DIII 2026 Offseason News & Notes

[Scott_TG]

A couple of interesting news pieces this week:

1) St. Mary's has named Lawrence assistant Emily Bauer as the new head coach of the Cardinals. She is also the former head coach of the Wisconsin Selects U-19. Emily is the twin sister of reigning and defending National Coach of the Year Biz [Elizabeth] Bauer, the head coach of Augsburg.

The twins' first head to head battle is the Cardinal's conference opener in early November.


2) Nazareth is rumored to be purchasing an existing rink close to campus and moving in as early as this fall.

 

[Russell Jaslow]

2) Nazareth is rumored to be purchasing an existing rink close to campus and moving in as early as this fall.

Village Sports also known as Station 31. It's a very new rink, yet Nazareth still plans on renovating it. Perhaps building areas (locker rooms, offices, etc.) just for their use? Because I can't imaging anything else needing to be renovated considering how new it is.

 

[Scott_TG]

Village Sports also known as Station 31. It's a very new rink, yet Nazareth still plans on renovating it. Perhaps building areas (locker rooms, offices, etc.) just for their use? Because I can't imaging anything else needing to be renovated considering how new it is.

When the tweet I saw said close to campus I assumed it would be walking distance. 3 1/3 miles is still too far for students who don't drive to attend the games, but maybe it will help attendance from the town?

 

[Scott_TG]

Castleton announced this morning that they are joining the MASCAC as a core member for 2027-28

 

[Russell Jaslow]

When the tweet I saw said close to campus I assumed it would be walking distance. 3 1/3 miles is still too far for students who don't drive to attend the games, but maybe it will help attendance from the town?

The tweet I saw said within 5 miles. There's nothing closer except for the Rochester Ice Center, about equidistant, also in Fairport, but St. John Fisher made that their home. Both those campuses are next to each other.

 

[Scott_TG]

Olympic gold medalist Shelley Looney (Northeastern '94) has been named the inaugural head coach of Western Connecticut State University's program that is debuting this fall. They have a dozen announced recruits, I'm not sure who did the recruiting if she was just hired...

Looney was a star for both Northeastern and Team USA. At Northeastern she was an ECAC All-Star, 1993 ECAC Tournament MVP and the 1994 ECAC Player of the Year. Northeastern inducted her into their Hall of Fame in 1999 and she was inducted into the US Olympic Hall of Fame a decade later in 2019. For Team USA, Looney was part of the gold medalist 1998 Nagano team and silver medalist 2002 Salt Lake City Team. She has 8 IIHF Women's World Championships medals, 7 silver and a gold in her final year at the tournament in 2005.

As a coach Looney was most recently with NAHA as head coach of the NAHA Red 16U squad and assistant coach of the NAHA White 19U AAA squad. She was an assistant coach for UVM while still a player for Team USA, later the Girl's and Women's Hockey Director for the New Jersey Colonials and Hockey Director of the Buffalo Bison (2014-2019) and the Nichols School. She also was a co-Head Coach of the NWHL Buffalo Beauts in their inaugural 2015-15 season. Looney was the head coach of the DI Lindenwood University program from 2019 to 2023. After leaving Lindenwood she became the GM of the Princeton Tiger Lillies youth hockey club (a subsidiary of the controversial Black Bear Sports Group).

Looney also has national program experience. Team USA she was an assistant coach for Team USA that won silver at the 2022 IIHF Women's World Championship. For other areas of the Team USA program she's been an evaluator and assistant for the U18, U22, and National Team Development Program teams. She also helped coach the teams that went to the World University Games as an assistant in 2016 and the head coach for 2017 and 2019.

Seems like a great hire.

 

[Scott_TG]

Plattsburgh's schedule is out and I admit the non-conference games against low-30s-NPI squads Trinity, University of New England and Worcester State shock me. I wonder if its a reflection of Houle's confidence in his incoming team or a reflection of other programs higher up no longer seeing a need/benefit to playing the Cardinals. Of the non-conference east schools with a worse NPI then them but better than the 3 they ended up with there's Elmira, WNEU, Hamilton, Arcadia, LVC, UMB, Salve Regina, Bowdoin and JWU. I realize that different programs have different numbers of free dates based on conference size and commitments (return trips, tourneys, etc) but I can't believe they couldn't get old foe Elmira, or national tournament contenders Hamilton, WNEU or Arcadia on the schedule. Even Lebanon Valley made strides last season and would have made for a good game.

I guess Trinity isn't as shocking, they've played each other a few times now. But they already have the Bantams as a potential opponent at Norwich's East/West...

 

[spwood]

Plattsburgh's schedule is out and I admit the non-conference games against low-30s-NPI squads Trinity, University of New England and Worcester State shock me.

They're going to play Norwich, Nazareth, Wilkes, and either Middlebury or Endicott - all NCAA tourney teams last year. It's not like their schedule is bare of good non-conference competition. There's also the possibility of second game with Norwich in a tournament. I don't think this schedule is that bad.

 

[Scott_TG]

They're going to play Norwich, Nazareth, Wilkes, and either Middlebury or Endicott - all NCAA tourney teams last year. It's not like their schedule is bare of good non-conference competition. There's also the possibility of second game with Norwich in a tournament. I don't think this schedule is that bad.

Its not terrible its just weird seeing those teams especially when there's a good handful of teams above those three in the rankings