Katey Stone USA Hockey has announced that Katey Stone ’84 will be the head coach of the 2014 U.S. Olympic Women’s Ice Hockey Team. Stone, who became extensively involved with the U.S. Women’s National Team Program in 2006, completed her 18th season as head women’s ice hockey coach at Harvard University in 2012. Her 378 career wins is tops among active coaches in NCAA Division I. “Katey knows what it takes to build gold-medal teams,” said Ron DeGregorio, president of USA Hockey. “We’re very excited to have her continue to lead our U.S. Women’s National Team.” Stone will lead the national team through the 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Sochi, Russia, including at the Four Nations Cup in Finland this fall and at the 2013 International Ice Hockey Federation Women’s World Championship in Ottawa. “I am looking forward to the entire experience,” says Stone. “Most importantly, the opportunity to be around elite athletes driven toward excellence. Getting to know the players better and helping them strive to achieve their goals, is the best part of coaching.” Most recently, Stone served as head coach of the U.S. Women’s National Team that captured the silver medal at the 2012 IIHF Women’s World Championship in Burlington, Vermont. A year earlier, Stone guided the U.S. to what was at the time its third straight gold medal at the 2011 IIHF Women’s World Championship in Zurich, Switzerland. She also led the U.S. to the gold medal at the first-ever IIHF Women’s World Under-18 Championship in 2008 and coached the U.S. entry in the Under-18 Series (2007) and the Under-22 Series (2006). In addition, Stone guided Team USA to a pair of first-place finishes at the Four Nations Cup, initially in 2008 when the team captured the title for the first time since 2003, and again in 2011.
Along with her accomplishments on the international stage, she has led Harvard to a 378–164–32 record in her tenure, which included the 1999 American Women’s Collegiate Hockey Alliance national championship, three straight appearances in the NCAA championship game (2003–05), nine NCAA tournament appearances in the event’s 12-year history, six ECAC Hockey regular-season titles, five ECAC Hockey tournament championships, five Ivy League titles and 10 Beanpot championships. In her 18-year tenure at Harvard, Stone has coached some of the best athletes in the world including nine Olympians and four Tafties (Kate Schutt ’93, A.J. Mleczko Griswold ’93, Tammy Shewchuk Dryden ’96 and Jenn Sifers Mandes ’03—Tammy and A.J. also being two of the Olympians) as well as six of the 15 winners of the Patty Kazmaier Memorial Award, presented annually to the nation’s best
collegiate women’s hockey player. Stone was named as one of New England Hockey Journal’s “Top 50 Most Influential People in New England Hockey” in 2009. She has served as a member of the NCAA championship committee, a member of the NCAA rules committee, a member of the Patty Kazmaier Memorial Award selection committee and president of American Women’s Hockey Coaches Association. Katey is the youngest child of Lu and Larry Stone, who served as the director of athletics and football and baseball coach at Taft for 34 years beginning in 1962. The team hopes to train in the greater Boston area, says Stone, who will take a leave of absence from Harvard in July 2013 and return in April 2014. It’s worth pointing out that the U.S. women have medaled at all four Olympics since women’s ice hockey joined the Games in 1998 (1998–Gold, 2002–Silver, 2006–Bronze, 2010–Silver). Not that there’s any pressure.
Taft Bulletin Fall 2012 7