Sacred Heart has announced the addition of Mickey Riley as the director of hockey operations for the men’s hockey team.
Riley, part of the distinguished Riley hockey family, joins the Pioneers after two years in the same position with the women’s hockey program at Harvard.
While at Harvard, Riley coordinated all aspects of team travel for the Crimson, in addition to managing game and practice filming operations, plus organizing various other team events. He will handle many similar duties with SHU.
“We are happy to welcome Mickey to our hockey team,” said SHU head coach CJ Marottolo in a statement. “He comes highly recommended, and I know our players will benefit from his passion. He will help our guys have the best possible experience while being a Sacred Heart student-athlete.”
Prior to his stint at Harvard, Riley was a four-year student manager with the men’s hockey program at UConn as an undergraduate. As a senior, he received the team’s Coach John Chapman Award, “given to the member of the program who has demonstrated what it means to be a leader.” Riley was the first manager in program history to receive the award, which is typically presented to a student-athlete.
He is a 2020 graduate of UConn with a degree in communications.
“I would like to thank Coach Marottolo and the coaching staff for the opportunity to be a part of the Sacred Heart men’s hockey program,” said Riley. “I’m very excited for the upcoming season and look forward to helping the team be successful in any way I can.”
Riley is part of the youngest generation of the storied Riley hockey family. He is the grandson of the legendary Jack Riley, who coached Team USA to the gold medal at the 1960 Winter Olympics, coached the men’s hockey team at Army for more than 30 years (1950-86), and has been inducted into the US Hockey (1979), IIHF (1998) and Army Sports (2004) halls of fame.
The head coaching position at Army has been in the Riley family since 1950, as Jack’s sons – Mickey’s uncles – Rob (1988-04) and Brian (2004-present) have both held the head role at West Point as well. Mickey’s father Jay played collegiately at Harvard in the early 1970s. His brother Jack totaled 33 points (18-15-33) across three seasons at UMass Boston (2017-20).
