At 27 years of age, Shellie Onstead thought the dream was over.

After an end to her stellar career with the Cal women's field hockey team in 1983, Onstead turned her attention to achieving what she "literally dreamed about (while) watching TV" as a child -- an appearance on the U.S. Olympic team.

For five years, Onstead proceeded to concentrate her energy on qualifying for the 1988 Seoul Olympics, playing in a semi-professional league in Europe and training with the U.S. National Team.

When she was left off the squad, she was understandably devastated. But exactly 20 years later, Onstead is proving that sometimes a letdown is just the setup for a comeback.

In her freshly-painted office in Memorial Stadium two months after the women's field hockey team clinched a spot to the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Onstead, who is in her 14th season as the Cal women's field hockey coach, smiles and scrolls through pictures of the qualifying tournament on her laptop.

"At the moment that we qualified, and I knew that I was going to the Olympics, that's when it got crazy," she says, pointing to a picture of the coaches and players celebrating amidst a shower of confetti and flowers.

"It was really emotional."

Twenty years ago, Onstead may not have believed that she would someday get a chance to live that scene. In the years following her Seoul disappointment, Onstead took a job in Berkeley as the head coach of the Cal women's field hockey team and soon turned the program into a West Coast powerhouse.

Alongside a full collegiate schedule, Onstead built up her coaching resume that featured additional gigs with the Under-16, Under-21, Senior Men's and Women's National Teams. She was the first female head coach of a men's U-16 squad and remains one of the few women to have coached a U.S. men's field hockey team at any level. Late last year, Onstead was invited take an assistant coaching position with the U.S. Women's National Team.

She wasn't an Olympian in cleats, but Onstead became one with a clipboard.

Since January, Onstead has been racking up the frequent flyer miles and familiarizing herself with the inside of her car.

Monday through Thursday, she trains with the national squad in Chula Vista, Calif. Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, Onstead works in her Memorial Stadium office to catch up on her coaching duties with the Bears.

"This is one of those things that when I took on, I knew it would be tough, but it's harder than I thought," Onstead says. "But I figure I can do anything for eight months, and if it meant an Olympic Games, it all pays off."

Making it to Beijing certainly wasn't a foregone conclusion for the U.S. squad, which has made the Olympics only twice in the past two decades. Any doubts regarding its past shortcomings were removed, however, following the qualifying tournament in Russia.

The Americans dominated the competition, outscoring their opponents 27-4 and finishing as the lone-standing undefeated squad in the tournament.

"I've been involved with a program twice where we tried to qualify and failed and dealt with the heartbreak of the girls," Onstead says. "To be a part of (an Olympics team) is just really, really cool, and I'll always know I helped out in some way, which is neat."

Since qualifying, the team has beaten the world's No. 2 team in Argentina and tied No. 1 Holland in international tournaments, success that Onstead attributes to the collective efforts of the players and coaching staff.

"The nitty-gritty of the work is grueling, but the way we look at it is, we need to be an Olympic-level staff," Onstead says. "We're all going to do our job to the best of our abilities. It's almost like a player. I'm getting psyched up for what I have to do."

The women's field hockey tournament begins on August 10 with group play in two pools of six. The top-two finishers in each pool move on to the medal round. If the U.S. makes it that far, Onstead will have a three in four chance of completing the final chapter of her now slightly-altered Olympic dream with a medal.

"Man, if we medal … I'll tell you what, that would be unbelievable," Onstead says with a shake of her head. "I hate to just focus on that because making it is huge, but we're not going to settle for, 'Oh that's nice we got in after 12 years of trying.' I think we're going to give it a good run for that top four.

"I can't wait."

Tags: ROAD TO BEIJING, SHELLIE ONSTEAD