RinkWise podcast: Tara Watchorn on starting a Division 1 program from scratch at Stonehill

Tara Watchorn enters her first season as head coach of Stonehill women's hockey. (Pardo Photo)

Tara Watchorn is 32 years old and she’s experienced quite a bit in the hockey world.

The Newcastle, Ontario, native played four seasons at Boston University as a standout defender, leading the Terriers to Hockey East championships in 2010 and 2012. She also led them to the Frozen Four in 2011. She played 11 years for Team Canada. In the International Ice Hockey Federation Women’s World Championship, she earned a silver medal three times (2011, 2015, 2016) and scored two gold medals in 2013 and 2014 at the 4 Nations Cup.

In 2014, she got an Olympic gold medal for the Canadian National Team.

Her latest endeavor as head coach of Stonehill has brought forward a brand new set of challenges.

In the latest RinkWise podcast, Watchorn sat down with host Stephanie Wood to discuss those new challenges, as well as her outlook on the season.

On the comparisons between playing at BU and coaching at Stonehill: 

Watchorn: “It’s crazy to think about and I obviously reflect on my process of being recruited and deciding what school to go to because it very much serves in when we’re in the process of recruiting as well. But BU was only three years into its history of the women’s program and I decided to go there and I think that was something, funny enough, of what I’m doing now [at Stonehill]. A strong parallel there, but ti be able to get to be a go-to player and help create history and tradition and success somewhere really drew me in.”

On recruiting for a new program: 

Watchorn: “It was such a unique time to build and recruit from scratch…The NCAA implemented a new rule as girls were starting to commit a lot earlier. So that 2004 birth year class, the 2022 graduates from high school, was the one going to, in large part, make up our roster. They were impacted by that rule. A good, good chunk of that class had committed early, and then the rule was implemented so that they couldn’t be recruited until after June 15th of their sophomore year of high school…I felt there were a lot of Division 1 athletes still out there that were there to help build our program that hopefully got missed.”