Julie Sasner, most recently an assistant coach for the 2002 U.S. Olympic women’s hockey team, was officially named head coach at MIT.
Sasner, also a former coach at Cornell and Wisconsin, will be inheriting a Division III team that was 0-19 last season, scoring two goals while allowing 226.
“We could not be more thrilled to have her lead our team,” said MIT assistant athletic director John Benedick. “She has an illustrious history in women’s ice hockey both as a player and a coach.”
Sasner was recently a finalist for the opening at New Hampshire, only to lose out to former UNH men’s assistant Brian McCloskey.
At the time, Sasner, a native of Durham, N.H., was critical of that decision.
“Personally, it’s a blow,” said Sasner to the Portsmouth Herald. “It’s tough for me to see the job go to someone who’s never coached women’s hockey before. I can’t help but think this is a huge setback to women’s hockey and women’s sports. I question the school’s motivation with this decision.”
Sasner, 36, was named 1995 Coach of the Year by the American Women’s Hockey Coaches Association while at Cornell. She became Wisconsin’s first coach after it started the women’s program in 1999-2000. She left the Badgers to be an assistant for the U.S. national team.
Sasner was a player on the first U.S. Women’s National Team in 1990, which won the silver medal at the world championships. She served as an assistant coach with the 1995 U.S. National Junior Team and the 1995 U.S. women’s select Team that competed in Finland.
A 1988 Harvard graduate, Sasner was a two-sport athlete for the Crimson. She was All-Ivy four times in hockey, and two times in soccer, was the Ivy League’s Rookie of the Year in 1985 and Ivy League Player of the Year in 1988.
