Bingham takes over for Silverman as new Post women’s hockey head coach, aims to ‘strive for excellence on and off the ice’

BINGHAM

Pat Bingham has named the third head coach in Post women’s hockey history.

Bingham’s arrival comes after the departure of Gretchen Silverman following the end of her second season with the Eagles during the 2023-24 season.

“I am incredibly excited and grateful to accept the position as the head coach of the Division I women’s ice hockey team at Post University,” Bingham said in a statement “The wonderful people at Post have been so welcoming and I am honored to join such a passionate group of players and an outstanding athletic department. I want to give a special thanks to (athletic operations manager) AJ McNamara for his exceptional leadership, passion for the women’s team, and dedication to the school.

“Together, we will strive for excellence on and off the ice, and I cannot wait to get started.”

Most recently, Bingham has been the president and hockey director of the Colorado Rampage youth hockey association and as a coach has led the Rampage to nine Colorado state championships and four Rocky Mountain District championships while producing 25 professional hockey players, 77 NCAA players, and over 110 Tier I and Tier II junior players as of this year.

Coming to the East Coast is familiar territory for Bingham who has a plethora of experience at the professional hockey level both as a player and a coach. Bingham’s playing days began back in 1985 with the WHL’s Kamloops Blazers before bouncing to the New Westminster Bruins for a couple seasons and back to the Blazers for one more in 1988.

During the 1989-90 season, Bingham split time with the Nashville Knights of the East Coast Hockey League and AHL’s Binghamton Whalers.

From 1990 to 1992, Bingham played in the ECHL for the Nashville Knights, Hampton Roads Admirals, and Richmond Renegades along with a brief stint with the Colonial Hockey League’s Brantford Smoke. The Vancouver native closed out his playing days with the Lakeland Ice Warriors, Jacksonville Bullets, and Lakeland Prowlers, all of the Sunshine Hockey League, until 1996.

In all, Bingham appeared in 532 games, scoring 115 goals and adding 206 assists as a defenseman.

Two years following the end of his playing career, Bingham began to climb the coaching ranks as he started as the Southern Hockey League’s Huntsville Channel Cats’ assistant coach before being named head coach and GM a year later. From there, Bingham joined the Asheville Smoke in the United Hockey League as their head coach and GM for a season where he went 45-22-7 to capture their only division title in team history.

From 2001 to 2005, Bingham went from the assistant coach of the ECHL’s Wheeling Nailers to the head coach of the Adirondack Ice Hawks in the UHL. In his first season with the Nailers, Bingham was named the ECHL coach of the year.

While Bingham only spent a season as the assistant coach of the AHL’s Bridgeport Sound Tigers before a year as the Fort Wayne Komets head coach in the CHL where he had another 50-win season, he returned to Bridgeport after that year-long stint in Fort Wayne for the next four years in Connecticut. Primarily serving as the assistant coach, Bingham took over the head coach position after Bridgeport started the 2010-11 season with a 6-9-0 record and pieced together a 24-30-4-7 campaign while working with 63 players throughout the season.

That role allowed Bingham to make the leap back to head coach again with the Elmira Jackals in the ECHL.

Across his seven seasons as the head coach of professional hockey organizations, Bingham has amassed a 335-196-48 record, good for a .620 winning percentage.