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No coach and team in women's college hockey looked forward to the start of the 2007-08 season as much as Katie King and the Boston College Eagles.
The end of last year caused BC at its best and worst - from the stunning high of an upset victory in the NCAA quarterfinals at Dartmouth, to a crushing defeat in double-overtime in the Frozen Four, to the departure of coach Tom Mutch in April in a cloud of controversy.
After a month long search process, BC Athletic Director Gene DeFilippo determined that the best candidate for BC's head coaching job was already in the fold. King, who had served as Mutch's assistant for four seasons, was promoted to head coach May 29.
She instantly faced the burden of high expectations. BC's Frozen Four berth last season put the young and talented Eagles in the national spotlight. King knows that the program is expected to continue to progress this year - and it's a challenge she's looking forward to tackling.
"It was a great season last year. We had an unbelievable run … with some great wins, and some tough losses. I can only see our team moving forward this year and continuing to go in the right direction," King said.
The national media agrees. BC earned a pre-season No. 8 ranking this year and is considered a legitimate threat to UNH's dominance of Hockey East.
"Our team has a lot more experience now after going to the Frozen Four and that's really going to help our team," King said.
"We have a great sophomore class coming back with a little bit of fuel on the fire after the tough ending to last year … and our [upperclassmen] are tremendous leaders, which has helped our team all along and will continue to help us throughout the year," she said.
The Eagles added three freshmen to the team this year - defensemen Katelyn Kurth of Highbridge, N.J. and Ashlan Lambert of Eden Prairie, Minn., and goaltender Amanda Rothschild of Sherborn, Mass.. Kurth and Lambert look poised to make an immediate impact on the King's primary area of concern, team defense.
"I'm not worried about our offensive ability - it's not just one or two kids, it's seven, eight, nine kids who can put the puck in the net for us … but ultimately, you always have to worry about cleaning up your defensive zone. That will be one of our focuses this year," King said.
"Molly [Schaus] did a great job last year when she had to face a lot of shots, but hopefully we can take some of the load off of her this year."
King comes into this situation with an outstanding hockey r ésumé. She is Brown University's all-time leading scorer, having played for the Bears from 1993-1997. She played for the U.S. Olympic team three times, including the gold-medal winning 1998 team, which stunned Canada in Nagano, Japan.
Behind the bench, in addition to her duties at BC, she worked as an assistant last year for the U. S. national under-22 team.
She describes her Olympic experience as "surreal."
"It was an amazing experience to go to the Olympics three times and win a medal in each one," she said. "Hopefully one of these players will someday be in that situation and they can take some pointers from me."
With all things considered, King admits she has had little to complain about regarding experience.
"Hockey's given me so much in my life, so to be able to give back, and to give back to a school like Boston College, is a great opportunity," King said.
Given her hockey experience and familiarity with the program, she was immediately considered the front-runner for the head coaching job when it opened up in April. During the search process, King said that she felt good about her chances of landing the job.
"I was pretty confident - I knew that I felt comfortable here and the players felt comfortable with me and that made me feel better about my chances.
"I definitely had a desire to be a head coach at some point," she added. "This opportunity fell into my lap and I'm extremely thankful for it."
King continues to feel very confident in the direction of the program and is not shy about her ambitions.
"This school is an amazing school and this program is on the rise. Hopefully, I can help propel the program to a national championship. That's the goal," she said.
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