Sacred Heart announced the hiring of Thomas O’Malley as the school’s new women’s ice hockey coach. O’Malley replaces Ed Bourget, who resigned at the conclusion of the 2002-03 season after the Pioneers finished 11-13-1.
O’Malley, an 18-year veteran of coaching women’s collegiate ice hockey, comes to the Pioneers from Wayne State, where he started that school’s Division I women’s program in 1999. He was assigned the task of forming a hockey team in a short time span with fall semester scheduled to begin in just two months.
Before joining the Wayne State staff, O’Malley spent 15 years as the head women’s hockey coach at Boston College. He guided the Eagles program from the ground up in the 1980’s and also was named the head coach as the university raised the team’s status to Division I. He had a 61-90-7 record in five varsity seasons and his squad won two AWHCA national titles (1992 and 1993) and numerous other tournaments.
He began his coaching career as the assistant coach and took over the head coaching position in 1984. O’Malley graduated from Boston College in 1989 and played college hockey at BC for coaches Len Ceglarski and Steve Cedorchuk.
“I’m very excited about being here,” said O’Malley. “I had aspirations about coming back home to New England. From the moment I stepped foot on the campus to interview, I had a good feeling about this place and the people here. That played a big part in my decision to accept the job.
“I know they’ve been a competitive team here over the past few seasons. All the basics are here and now it’s up to me to bring that to the highest level possible.”
