Air Force head coach Frank Serratore announced that the upcoming 2026-27 season will be his final year.
“Most professional coaches are nomadic contractors endlessly wandering the hockey highway from job to job,” Serratore said in a statement. “I was on this track until I came to Colorado Springs. (This) job has provided me with a home, an identity, and a legacy. After 29 years at the helm, my name is synonymous with Air Force hockey, it defines me, it’s who and what I am, and I’m enormously proud of this.”
Serratore has a record of 490-472-106 with the Falcons. In 33 seasons as a college head coach, he has a 539-564-115 record. His 539 career NCAA Division I wins (490 at Air Force and 49 at Denver) are the second most among all active NCAA coaches and the 14th most in NCAA hockey history. His 490 wins at Air Force are a school record.
“Coach Frank Serratore has left an indelible mark on Air Force Hockey and the national hockey community as well,” said Air Force interim athletic director Nancy Hixson, via statement. “His leadership, passion, and commitment to developing not only great hockey players but leaders of character for the Air and Space Force have been the cornerstone of his legacy since the day he arrived here.”
In 2025-26, Serratore led the Falcons to an 18-15-4 record, their first winning season since 2018-19. Air Force went 8-4-2 in the final 14 games of the season and earned 11 road wins, the most since the 2017-18 season.
Joe Doyle will take over as head coach at the end of this season. A 1989 Academy graduate, Doyle enters his 22nd overall season at the Air Force Academy and his eighth as associate head coach. Doyle served as an assistant coach with the Falcons from 1994-98, from 2002-06 and from 2013-19. He was named associate head coach prior to the 2019-20 season.
“Joe has a special way of inspiring players as he teaches, our players would skate through machine gun fire for him,” Serratore said. “Joe was by my side on my first day at the Academy, and he’ll be by my side on my last day.”
Serratore’s brother Tom earlier this month announced his own retirement as Bemidji State coach, effective at the end of the season, ending a 26-year tenure behind the Beaver’s bench.