In May, we wrote about Kelsey Koelzer, the hockey history maker who is blazing a path for women, particularly Black women, in hockey.
This past weekend the trailblazer made her historic coaching debut for Arcadia University, and while it didn’t produce the winning outcome in the boxscore, it felt like a championship moment.
The NCAA DIII school, which is located outside of Philadelphia, lost its opening game on Saturday to Worcester State University 5-0. On Sunday they lost again, 3-2 back in Pennsylvania.
Despite the losses, the weekend was another major accomplishment in Koelzer’s incredible hockey career.
The Pennsylvania native started hockey at an early age after finally getting her mother’s ok to do so.
“Initially, my mom did not want to let me play hockey because it was not something that girls did back in 1998/99,” Koelzer said to WPVI TV.
But not only did she do it, she excelled, eventually playing for Princeton University, where she dominated.
Koelzer was a three-time, First-team All-Ivy League honoree for the Tigers. She was also Princeton’s first First-team All-American.
She was the team captain in her senior year as well as the Ivy League Player of the Year, Ivy League Champion, and led the Tigers to the NCAA national quarterfinals.
Her accolades made the choice easy for the Metropolitan Riveters of the National Women’s Hockey League (NWHL), who selected her with the first overall pick in the league’s 2016 draft.
That made Koelzer the first African American player selected with the top pick in the highest level of professional hockey in America.
And she did not disappoint.
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