Heather Linstad, head coach of the Northeastern women’s program for the past eight season, has been tabbed by Connecticut to lead its fledgling program.
Linstad, who had a 161-71-27 record at Northeastern, including four Beanpot titles and a 1997 ECAC Championship, will lead UConn into its first year of varsity play, where it will compete as a Division I independent in 2000-2001.
“As we launch women’s ice hockey as our 24th intercollegiate varsity sport in 2000-2001, we are very pleased to have identified in Heather Linstad an experienced, and highly successful, collegiate head coach,” said Lew Perkins, athletic director at UConn.
“Heather was a major college ice hockey star during her undergraduate years and she has become an outstanding coach, enjoying repeated success in directing the nationally-ranked women’s ice hockey program at Northeastern.”
Linstad won a school-record 27 games in 1996-97, and led Northeastern to a berth in the first-ever women’s national tournament in 1998. In her second season as head coach in 1993-94, Linstad led Northeastern to a 19-6-3 overall record, winning her first Beanpot title, while being honored as ECAC Coach of the Year.
The 1999-2000 Northeastern women’s ice hockey team completed the season with a 22-9-3 overall record and the Huskies were ranked No. 6 in the nation in the final U.S. College Hockey Online women’s Poll.
Linstad was a three-sport performer at Providence before graduating in 1989, playing ice hockey, women’s soccer and softball. She was the captain of the hockey team for three seasons. She holds the distinction of being the only person to win both ECAC Player of the Year (1989) and Coach of the Year honors.
