With the Harvard Crimson’s 5-1 win over Princeton of Game 1 of the ECAC Hockey playoffs, head coach Katey Stone passed former Minnesota and Colby head coach Laura Halldorson for the all-time lead in D-I women’s coaching victories.
The 16th-year head coach – all at Harvard – has guided the Crimson to a 338-142-27 (.693) record, the 1999 AWCHA national championship, three straight appearances in the NCAA championship game (2003, ’04 and ’05), seven NCAA tournament appearances in the event’s nine-year history, six ECAC Hockey regular-season titles, five ECAC Hockey tournament championships, five Ivy League crowns and 10 Beanpots.
Ranked 33rd in the New England Hockey Journal’s “Top 50 Most Influential People in New England Hockeyâ€, Stone has been a consistent influence in and on the sport’s highest levels.
After leading the Crimson to the 1999 AWCHA national championship, Stone was rewarded with the ECAC/KOHO and New England Hockey Writers’ Coach of the Year honors. In addition, she was named the American Hockey Coaches Association Women’s Coach of the Year and the New England College Athletic Conference Women’s Division I Coach of the Year. Stone repeated as the New England Hockey Writers’ Coach of the Year for the 2000-01 season and was tabbed as the ECAC Hockey Coach of the Year in 1999, 2005 and ’08.
Team success aside, Stone has also had a hand in molding some of the finest talent in the history of the sport. Among her charges have been nine Olympians (including five who competed at the 2010 Vancouver Games) and half of the 12 winners of the Patty Kazmaier Memorial Award, including Jennifer Botterill, the only two-time recipient of the honor. Harvard has also had eight ECAC Hockey Players of the Year, five ECAC Hockey Rookies of the Year, nine Ivy League Players of the Year and five Ivy League Rookies of the Year.
An integral voice in the game, Stone is a member of the NCAA Championship committee, and has also served on the NCAA rules committee and the Patty Kazmaier Memorial Award selection committee. Stone was also president of the American Women’s Hockey Coaches Association.
