Canton, Mass., native becomes tenth head coach in program's 33 year history
"I am excited to announce Patrick Leahy as our head ice hockey coach," said Sullivan. "His passion and knowledge, garnered from his experience as a student-athlete and coach, came forward in the interview process and made him the right candidate to direct our program. I look forward to watching him mold our student-athletes into successful hockey players and, more importantly, successful people."
Leahy takes over for Garry Hebert, who resigned following the 2010-11 season after a six year association with the Stonehill ice hockey program, including the last four as head coach. Leahy joins Stonehill following one season as varsity hockey coach at King Philip Regional High School in nearby Wrentham. Prior to that, he served four seasons as head coach of the hockey program at The Winchendon (Mass.) School.
Leahy led The Winchendon School to back-to-back 20-win seasons in his final two years as head coach, posting 23 wins in 2007-08 and 22 victories in 2008-09 in which the team won the Saint Sebastian's Holiday Tournament. He formulated a recruiting strategy that would result in attracting prep school student-athletes that would go on to play at every level of collegiate hockey, including nearly every program in the Northeast-10 Conference. In addition to his duties with the hockey program in Winchendon, Leahy was weightlifting coach for the athletic department, baseball head coach and junior varsity soccer coach, while also teaching English and world history and serving as an admissions associate.
Leahy has also worked in hockey as a regional scout for Gilmour Academy (2009-10), New England scout for Sioux City Musketeers of the United States Hockey League (2009), coach and evaluator for Hockey Night in Boston (2008), on ice coach at the USA Hockey Massachusetts Festival (2008) as well as USA Hockey Select-17 player development assistant coach (2008). He is Level 3 certified with USA Hockey and in the process of getting his Level 4 certification.
Leahy is a 2001 graduate of Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in sociology and was a member of the ice hockey program, serving as captain for three seasons. He earned All-Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference (MASCAC) honors his junior year. Leahy went on to play parts of two seasons of professional hockey with the Mohawk Valley Prowlers of the United Hockey League (UHL) and Indianapolis Ice of the Central Hockey League (CHL).
"I am honored to be a part of the Stonehill community," said Leahy. "I'd like to thank the administration and the search committee for giving me this opportunity to lead the ice hockey program. I can't wait to jump into things full speed with recruiting, getting in touch with the returning and incoming student-athletes to start building the program back to the top of the Northeast-10."
Stonehill is coming off a 2010-11 season where it posted a 5-18-1 record overall, including a 3-7-1 mark in NE-10 play to finish fifth before being edged by fourth-seeded Assumption College in the first round of the NE-10 Tournament, 5-2.
