Coach of Blue Hens' new women's ice hockey team comes from future rival
The University of Delaware has raided a future foe for the coach of its new women’s ice hockey team.
Penn State associate head coach Allison Coomey will guide Delaware’s team when it commences play in 2025-26, UD announced Tuesday.
Coomey will start her new job next week after seven seasons with the Nittany Lions.
Coomey was also a scout for the silver medalist U.S. team at the 2022 Winter Olympics , was head coach for U.S. under-23 teams for two years before that and served on other Team USA staffs..
“With her wealth of knowledge, ice hockey expertise, and experiences at the collegiate and USA national team level, [Coomey] is the perfect person to build and lead this program,” UD athletic director Chrissi Rawak said in the announcement. “She's an incredible coach who believes in the importance of a well-rounded student-athlete experience and recognizes the opportunity that we have here at Delaware to create something exceptional."
NEW SPORT FOR BLUE HENS: Delaware to add women's ice hockey
Delaware announced Dec. 21 it would add women’s ice hockey as the school’s 22nd varsity sport.
This was done to meet Title IX gender-equity requirements with Delaware having revealed several days earlier it would move to the Division I Football Bowl Subdivision’s Conference USA in 2025. That results in an increase of 22 football scholarships to the 85 FBS maximum, up from the 63 permitted in the Football Championship Subdivision in which Delaware now resides.
Ice hockey will be among eight UD sports that Conference USA does not sponsor, meaning different league affiliation is required.
While Delaware hasn’t yet secured a future destination for the other seven, ice hockey will join College Hockey America. It is presently a 6-team women’s-only league comprised of 2024 champion Penn State, Syracuse, the Rochester Institute of Technology, Robert Morris, Mercyhurst of Erie, Pennsylvania, and Lindenwood of St. Charles, Missouri.
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A Baldwinsville, New York, native, Coomey played ice hockey at Niagara before graduating in 2022 and coached on the staffs at Division III Plattsburgh, Niagara and Boston University before Penn State.
Coomey is the fiancée of Kelly Lawrence, a former Penn State assistant who just completed her first season as Delaware women's soccer coach.
“It's an honor to help bring the excitement of Division I ice hockey to the 302,” Coomey said in the UD announcement. “The University of Delaware is an extraordinary institution and is globally recognized for its excellence. The support for student-athletes and state-of-the-art athletic facilities have given us a solid foundation to build upon.”
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There are presently 44 NCAA Division I women’s ice hockey programs. The state of Delaware has zero high school girls ice hockey teams.
But the sport was chosen because Delaware has two available facilities with the Fred Rust Ice Arena and neighboring Gold Ice Arena and the National Hockey League’s Philadelphia Flyers are providing financial support. That partnership, the first between an NHL team and Division I women's team, will be touted prior to the Flyers' home game Saturday at 7 p.m. against the Chicago Blackhawks.
Contact Kevin Tresolini at ktresolini@delawareonline.com and follow on Twitter @kevintresolini. Support local journalism by subscribing to delawareonline.com and our DE Game Day newsletter.
This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: Penn State's Allison Coomey to coach Delaware women's ice hockey team
