Pittsburgh, Pa. – Chatham University announced on Monday, June 24, Mike O’Grady is the new head coach for their women’s hockey team.

Cougars Athletic Director Leonard Trevino commented, “I am happy to announce that Michael O’Grady will be our new women’s hockey head coach. Coach O’Grady was most recently the head coach at Nichols College where he successfully upgraded the program to their best years. A diligent recruiter, Coach O’Grady was also an assistant coach at Maine and Mercyhurst University. I look forward to seeing our program develop and achieve the success that I believe it can.”

O’Grady comes to the Purple and Gray with a significant coaching background. He started his career in 2011 at John Carroll University where he served as an assistant coach for the American Collegiate Hockey Association Division I men’s club program while studying Exercise Science as an undergraduate.

Graduating in 2014, O’Grady went to Mercyhurst University in Erie, PA. He served as both a graduate assistant to the Mercyhurst Archaeological Institute and an assistant to the NCAA Division I women’s ice hockey team under head coach Michael Sisti.

After two seasons with the Lakers, O’Grady moved to the women’s NCAA D-I hockey program at the University of Maine as an assistant coach where he focused on position-specific skill development for head coach Richard Reichenbach along with defensive management, recruiting and team travel coordination.

O’Grady took his first head coaching position in 2017 with the NCAA D-III Nichols College Bison in Dudley, MA. He led the Black and Green to a program-record 12 wins, as well as their first ever conference playoff win, in his first season. During the 2018-2019 campaign, the Bison earned the second seed in the Colonial Hockey Conference playoffs by winning 14 games (8-3-1 CHC). O’Grady also coached 16 student-athletes onto the CHC Academic team, and he hopes to continue this tradition of academic excellence at Chatham.

Nichols College Director of Athletics Chris Colvin spoke about O’Grady’s contributions, “Mike O’Grady engineered one of the most remarkable turnarounds I’ve witnessed in college athletics. To set school records for wins in back-to-back seasons after inheriting a team that had only won one game the year before is remarkable. This turnaround was not just on the scoreboard, however, as he worked hard to create a strong team culture within the women’s ice hockey program.”

Ice Chips Clipboard: Last season, the Cougars went 7-18-0, 4-14-0 in the United Collegiate Hockey Conference, under head coach Jessica Newstrom. She resigned in March 2019.

Looking Back On YouTube.com – Chatham University Women’s Hockey 2017-2018…

This story was provided by Cougars Sports Information Director Kailin Nelson and the Chatham University Athletic Department.