Maryland Love Connection: Casey and Kirstie Ikeda

Casey and Kirstie Ikeda didn’t meet until Kirstie’s final season as a Terp in 2012. But even though Kirstie’s college field hockey career was coming to a close at the time, the couple’s Maryland love story was just beginning. 

Both former Terps were initially drawn to Maryland because of the dominance of their respective sports, men’s lacrosse and field hockey. 

Casey grew up close to Philadelphia with an older brother who went on to play college lacrosse and knew he wanted to pursue the same route. Maryland recruited him hard and he felt at home at the school. Add in the fact that he would have the opportunity to compete for national titles year in and year out and Casey was sold. 

For the then-Kirstie Dennig, Maryland field hockey was always the dream. Growing up on the Eastern Shore and playing for the dominant Pocomoke High School field hockey team, Kirstie quickly drew Missy Meharg’s attention as a recruit.

Kirstie played a vital role for a field hockey program that claimed the National Championship during two of her years on the team, 2010 and 2011. During her last season in the fall of 2012, she found a new type of victory in the form of a burgeoning relationship with Casey, a redshirt sophomore at the time.

The pair first met in a sports leadership course that fall. As luck would have it, they were placed in several groups together for various projects and slowly got to know each other. They then began to run into each other more and more at some of the typical College Park hangout spots: The Barking Dog, Cornerstone and Bentleys.There was mutual interest immediately, but there was just one small problem.

“I would say I was probably a little on the shy side at first,” Casey began.

“Yes,” Kirstie interrupts. “Definitely. Very much so.”

The two ran into each other again at the lacrosse team’s annual “Lax-Mas” holiday party and Casey finally worked up the courage to talk to her. Kirstie thought the two were now officially past the awkward phase—that is until they saw each other at study hall the next day.

“He wouldn’t even look in my direction,” Kirstie recalled. “He was so shy and introverted. At that point, I knew I was going to have to be the one to reach out to get things going.” 

So, Kirstie texted him to say that next time he was in study hall, he should come say hello. From there, the pair began texting regularly and soon became official. 

Casey planned the couple’s first date by himself, sharing as little as possible about the day with Kirstie beforehand. The two took the Metro into DC and walked around a bit before sitting down for dinner at an Italian family-style restaurant. Looking back, Casey would have tweaked the last part of the day.

“Definitely not a great decision to take a date to a family-style restaurant, but she was nice enough to not make too much of a fuss about it,” Casey said with a laugh.

Although Kirstie’s playing career was done by the time the couple started dating, she became a huge supporter of Casey and the men’s lacrosse program, even going to as many away games as possible. That remained true for Casey’s final two seasons at Maryland. Despite Kirstie’s graduation in 2013, she remained in the College Park area to do some physical therapy work and the couple moved in together during Casey’s redshirt senior season. 

“Now looking back it’s kinda crazy that we only truly had one semester together in college,” Kirstie said. “But it definitely helped that I stayed around College Park.”

Once Casey left Maryland in 2015, he got a job with the University of Pennsylvania where he spent a year as the men’s lacrosse program’s Director of Operations before transitioning to a coaching role. Fortunately for the couple, Kirstie was also headed to Pennsylvania for occupational therapy graduate school at Salus University. 

“We were definitely on that grind, but we were fortunate we were in the same area and that we could continue to live together and continue to grow,” Casey said. “It was awesome because we already knew each other so well so we didn’t really skip a beat.”

By late 2017, Casey was certain he wanted to ask Kirstie to spend the rest of their lives together. He decided to pop the question the Saturday after Thanksgiving that year while the pair were staying at Kirstie’s parent’s house. 

There was certainly nothing that gave away Casey’s plan—the couple were working on Kirstie’s car and changing its oil just a few hours earlier and they were still wearing their oil-stained clothes. They went out to a nearby lake to fish and Casey, who describes himself as “an absolute nervous wreck” at the time, was strangely quiet. 

As Kirstie recalls, Casey was acting weird and they weren’t catching any fish so she suggested they head back to her parent’s place. Then, when she started to turn away, Casey dropped to one knee and asked her to marry him. The answer was an easy yes.

“She was so excited and obviously I was excited as well,” Casey said. “It was great because then we could go right back and celebrate with her family.” 

“I always joke with him that the moment he proposed was probably the worst I ever looked physically,” Kirstie added. “We had oil all over our clothes, but it was perfect for us because we’re not really the people who get dolled-up or do anything fancy. We’re very much relaxed, t-shirt and sweatpants kind of people, so I thought it was perfect.”

The two officially tied the knot at the Hyatt in Cambridge in January 2019—not the most common time for a Maryland wedding by any means. However, with Casey having so many former teammates and coaches that he wanted in attendance, January worked the best. That proved to be the right choice as they had a beautiful, winter-themed wedding with everyone important to them present, including many members of both their former teams and legendary Maryland coaches John Tillman (men’s lacrosse) and Missy Meharg (field hockey).

Kirstie starts, “To be honest I felt like we were already married because we knew each other so well and had been living with each other for a while, but the whole day was really…”

“Perfect,” Casey fills in. 

“Yeah, it was truly perfect,” Kirstie continued. “I know everyone probably says that about their own weddings, but the day ran so smoothly. I mean it was freezing cold outside during pictures, my teeth were basically chattering, but I would say that’s really the only thing. Everything I pictured about getting married when I was young came to fruition.”

Casey’s father officiated the wedding, something that was very special to the newlyweds. They told him they didn’t want any lacrosse or field hockey mentions—both were mentioned in the first sentence of his address of course.

In 2020, Casey and Kirstie gave birth to their first son, Grant. Two months ago, the second boy, Quinn, came along. They also have a beautiful golden retriever, Knox, who was named after the street they lived on together in College Park.

Both of them sing each other’s praises in regards to their respective parenting duties.

“Casey’s a natural in the dad department,” Kirstie said. “I think he was destined to be a boy dad.”

“I’m so fortunate because Kirst is an unbelievable mom,” Casey added. “I just kinda follow her lead because she does an unbelievable job.”

At just two-years-old, Grant has already gravitated to sports, specifically lacrosse and field hockey. Kirstie takes him to as many of Casey’s games as possible and one of his first phrases was ‘Go Terps.’ Recently, he was watching a Maryland field hockey game with Kirstie and he started whacking things on the floor while yelling, ‘Hockey’.

As for what the couple envisions for their sons’ future? The same wonderful experiences they had in College Park.

“Hopefully the boys will be Terps too,” Kirstie said. “Maryland just means so much to us and it’s such a big part of our family.”