ECAC commissioner Rudy Keeling announced Friday that the ECAC Women’s West Hockey administrators voted to accept Potsdam as its tenth member during the annual league administrators meeting on Thurs., Oct. 18.
Located in Potsdam, N.Y., and founded in 1816, Potsdam has roughly 4,300 undergraduate and graduate students. With the addition of women’s ice gockey, Potsdam will now field ten women’s and seven men’s varsity sports, which compete primarily in the SUNYAC.
The Bears will begin conference play starting in the 2008-09 season, playing their home games at the Maxcy Hall Ice Arena located on the campus of SUNY Potsdam. The 2007-08 season will be the first for the Bears at the club level. They will play as a member of the Northeast Women’s Collegiate Hockey Association (NEWCHA), boasting a 14 game league schedule as well as competition against prep school, midget, and intermediate clubs.
Jay Green will lead the Bears behind the bench for their first season as a club program and will continue to guide them once they make the transition to varsity status. Green has an impressive hockey pedigree, both as a player and coach. At Potsdam, Green has been involved with ice hockey for over ten years, acting as an assistant coach for the men’s program and a hockey school instructor. His coaching background also includes a stint overseas in Sweden where he coached with Sudrets Hockey Club, as well as time at his alma mater Elmira College and North Adams State College.
On the ice, Green was a member of the Elmira College ice hockey team that reached the 1980 NCAA Championship game, and earned his letter in all four seasons he skated with the Soaring Eagles.
The ECAC Women’s West Hockey League is currently comprised of: Buffalo State, Chatham, Cortland, Elmira, Neumann, Oswego, Plattsburgh, RIT, and Utica.
