St. Kate's hockey coach Brad Marshall has announced that a name familiar to women's hockey fans throughout the country, and especially the state of Minnesota, will be joining his staff. Team USA participant, and former Ms. Hockey Minnesota award winner, Allie Thunstrom will be an assistant coach at St. Kate’s starting this fall.
After capping her stellar high school career by winning the 2006 Ms. Hockey Minnesota award, Thunstrom went on to star for the Boston College women's hockey team. At BC Thunstrom had 138 points in 141 career games. She helped the Eagles qualify for the 2007 NCAA Women's Frozen Four. Thunstrom also led the team in scoring twice, never missed a game in her career, and made the Hockey East All-Star team three times. A few more of Thunstrom’s career highlights include attending four USA Hockey Player Development camps and participating in three USA Hockey National Festivals. This past season she played for the Minnesota Whitecaps in the Western Women’s Hockey League.
Thunstrom’s arrival to Coach Marshall’s staff isn’t without history. During Marshall’s early coaching days Thunstrom was one of his star pupils. Marshall coached Thunstrom when she was a sophomore and junior at North High School in St. Paul. The duo led the Polars to a runner-up finish at state in 2004. They are hoping that familiarity will led to a smooth transition as Thunstrom works with the Forwards and Power-Play units at St. Kate's this season.
When asked about Thunstrom’s addition to his staff Marshall said, "We're extremely happy to have Allie helping out this year. As a young coach she brings a lot of experience to our program. Her success as a player and a coach will help our players significantly, especially this season because we have a fairly young group of forwards.” Marshall continued to note that, “Allie's obviously very well known in the Minnesota hockey community from her time at North St. Paul High School, Boston College and with Team USA. We are certainly excited to have St. Kate’s added to the list of places where she will have a positive impact."
While Thunstrom's connection to Coach Marshall will allow her to jump right in with the Wildcats program, her connection to St. Kate’s won’t end on the ice. Thunstrom has recently enrolled as a student in St. Kate's renowned Nursing program. As a student at St. Catherine University she will be pursuing a second major after earning her degree in psychology at Boston College.
Clearly never one to take the easy road, Thunstrom’s unique coach-student-athlete role will kick off August 12 at the National Sports Center in Blaine. That is when she takes to the ice to train with Team USA for two weeks.
Click Here To see Coach Thunstrom's complete USA Hockey Bio.
