learning to play goalie. Both girls are lucky to have Gia Fruscione [former Stuart and Princeton University standout goalie] as their coach.”

Bruvik knows she faces a coaching challenge with her young group. “I think it is going to be a combination of working on the basics because we have a lot of young players and then seeing what works in terms of systems,” said Bruvik.

“I think it is going to be a lot of learning, just working together and figuring out where the teammates are and where the ball needs to be. We need to work on outlets and transitions.”

Just weeks into preseason, the Tartans seem to be figuring things out pretty quickly.

“Based on their work ethic, I think the girls will get it,” said Bruvik. “I saw tremendous improvement from our first scrimmage to our second. We will take it day-to-day and keep it simple and try not do too many things too fast.”