On May 18, interim athletic director Peter Roby announced the hiring of Liz Keady Norton as head coach of the Big Green women’s hockey team. Keady Norton has coached at Boston University since the 2017-18 season, including the last two years as head coach. During those four years, the Terriers went 59-39-18, including 8-1-1 against ECAC teams.
Prior to her stint at BU, Keady Norton was an assistant coach at Union College and Harvard University, and she captained the Princeton University women’s hockey team during the 2007-2008 season. From her time at Harvard and Princeton, Keady Norton is no stranger to Ivy League athletics and hopes to use her past coaching and playing experiences to help her coaching at Dartmouth.
“I think that each place, you do things a little bit differently, and so I feel I have knowledge of different places,” Keady Norton said. “At all of those places, you're looking for high-achieving student-athletes who want the best of both worlds... academically and athletically. And I think there are plenty of those kinds of players in women’s hockey who play at Dartmouth.”
Keady Norton expressed her enthusiasm about joining the Big Green community and coaching the women’s hockey team.
“I am just really excited about the opportunity [to coach] and looking forward to getting more acclimated with the community,” Keady Norton said. “I’ve always wanted to be a head coach and get back to the Ivy League, and I'm really excited to be there. I’m grateful to be part of the Dartmouth community, and I think between the history of success that we’ve had here and tradition, it’s the ideal place to end up.”
Forward Tiffany Hill ’24 is looking forward to the knowledge Keady Norton will bring to Dartmouth through her experiences as both a player and coach.
“She played at an Ivy League school, she’s coached at an Ivy, it’s really good to have her coming in with that knowledge,” Hill said. “She knows how hard academics are and what it takes to be a student-athlete at an Ivy, so I have a lot of confidence in her and I’m sure that she’ll do a great job.”
Keady Norton, who has not yet moved to the Hanover area, said she held her first team meeting virtually shortly after her hiring, during which she introduced herself and her goals for the team. She also was able to meet with some of the team in person last week. According to Hill, Keady Norton plans to meet with each class year on Zoom over the coming weeks.
Keady Norton is excited for next year’s season, not only to get back to competing but also to get to know her players better as well.
“I'm a big people-over-play kind of coach, and I think that the most important thing I can do is to get to know what motivates them and what improvements they’d like to see,” Keady Norton said. “It’s as simple as putting one good practice together and then doing the same thing the next day for some consistency.”
Keady Norton added that after a year away from the ice, she anticipates the return to a consistent practice schedule next year to have a positive impact on morale.
“I think it will go a long way for a lot of people this year — just being able to play and compete and remember what it’s like to put on the jersey and go out and represent your school, which is such an honor.”
After a full year without competing and now the arrival of a new coaching staff, forward Gabby Billing ’22 said the team is looking forward to a “big season.”
“The biggest thing with Norton that we’re looking forward to is stability,” Billing said. “We’ve had a lot of coaches in not very many years, so it’s exciting to have the possibility of someone sticking around for a long time and helping our program get back to where we know it can be…. I’m excited to see what we can do next year and in the upcoming years with Norton.”
