McKenna Coaching U.S. Olympics Ice Hockey

Jodi McKenna, head coach of women’s hockey, is taking a leave from Wesleyan to coach the U.S. Olympic women’s ice hockey team at the Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada. The games open Feb. 14.

In a Jan. 10 Hartford Courant article titled “Career Path Continues to be Covered with Ice,” McKenna says, “It’s not something, when I got into coaching, that I would even conceive of, being in this situation. It became more of a possibility the more I became involved in the national program.”

McKenna was named an assistant coach in May, right before her Wesleyan players went home for the summer. McKenna, who spent nine years as an assistant at St. Lawrence University, had just completed her second year as a head coach. It was hard to tell her team she wouldn’t be there this winter.

“I miss the girls,” McKenna says in the article. “I check in but I try to let the current coaches do their job. … Hopefully, there are a lot of things I’ll be able to take back to Wesleyan.”

McKenna was featured in a Sept. 19, 2007 article in The Wesleyan Connection.