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Minnesota Women's Head Coach Laura Halldorson
Minnesota Women's Head Coach Laura Halldorson |
On Oct. 23, 1996, Laura Halldorson was named the head coach at the University of Minnesota and was given the task of building the women's hockey program from scratch. Now, in 2002-03, Halldorson looks to the task of maintaining one of the country's premier hockey programs, now entering its sixth collegiate season.
In its third season of existence, Halldorson led the Golden Gophers to the American Women's College Hockey Alliance National Championship, the first national title in the history of Minnesota women's athletics. Along with a national championship under her belt, Halldorson has led the Golden Gophers to two Western Collegiate Hockey Association regular season championships and the 2002 WCHA Final Five title, the first for Minnesota.
Many marked the 2001-02 season as one of rebuilding. However, the Gophers gained its second straight WCHA regular season championship posting a 28-4-6 season. Under coach Halldorson, the Gophers went on a 24-game unbeaten streak from Nov. 2 to Feb. 17. During that span, Minnesota went 20-0-4, sweeping six series from WCHA opponents. The Gophers won their first WCHA tournament championship claiming victories against Ohio State in the semifinals and Wisconsin in the championship. Minnesota capped off the season with the top rank at the NCAA Frozen Four. The Gophers finished third at national championship, marking the program's fourth appearance at nationals. Halldorson was named the National Coach of the Year by the American Hockey Coaches Association, her second honor since 1998.
In the 2000-01 campaign, Halldorson led the team to a 23-9-2 record and an 18-4-2 WCHA mark to put the Gophers on top of the WCHA in the regular season. The team came up just shy of the first NCAA Championship, ranking fifth overall in the nation. For her accolades, Halldorson received the WCHA's Co-Coach of the Year, an award she shared with St. Cloud State's Kerry Wethington.
The 1999-2000 season saw the beginning of the Western Collegiate Hockey Association-Women's League. Despite finishing second in the conference in both the regular-season and playoffs, Minnesota claimed the AWCHA national title and, in just three seasons, Halldorson and the Gophers reigned supreme in the world of women's college hockey.
In the second year as head coach, Halldorson led her team to 29 wins in season number two, capped off by a third-place showing at the AWCHA National Championship. Along with the third-place finish, Halldorson collected her 100th win Feb. 9, 1999 in a 5-0 shutout against Cornell University.
Upon her hiring, Halldorson went to work immediately. With a year to recruit before her team took the ice for its first game, she set out to put together a roster consisting of 23 players that would end the season with a 21-7-3 record and a fourth place showing at the AWCHA.
After spending her first year at Minnesota without a team, Halldorson's first Gopher squad took the ice Nov. 2, 1997 and played in front of a women's intercollegiate hockey record crowd of 6,854, winning its inaugural game 8-0 over Augsburg College.
By the end of that first season, Halldorson and her Golden Gophers had finished fourth in the first-ever women's ice hockey national championship. For her efforts, Halldorson was named the first American Hockey Coaches Association Women's Coach of the Year.
Halldorson established herself at Colby College, where she led the White Mules, one of only two non-Division I schools at the time in the 12-team Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference, to a 12-9-1 overall record in 1995-96. In the process, she earned ECAC Co-Coach of the Year honors as well as being named the New England Hockey Writers' Coach of the Year. While at Colby, she recruited and coached U.S. National Team members Meaghan Sittler and Barb Gordon.
Halldorson was instrumental in the development of the ECAC women's hockey league and served as chair of the ECAC Women's Ice Hockey Committee and President of the Women's Hockey Coaches Association from 1991 to 1994.
Now in her second decade as a collegiate head coach, Halldorson has helped to spur a growth in the sport. More changes are on the horizon for Halldorson and her charges, namely the NCAA taking on women's hockey as a championship sport.
Halldorson serves on the Patty Kazmaier Award committee. The award, emblematic of the nation's top women's college ice hockey player, is named in honor of Patty Kazmaier, a teammate of Halldorson's at Princeton.
At the national level, she was the assistant coach for the gold medal-winning team at the 1998 USA Hockey Women's Festival and served as assistant coach for the U.S. Women's Select Team that competed in the Three Nations Cup in Finland in December, 1998. Halldorson was a head coach at the 1999 USA Hockey Women's Festival and was an assistant coach for the national Under-22 team in 1999. She served as an assistant coach of the U.S. Junior National Team in 1995 and worked with USA Hockey's girls' and women's national development camps from 1991-99.
Halldorson was a member of the Women's Olympic Evaluation Committee, helping to choose the team that won the gold medal at the 1998 Winter Olympic Games in Nagano, Japan.
A native of Plymouth, Minn., and a 1981 graduate of Wayzata High School, Halldorson played four years at Princeton, where she was a co-captain and all-conference performer while leading the Tigers to three Ivy League titles.
A member of the 1987 U.S. National Women's Team and three national club championship teams with the Minnesota Checkers, Halldorson returned to her alma mater in 1987 to begin her collegiate coaching career.
Following two seasons as an assistant at Princeton, she took over at Colby, where she spent seven seasons building a program that turned a 5-12-2 record in her first season into a 12-9-1 mark in her last season.
Halldorson graduated from Princeton in 1985 with a degree in psychology. After receiving her bachelor of arts degree, she returned home to coach volleyball, softball and basketball in the Wayzata school district from 1985 to 1987.
In addition to the American Hockey Coaches Association and the Women's Hockey Coaches Association, Halldorson is also a member of the Women's Sports Foundation.
The American Hockey Coaches Association would like to thank Coach Halldorson
for her participation. Six questions were selected from those submitted
by visitors to our web site. Coach Halldorson's answers are below:
Debbie from Brooklyn Center, MN
Congratulations on a fabulous start to the season! Keep it up.
Do you see women's hockey adopting bodychecking in the near future? There seems to be a tremendous difference between what eastern and western officials consider "checking".
Thanks for your time.
Go, Gophers!
Coach Halldorson's Answer:
That’s a good question, Debbie. The issue of body checking has been discussed quite a bit recently because it’s so difficult to distinguish between “body checking” and “body contact”. Ask twenty people to explain the difference between those two things, and you’ll probably get twenty different answers! Personally, I hope that women’s hockey does not add checking. I like the emphasis that we have on the skills of the game--like passing, skating, stickhandling, etc. Let the skilled players showcase their talent without the clutching, grabbing, and hitting that often comes with body checking. Hopefully, we can continue to focus on taking steps to get officiating consistency throughout all the leagues.
Sean from Albert Lea, MN
With regard to girls vs. boys. In your opinion, should a girls team be "handled" the same as a boys team? Specifically, at the younger ages (<12) should the skill developments be paralled? thanks, Sean
Coach Halldorson's Answer:
I don’t see any reason why boys and girls shouldn’t learn the same skills at an early age. Hockey is hockey. As they get older, though, different issues will come into play—most noticeably, a difference in size and strength. Also, based on talking to many coaches, it seems that girls are sometimes better listeners, but they also have more off-ice things to worry about. So coaching boys versus girls has its similarities, but it also has its differences.
ndrennen from Northern Colorado
Please describe qualities you look for in a recruit for the goaltender position.
Coach Halldorson's Answer:
I look for someone who can stop the puck. I know that sounds funny, but it’s true! Yes, it’s great to be technically sound; however, some goalies may be a little “rough around the edges” but have very strong mental skills, are highly competitive, and work really hard. Obviously, if someone has all of those things, I’d be extremely interested!
John from Boston
Laura, How did you get your team to regroup after losing Lyndsay Wall to academic ineligibility and Natalie Darwitz to injury? Is there any hope Wall will return to the team?
Best of luck the rest of the way.
Coach Halldorson's Answer:
Thanks for your question, John. It hasn’t been easy losing two of our three Olympians this year. We’ve had to make some adjustments with our lineup, and players have had to “step up”. Fortunately, we have a group of players this year who are determined and focused on our goals. Battling adversity is part of sports, and we plan on overcoming the adversity that we’ve been dealt.
Since Lyndsay was ruled ineligible for the second semester, she won’t be able to play for the rest of the season. She’s still practicing with us, though, and we hope that she’ll get her grades up so she’ll be ready to go next fall.
Tom from Fairbanks, AK
Coach,
We've been spending time and effort up here building a strong girls hockey program. We have been able to get a few scholarship kids headed out but not without considerable travel and related expense. Is there some tournament or showcase or some place that would maximize this effort? What age are we talking about? We need some hints here for the far North. Thanks for your time.
Coach Halldorson's Answer:
For American players, the best places to be evaluated are at the USA Hockey Development Camps in the summer. Players need to try out and get selected by their district in order to be invited to one of these camps, so this really applies to your top players. The ages for these camps are usually from 14-19 years old. Most colleges send coaches to these events; and they provide a good opportunity to compare all of the top players in the country to each other. There are so many tournaments during the season now that it’s really hard to pick out one or two to recommend. If you want to contact me directly to talk about some different options, please do so.
Mark from Thousand Oaks
Dear Coach Halldorson:
Being a fanatical Minnesota Gophers mens hockey fan I do also follow the women's Gopher team and am quite proud of the team. How do you believe that the women's hockey game has changed and are there any rule changes that should be enforced more or stricter. Also what do you think about the playoff-final four system of womens hockey.
Coach Halldorson's Answer:
Mark, thanks for being a Gopher fan! I think that women’s college hockey has grown and improved tremendously since I played out East many years ago! The players’ skill level has increased dramatically even in the seven years that I’ve been at the U of M. Today’s players are stronger, faster, and more talented because girls are training, practicing, and playing much more than they did in the past. The game has also gotten more physical as the level of play has improved.
We’ve had four teams participating in our national tournament for six seasons now (the last three were sanctioned by the NCAA). There is a proposal in the system, though, to expand the NCAA women’s ice hockey tournament to eight teams as early as next season, which would be great. In my opinion, we have the depth to send eight quality teams to a national tournament right now. If it’s approved, many more young women will get to experience the thrill of competing for a national championship!
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