Hockey Canada announced today that Ohio State head coach Nadine Muzerall will lead their U18 Women's National Team through the upcoming season. She will take over from Vicky Sunohara, who will take the reins of the development program roster.
This will be Muzerall's international head coaching debut. She has previously coached at Hockey Canada U18 and developmental level camps and series. This puts her at the helm not just for summer camps and a three-game series against the US, but also for the 2027 IIHF U18 Women's World Championships scheduled for January 8-16 in Ostrava, Czechia.
Muzerall is entering her 11th season as head coach of the Buckeye women's hockey program having reached the last four national championship games. She's won two National Championships, three WCHA tournament titles an two WCHA regular season titles while coaching 28 PWHL draft picks and 13 Olympians.
There's a clear institutional path for coaches to go from the U18 to senior level staffs in both federations - Troy Ryan and Johnson both became head coaches of their respective senior national teams after first leading the U18 squads. With her unprecedeted success at Ohio State, it only makes sense for Hockey Canada to fold Muzerall further into their coaching ranks in their coaching developmental pipeline.
For Muzerall, there's not only the personal professional growth opportunities, but it also puts her in the path of the best collegiate prospects from across the world. She and her staff would have already been attending the U18 World Championships to scout players, but this gives her even more information and makes her a recognizable presence to overseas players.
Lest there be any confusion, she will not be the first or last collegiate coach to take on this role and use the access provided for recruiting. There is a history of NCAA coaches leading the US and Canadian U18 teams, including Holy Cross' Katie LaChapelle, then-UMD head coach and current Dartmouth head coach Maura Crowell, then-Minnesota assitant Joel Johnson, Princeton head coach Courtney Kessel and Boston University head coach Tara Watchorn over the past few tournaments.
Two additional NCAA coaches were announced for the development team coaching staff - Clarkson head coach Matt Desrosiers and Penn State assistant coach Jennifer Wakefield.
It's important that the federations continue to get coaches into their development pipeline, particularly women and more so, former players. There are only so many pathways for experience and if we want to see more female bench bosses at the federation, collegiate and professional levels, those coaches have to be be able to learn and grow through opportunities like this.
Per Hockey Canada's release about the coaching staff, camp will take place Aug. 3-8 at the Richmond Olympic Oval. Once selected, the team will play a three-game series against the United States, Aug. 12-15 in Richmond, B.C.
(Photo: Ohio State Athletics)
