Marisa Didio rarely checked her e-mail as the Yale field hockey coach. But in November, Didio opened her account and found an unread message from Northwestern athletic director Rick Taylor.

At that point, Taylor needed a field hockey coach after former NU coach Diane Loosbrock resigned. So Taylor wrote to Didio, a former NU coach from 1990-94, for references of possible candidates.

Didio did not reply immediately. She took a week off after a conference championship season at Yale and drove to her home in New Hampshire.

But that e-mail left Didio restless. In her small condo, Didio wandered — literally — from kitchen to living room, from there to dining room. Best person for the job? Well, isn’t it obvious?

“And as I was driving from New Hampshire to New Haven it was spinning in my mind,” Didio recalled. “It was nuts. It was crazy. I didn’t know what my conversation with Rick would be like.”

After exchanging several chats over the phone and an interview with several NU players, Didio landed in Evanston — interestingly, for the second time in her coaching career.

Didio coached the Wildcats for five years from 1990-94. Not too many coaches leave one college, and within six years, return to the same school.

“I just think the whole thing is bizarre,” Didio said. “It’s odd.”

Didio said so because she never felt she would return to Evanston. After her vacation, Didio called Taylor. Neither mentioned Didio’s return to NU’s head coach position.

The two cut communication after Didio discussed her methods and philosophy toward coaching. For Didio, it seemed as if her relationship with Taylor and NU came to an abrupt end.

“Ultimately, the parameters of everything were not going to work,” Didio said. “It wasn’t going to work for me personally because of some of the decisions that I had already made. We just had to agree that it was great that we talked.”

But three weeks later, Didio called Taylor again. The first conversation left too bitter of an aftertaste.

“I tell ya, when I got off that phone, that was the turning point,” Didio said. “But when I called (Taylor) the second time, he could’ve hung up on me. I was so unsettled. I had let that opportunity go and that killed me.

“The only way I was going to know and settle myself was to do this.”

From there on, time and progress took its own path. On Jan. 4, Didio visited the school for an interview with the team. On the 10th, Didio was a member of the NU athletic department, and a week later, she faced the team as the new coach.

Didio’s return to NU marks the fifth coaching position she has held and her way of departing from one school to another has similar trends.

After leading the Cats to their peak — reaching the Final Four in 1994 — Didio took off for Yale. Then Didio resigned from the head position at Yale after bringing home a conference title in merely three years.

Didio calls it a “cycle” — when a team develops from the bottom to the top and accomplishes its ultimate goal.

And for Didio, it’s been one cycle and out. She hits the road for another team, after she knows she’s “done (her) job.”

“That’s when there’s a fork on the road,” Didio said, “that’s when I’m probably going to take the fork.”

Most importantly, success has been Didio’s trademark. In her 19 years as coach, Didio has led her teams to 10 NCAA appearances, four during her five-year tenure at NU.

Before coming to NU in 1990, Didio also produced a top-notch program at New Hampshire that advanced to the finals of the NCAA tournament in 1986.

Come fall NU will follow Didio’s command, especially after last season’s devastating 4-14 record. For the players, Didio’s entrance is a sign of relief — a new coach with a new mentality.

“Unfortunately, I’ll be a senior and you can’t expect magic in one year,” forward Wendy Roberts said. “But it’s just nice to know that I’ll be going out on a good note with Marisa.”

For the Cats, it’s been a brief spring season, with three small tournaments, and the effects of Didio in command have been felt.

In the three tournaments at Michigan, Iowa and Ohio State this spring, the Cats went from not winning a game in the first tournament to a third-place finish in the third.

“The morale’s definitely up. It was hard to find a positive last year,” Roberts said. “Just the overall atmosphere — it makes everything a lot more fun.”

A couple of months before the start of the season, Didio won’t promise anything — success or failure.

“This program is in better position than it was on Jan. 10,” Didio said. “But I’m not going to predetermine anything.”

It’s been only six months. Yet, the whole process seems so predestined.

“It was very unique — I’m a ’70s kind of coach,” Didio said. “E-mails, and all that — I wasn’t into it.”