Women's Hockey Has New Coach for First Time in 20 Years

For most teams, the coach is a rock, supporting it in wins or losses and teaching it how to succeed.

And for the past 19 seasons of Harvard women’s ice hockey it has been not a rock, but a stone, that has led it to success—head coach Katey Stone.

But for the first time since the 1993-94 season, the Crimson will have a new leader. As Stone leads the women of Team USA to the Olympics in Sochi, Russia, this February, assistant Maura Crowell has stepped in as interim head coach for the 2013-2014 season.

Crowell will have big shoes to fill, as Stone is the winningest coach in the history of Division I women’s hockey, spending her entire collegiate coaching career thus far with the Crimson.

Harvard is in good hands, though, as Crowell brings over ten years of coaching success to the job.

Since joining the Crimson three seasons ago, Crowell has helped lead the team to an Ivy League title in 2012-2013, two trips to the ECAC tournament semifinals, and a top-10 national ranking.

Although she may not have the experience of Stone, Crowell is certainly no newcomer to college hockey. Prior to coaching at Harvard, she was the head coach of the UMass-Boston women’s hockey team, becoming the winningest coach in the school’s history.

Crowell has also been an assistant coach at Connecticut College and St. Mark’s School in Southborough, Mass.

Aside from coaching at the collegiate level, she has also been involved in Massachusetts Hockey, the Texas Amateur Hockey Association, USA Hockey’s Rocky Mountain and New England Districts, and National Development Camps as a player evaluator.

As a player herself, Crowell played for Colgate University as a forward, helping the team to three straight ECAC playoff appearances and a championship berth.

Despite the change in staffing, the Crimson has much of the same look and feel of past teams. When asked how the two coaches differed, junior co-captain Marissa Gedman struggled to find a drastic change.

“I can’t pinpoint a difference,” Gedman said. “The practices feel the same…. It has been seamless.”

Stone has noted the similarities as well, which has made her much more comfortable with leaving the team in Crowell’s hands this year.

“Maura’s attention to detail and hard-nosed approach to a game are similar; it’s one of the reasons I think we get along so well,” Stone said. “She believes in the details of the game and that the little things matter.”

Crowell has learned a lot from Stone as the two have shared the bench for the past three years, and she plans on using what she has learned to further Harvard’s hockey success.

“There certainly are changes because I’m a different person than she is,” Crowell said. “[But] for the most part we are trying to keep the overall themes the same.”

Despite the fact that the team is used to having Stone at the helm, the players are all very familiar with Crowell. Stone found out she would be coaching the Olympic team in June 2012 and Crowell was announced as the interim coach shortly after that, so the transition has been smooth as the pair have been able to work together in preparation for the upcoming season.

“Everybody in the locker room knew this was coming so it wasn’t a huge shock when I showed up in September,” Crowell said. “There was a lot of familiarity with my personality and my style.”

Preparation was something Crowell cited as a key to Stone’s success, both in her preparation for games and the way she prepares her players to anticipate any possible game situation.

“Coach Stone prepares her teams so well for all situations. It seems like the players are never surprised about what happens in the game,” Crowell added. “They have a quiet confidence about them. That’s what I want to continue because that’s how she’s been able to be so successful.”

In terms of advice for the new coach, Stone didn’t need to give much, as she knew Crowell was the best person for the job.

“I told her to go with her instincts,” Stone said. “She’s got great instincts, and she needs to do what she thinks this group of kids needs this year. I completely trust her and back all of her decisions.”

When the team found out Stone would be departing for the year, each of the other assistant coaches shifted up to a higher level. Laura Bellamy ’13, the former starting goaltender and last year’s co-captain, joins the staff as an assistant coach, alongside Hayley Moore, who is in her second year as assistant coach.

In her first game as interim head coach, Crowell led the Crimson to a 5-2 victory over McGill in the season’s exhibition opener. She cited her past experiences as a head coach as making the shift easier for her, but it has been an adjustment coming back into head coaching after being an assistant for several years.

“Knowing that [Stone] supports me in this position gives me a ton of confidence in doing it,” Crowell said. “I have been a head coach before…. [Harvard] is obviously on a much greater scale and at a higher level so that makes a difference.”

Although Stone will be back next year, Crowell is excited to have the opportunity to lead this team, even if it is only for one season.

“It’s fun for me because I know it is a one year opportunity and Coach Stone is coming back,” Crowell said. ”It’s not like the pressure [of] trying to get a job. It’s fun, I feel very lucky…. To be able to coach the Harvard team is pretty unbelievable.