{"id":39891,"date":"2011-07-07T08:05:32","date_gmt":"2011-07-07T12:05:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=39891"},"modified":"2011-08-10T16:30:57","modified_gmt":"2011-08-10T20:30:57","slug":"linstad-to-lead-u-18-usa-womens-hockey-at-world-championships","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2011\/07\/linstad-to-lead-u-18-usa-womens-hockey-at-world-championships\/","title":{"rendered":"Linstad to Lead U-18 USA Women’s Hockey at World Championships"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Women's<\/a>
Women's ice hockey head coach Heather Linstad. (Athletic Communications)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Huskies women\u2019s ice hockey head coach Heather Linstad had always looked at playing ice hockey as a way to get a good education and put herself on the path to a career in business. So when she completed her business degree at Providence College, where she was team captain for three years, Linstad started working as a regional sales manager for a transportation company.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why, when Don McLeod, the former World Hockey Association goalie and pioneering women\u2019s coach at Northeastern University, asked her to join the first women\u2019s ice hockey team that would compete in the World Championships in 1990, she decided to continue working instead.<\/p>\n

\u201cI said: \u2018I\u2019ll be honest, I can\u2019t take that much time off from my new job and I\u2019m not sure where women\u2019s hockey is going. I was a little too logical back then,\u201d says Linstad, who earlier this year was named head coach for USA Hockey\u2019s Under 18 National Team. The team will compete next January in the 2012 International Ice Hockey Federation World Women\u2019s U-18 Championships in the Czech Republic.<\/p>\n

Linstad is the second UConn head coach currently selected to lead a team representing the United States. Huskies women\u2019s basketball coach Geno Auriemma leads the USA National Women\u2019s Team that will compete in the 2012 Olympic Games in London next summer. Three other UConn coaches have also coached national teams as either head coach or assistant: field hockey coach Nancy Stevens, men\u2019s ice hockey coach Bruce Marshall, and former baseball coach Andy Baylock.<\/p>\n

Just three years after turning down the chance to continue in hockey, Linstad was drawn back into the game when she became head coach at Northeastern. She stayed for eight years and led her team to the ECAC title, before arriving in Storrs to begin the women\u2019s ice hockey program in 2000.<\/p>\n

\u201cI always thought hockey was a path to get my education and to pursue a career,\u201d says Linstad, who is one of just three Division I women\u2019s ice hockey coaches to have won 300 or more games. \u201cThen all of a sudden my career became coaching.\u201d<\/p>\n

Developing players, developing the sport<\/strong><\/p>\n

Throughout her career, Linstad also has helped develop future women\u2019s ice hockey players and coaches by participating in USA Hockey camps and presenting at the USA Hockey Masters Symposium.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn reality you do USA Hockey to help develop the sport. I was one of the coaches at the festival in 1997, which was when we selected the 1998 Olympic team. It was the first and last time we won the gold,\u201d she says. \u201cFrom where the sport has come, even I didn\u2019t have the forethought of how it would grow and expand. As it kept going, I wanted to make sure I was doing the right thing in keeping it progressing.\u201d<\/p>\n

The U-18 schedule this summer will keep Linstad busy. By the time she returns to Mark Edward Freitas Ice Forum for the fall semester, she will have participated in several USA Hockey camps that will help select the U-18 team. In August, she and her assistant coaches \u2013 Hilary Witt, an assistant coach at Northeastern and former head coach at Yale; and Joel Johnson, assistant coach at Minnesota \u2013 will coach the team in the annual U.S.A.-Canada series. In July, she also will participate in an International Ice Hockey Federation camp, which is aimed at helping to develop ice hockey in other nations by providing workshops for players and coaches.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s exciting to work with a different group of kids and a different kind of atmosphere,\u201d Linstad says of her new assignment. \u201cThe international experience is going to be fun. It\u2019s going to be a learning experience. But my hope, too, is the players are going to learn where women\u2019s hockey has come from and to appreciate what they can do for the sport, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Coach<\/a>
Coach Linstad is also her team's most vocal cheerleader. (Athletic Communications)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Facing the challenges<\/strong><\/p>\n

With the World Women\u2019s U-18 Championships held in January, Linstad will have to leave the Huskies briefly in mid-season, relying upon assistant coaches Jaime Totten, in her 11th season at UConn, and Kirsti Anderson, now in her third year.<\/p>\n

\u201cI absolutely have confidence in them,\u201d says Linstad. \u201cIt\u2019s good for them to get me out of their hair, to be the voice, and be in charge. Especially Jaime, she\u2019s been here since the program began. During the season, I have to send my assistants away to go recruiting, so maybe it\u2019s something completely new that I have to experience and feel what they feel during the season.\u201d<\/p>\n

During the upcoming 2011-2012 Hockey East season for the Huskies, Linstad will also rely upon the experience and leadership of her seniors, defenders Rebecca Hewett and Sami Evelyn and goaltender Alexandra Garcia. They will lead a Huskies squad that includes student-athletes who helped gain a national ranking two years ago and who last year had to cope with being forced to practice and play on the road after severe snowstorms piled up snow on the roof of Freitas Ice Forum, causing safety concerns.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had such a young team. They just got tired when we couldn\u2019t be in the building. It took its toll on us,\u201d she says. \u201cThat\u2019s why I\u2019m excited. We put them in some great situations and they really did respond. I\u2019m excited about the depth we\u2019re going to have and the personality of the team.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Huskies will again face a challenging schedule, with the regular competition in Hockey East against perennial powers Northeastern, Providence, and NCAA Frozen Four teams Boston College and Boston University, as well as an out-of-league game against NCAA quarterfinalist Minnesota-Duluth.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose are the games these kids came to college to play in, to be challenged all the time,\u201d Linstad says. \u201cThey didn\u2019t come here to get their individual stats and score goals when it\u2019s easy. They want to score goals when it\u2019s hard and at a high level. You have to play those games.\u201d<\/p>\n

Training for success<\/strong><\/p>\n

Linstad says she hopes that the 2011 Stanley Cup victory of the Boston Bruins will continue to generate interest in hockey, not just for young girls, but for the fan base of the sport.<\/p>\n

\u201cI always say hockey is one of the greatest sports, because at a minimum you have to have 16 kids coordinate to play the game at once. It\u2019s different in other sports,\u201d she says. \u201cI just love the sport because it helps young women growing up to understand that when you work at a company you\u2019ve got to get a lot of cogs working in one direction. For them to have that passion, I think transpires at some point that if you\u2019re so dedicated, you\u2019re going to have success; no matter what you do when you graduate, you\u2019ll have the desire to be successful.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the meantime, Linstad will focus her attention on working with the more than 100 teenage girls who will be under her guidance this summer, when she wants to help develop talent so that her sport will continue to provide a path to education and opportunities.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy hope as a coach is to develop 102 kids and then out of that in August, work with the cream of the crop,\u201d she says. \u201cMaybe I can develop the 102nd kid, and that\u2019s the kid who takes that knowledge and thinks she could still make the Olympic team and ends up here at the University of Connecticut. If our pool gets better, then competition gets better and USA Hockey gets better. \u00a0And we have to do everything possible to get better. We\u2019ve won a lot of world championships, but the ultimate goal is to get the Olympic gold medal back.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Linstad is the second UConn coach currently selected to lead a team representing the U.S.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":43640,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[55],"class_list":["post-39891","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-29 10:21:24","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39891","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39891"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39891\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39905,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39891\/revisions\/39905"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/43640"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39891"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=39891"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=39891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}