Mark Bolding has been named the Division III Women’s Ice Hockey Coach of the Year for the third consecutive year, it was announced tonight by the American Hockey Coaches Association.
After guiding the Cadets to the program’s first national championship in just its fourth season last year, Bolding has established a new program record for wins in a single season this year with 26, going 26-2-1 this year. The Cadets will be making their third straight Frozen Four appearance this weekend after downing Amherst, 5-0, in the NCAA quarterfinals. Norwich finished unbeaten in ECAC East play for the second straight season, and currently holds a 39-game unbeaten streak against league foes in the regular season.
Norwich qualified for its fourth straight NCAA Tournament after downing Manhattanville, 6-3, in the ECAC East Championship for its third ECAC East Tournament title in the last four seasons. Bolding won his 100th career game with a 5-2 win over Castleton in the ECAC East semifinals. He currently holds a 102-32-10 in his fifth season at the helm of a program he has built from the ground up. Over the last four seasons, Norwich is 90-21-8.
The Cadets have scored 178 goals this season, which leads the country by more than a goal-per-game. Norwich also ranks second in team defense, giving up just 1.14 goals per game, and the Cadets lead the nation with a power play clicking at 35.8 percent.
Bolding, the 2010 and 2011 AHCA Coach of the Year, has been at Norwich for 10 seasons, the last five coaching the women’s program at the varsity level. After an 11-9-2 record his first year, Bolding led Norwich to a 19 wins and the ECAC East title in 2009, qualifying the Cadets for their first NCAA Tournament appearance. In 2010, the club repeated as ECAC East champion, shutting out both its semifinal and final opponents en route to the NCAA Championship final. Last year, the Cadets took the national championship.
A native of Red Deer, Alberta, Bolding is a 1995 graduate of Norwich, where he was a standout defenseman in a Hall of Fame playing career (inducted in the school’s HOF in 2005). Before taking the reins of the women’s program, Bolding served two stints as an assistant to men’s coch Mike McShane. Keith Maurice, Holly Russo, Jon Guiffre, Dana Bean and Sophie LeClerc assisted Bolding this year. The runner-up for the award was Scott McDonald of Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT).
The Coach of the Year Award is chosen by members of the American Hockey Coaches Association, and will be presented on Friday, April 27, at the AHCA “Celebration of Women’s Ice Hockey” banquet in Naples, Fla., as part of the annual AHCA Convention.
Coach of the Year
2000 — Ted Wisner, Colgate
2001 — Bill Mandigo, Middlebury
2002 — Jamie Wood, Elmira
2003 — Michele Amidon, Bowdoin
2004 — Bill Mandigo, Middlebury
2005 — Bill Mandigo, Middlebury
2006 — Kevin Houle, Plattsburgh State
2007 — Kevin Houle, Plattsburgh State
2008 — Kevin Houle, Plattsburgh State
2009 — Jim Plumer, Amherst
2010 — Mark Bolding, Norwich
2011 — Mark Bolding, Norwich
2012 — Mark Bolding, Norwich
