Women’s Hockey East: All in for Holy Cross

Holy Cross women’s hockey coach Katie Lachapelle has had many influences. (Mark Seliger)

When Holy Cross women’s hockey coach Katie Lachapelle started coaching on the collegiate level in 1999, she was focused on one thing and one thing only.

“Probably when I was younger in my career, I thought winning is what [coaching] was all about — winning games, thinking about how do we just win more games,” said Lachapelle. “As I've gotten older, you realize, ‘Wait, there's way more to it than that.’ ”

After 20 years serving as an assistant and associate coach, this fall marks the Lewiston, Maine, native’s first season as a head coach, taking over the Crusaders after two years serving under Holy Cross legend Peter Van Buskirk. It will be a tough road for the still relatively new to Hockey East team, but Lachapelle is pleased to have had time to learn from someone with as much institutional knowledge as Van Buskirk.

“Peter knew so much about Holy Cross, and it was nice to have him here to kind of help move through some of those pieces,” said Lachapelle. “When you get to a new place, you're not trying to figure out how everything works, because there's a lot of the behind-the-scenes pieces that are different at every school you work at. So I was able to have some help, which was great.”