Shelley Looney (Lindenwood) and Josh Sciba (Union) will serve as assistant coaches and Alli Altmann (Minnesota State) as goaltending coach for the 2022 U.S. Women’s National Team.
The trio will join head coach John Wroblewski (Notre Dame) in guiding Team USA at the 2022 IIHF Women’s World Championship, Aug. 25 to Sept. 4 in Herning and Frederikshavn, Denmark.
Looney, a two-time Olympian who helped the U.S. win Olympic gold in 1998, is the head women’s hockey coach at Lindenwood where she has served since the 2019-20 campaign. She is making her debut on the coaching staff of a U.S. Women’s National Team.
Looney served as head coach for the 2019 and 2017 U.S. Women’s National University Team, leading the U.S. to a fourth-place finish in 2019 and a third-place showing in 2017. She also was an assistant coach for the 2015 U.S. Women’s National University Team. Looney also served as an assistant coach for the silver medal-winning U.S. Under-18 Women’s National Team in 2010, as well as for the 2004 U.S. Under-22 Women’s Select Team.
As a player, Looney represented the United States at the 1998 and 2002 Olympic Winter Games, and in eight IIHF Women’s World Championships. She scored one of the most important goals in U.S. women’s hockey history, tallying the game-winning goal in the gold medal game at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan.
Sciba is making his first appearance on the U.S. Women’s National Team staff in 2022, but is no stranger to international hockey.
As an assistant coach, Sciba helped lead the U.S. Under-18 Women’s National Team to a gold medal at the 2020 IIHF Under-18 Women’s World Championship in Bratislava, Slovakia, after serving in the same capacity for the 2019 U.S. Under-18 Women’s National Team. He made his USA Hockey coaching debut in the 2018 Under-18 Series against Canada.
Sciba is currently the head coach of the Union women’s hockey team, a role he has served in for the past six seasons. Prior to Union, he was an assistant women’s hockey coach at Colgate (2012-16), prior to four years with the Niagara women’s hockey program, including one season (2011-12) as head coach and three (2008-11) as assistant coach.
As a player, Sciba played four years at Notre Dame (2003-07).
For the second consecutive season, Altmann is serving as the goaltending coach for the U.S. Women’s National Team. She served in same capacity in 2021, helping lead Team USA to a silver medal at the 2021 IIHF Women’s World Championship.
Most recently, Altmann was the goaltending coach for the 2022 U.S. Under-18 Women’s National Team, which earned a silver medal at the IIHF Under-18 Women’s World Championship in Madison, Wisconsin. She has served as goaltending coach for the U.S. Under-18 Women’s National Team for four seasons (2018-22) and has been part of the staff for the U.S. Women’s National Festival since 2016.
Altmann played four seasons for Minnesota State. During her time with the Mavericks, she recorded a career .901 save percentage and also holds the school record for most games played with 110. The three-time WCHA All-Academic honoree led Minnesota State to the school’s first-ever WCHA Final Face Off appearance in 2009.
