Kelsey Koelzer (born June 16, 1995) is an American

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice h ...

defender, currently serving as head coach of the

Arcadia University Arcadia University is a private university in Glenside, Pennsylvania. The university enrolls approximately 4,000 undergraduate, master's, and doctoral students. The campus features Grey Towers Castle, a National Historic Landmark. History B ...

women's ice hockey program, the first black female head coach in

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...

ice hockey history, as well as the Advisor to the Commissioner on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion for the NWHL. She was drafted 1st overall by the

Metropolitan Riveters The Metropolitan Riveters (originally the New York Riveters) are a professional women's ice hockey team based in East Rutherford, New Jersey, with home games at the American Dream Meadowlands ice rink. They were one of the four charter franchi ...

in the

2016 NWHL Draft Sixteen or 16 may refer to: *16 (number), the natural number following 15 and preceding 17 *one of the years 16 BC, AD 16, 1916, 2016 Films * '' Pathinaaru'' or ''Sixteen'', a 2010 Tamil film * ''Sixteen'' (1943 film), a 1943 Argentine film di ...

, the first black player to be the first overall pick in a professional North American hockey league draft. She played two seasons in the

National Women's Hockey League The Premier Hockey Federation (PHF), formerly the National Women's Hockey League (NWHL), is a women's professional ice hockey league located in the United States and Canada. The league was established in 2015 with four league-owned teams and ha ...

(NWHL) with the Riveters before joining the

Professional Women's Hockey Players Association The Professional Women's Hockey Players Association (PWHPA) is a nonprofit 501(c)(6) organization dedicated to advocating for the promotion of professional women's ice hockey. It was founded in May 2019 following the dissolution of the Canadian W ...

(PWHPA) in 2019.

Playing career

Across 128

NCAA Division I NCAA Division I (D-I) is the highest level of intercollegiate athletics sanctioned by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States, which accepts players globally. D-I schools include the major collegiate athletic ...

games with the

Princeton Tigers The Princeton Tigers are the athletic teams of Princeton University. The school sponsors 35 varsity teams in 20 sports. The school has won several NCAA national championships, including one in men's fencing, three in women's lacrosse, six in ...

, Koelzer scored 100 points and was a Patty Kazmaier Award finalist in 2016 and 2017. She was named

ECAC Hockey ECAC Hockey is one of the six conferences that compete in NCAA Division I college ice hockey, ice hockey. The conference used to be affiliated with the Eastern College Athletic Conference, a consortium of over 300 colleges in the eastern United ...

Best Defender of the Year in 2016. She was the first-ever Princeton's women's hockey first team All-American. The New York Riveters selected her 1st overall in the

, the first black player to be the first overall pick in a professional North American hockey league draft. She signed her first professional contract at the end of the 2016-17 NWHL regular season, and would make her first NWHL appearance in the Riveters' loss to the Buffalo Beauts in the semi-finals. She would go on to play two full seasons with the club, winning the

Isobel Cup The Lady Isobel Gathorne-Hardy Cup, often shortened to Isobel Cup, is the championship trophy awarded annually to the Premier Hockey Federation (PHF) playoff winner. It is named after Lady Isobel Gathorne-Hardy, one of the first known women to p ...

in 2018. She was named to Team Leveille for the 2018 NWHL All-Star Game, where she would be awarded All-Star Game MVP. In May 2019, she joined the PWHPA. She would appear for Team Decker in the Dream Gap Tour exhibition in Philadelphia during the 2019–20 PWHPA season.

Executive career

In September 2019, she was hired by

as head coach for the new women's hockey programme. She is the first black female head coach in the history of NCAA ice hockey. She is also a member of the NHL and NHLPA Female Hockey Advisory Committee. Along with Melissa Parnagian, she campaigned for the introduction of the

Willie O'Ree Willie Eldon O'Ree (born October 15, 1935) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player, best known for being the first Black player in the National Hockey League (NHL). O'Ree played as a winger for the Boston Bruins. O'Ree is referred t ...

Congressional Gold Medal Act. On March 25, 2021, she was appointed to the role of Advisor to the Commissioner on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion for the NWHL.

Personal life

Koelzer has a degree in psychology from Princeton University.

Career Statistics

References

External links

* 1995 births Living people American women's ice hockey defensemen African-American ice hockey players Princeton University alumni Metropolitan Riveters players Professional Women's Hockey Players Association players Isobel Cup champions Ice hockey players from Pennsylvania People from Horsham Township, Pennsylvania 21st-century African-American sportspeople 21st-century African-American women Princeton Tigers women's ice hockey players {{US-icehockey-bio-stub