Upon first meeting Allison Coomey and Katie Lachapelle, it seems as though they’ve known each other their whole life. Both provide jokes and laughter, with life’s travels the subject and hockey the central theme.
They reminisce on recruiting trips, nights in hotels their families call sketchy, hanging out in hole-in-the-wall restaurants and striking up conversations with locals. They’ve lost count of how many snowstorms they’ve driven through, because, well, there’s always a hockey game to catch. And then there’s the time torrential downpours caused them to post up in a random motel, or when they were on a trip to Montreal and didn’t have anything to do until nighttime, so they, of all things, went candlepin bowling.
Coomey and Lachapelle’s bond is close, and not just because they share an office at Walter Brown Arena. Rather, they’ve spent the last nine years together as assistant coaches for the Boston University women’s hockey team, helping head coach Brian Durocher build the program into one of the nation’s most competitive, consistent programs.
“For me, to have such young ladies who are such good coaches, I’m lucky,” Durocher said. “I really do consider myself to be lucky. I haven’t had to search for other assistants, there’s not new faces that people have to get to know. Sometimes change is good, but having continuity, having experience with people who know Boston University is extremely helpful.”
That experience has proved vital, too, as Coomey and Lachapelle were there every step of the way for the Terriers’ four straight Hockey East Tournament titles and six straight NCAA Tournament appearances, spanning from 2010 to 2015. Ask those closest to BU hockey, though, and they’ll insist the little memories stick out the most.
For Holly Lorms, a former Terrier captain and player from 2007-2011, the back-and-forth practical jokes come to mind. On a trip up to the University of Maine, Lorms and her teammates tied together the laces on Coomey and Lachapelle’s skates, only for the coaches to rebut and tape massive knobs on the players’ sticks.
But in a program as successful as BU’s, more serious memories surface, as was the case with Dakota Woodworth, a forward from 2012-2016. She remembered how the duo would go over film, stick around after practice for extra passes and constantly serve as a support group, especially for the underclassmen.
So when prompted with her favorite memory, it’s no surprise Coomey returns to where everything got started: the program-defining overtime win in the 2010 Hockey East Tournament final over the University of Connecticut.
“We were just here for our second year, so for us it was huge,” Coomey said. “We had seen a little bit of the growing pains, but not as much as [Durocher] had. I can easily still remember when we scored in overtime and Katie and I looking at each other.”
It’s not just Coomey who views that as a special moment, though, as Durocher also singled it out.
“That win brought the staff together,” Durocher said. “When the puck went in off the hip of a UConn defenseman and went into the top corner, jubilation rang through the BU program. To have us all be there together and hug each other and say, ‘Wow, that happened quicker than we thought,’ is something that’ll always be in my mind.”
While Coomey and Lachapelle are now synonymous with Terrier hockey, each has experienced a winding trip through NCAA hockey before landing on BU’s doorstep.
For Coomey, she coached at Connecticut College, the State University of New York at Plattsburgh and eventually became an assistant at Niagara University, her alma mater. But she wanted a change, and Boston offered just that. Coomey had often golfed with Durocher at the American Hockey Coaches Association Convention in Naples, Florida, “so the rest just sort of fell into place.”
With Lachapelle, she grew up in Maine, never imagining she’d live in a city. But her hockey career unfolded as such: a playing career at Providence College, a first gig at Union College, another at Niagara and then a four-year stop at Ohio State University. She eventually got the itch to return to New England, so when the BU job opened up, the opportunity to coach at a true hockey school was too tempting to pass up.
These days, Coomey deals with BU’s penalty kill and offense, and Lachapelle the power play and defense, but their roles have become far more holistic. In particular, Lorms reflected on how the duo joined the program during her sophomore year, only to become some of her closest friends.
“They shaped not only the player I became at BU, but the person I am.” Lorms said. “It wasn’t just the on-ice stuff, and there were plenty of games where I knew Coomey or Katie wanted to yell at me for something I did. But they were always patient and … I don’t think we ever really saw them as our assistant coaches. They worked with us every day all day no matter what it took.”
Humble as ever, Coomey and Lachapelle said impressions such as those aren’t their own doing, but a byproduct of the culture Durocher has created. And as part of that culture, Lachapelle joked that it’d be a good idea to give the graduating class a journal, chronicling their journey throughout BU.
More often than not, though, Lachapelle said the players find their footing early on, and the closeness of each group helps with that. She added there aren’t really cliques among the Terriers, and that culture was something Coomey agreed with.
“The biggest thing and reason we see our kids grow so much is they see how much we care about them as people and not just someone who is going to produce points for us or stop the puck for us,” Coomey said. “Knowing that coaches care about you makes you want to be that much better.”
Almost on cue, Lachapelle echoed those sentiments.
“Everyone is going to have a bad day or a good day, so when someone comes into the rink, we’re not all over them,” Lachapelle said. “You don’t know what’s happening outside the rink, so it’s thinking, ‘What’s going on with them,’ and not, ‘What the heck are they doing at practice.’ We don’t think automatically to the hockey part of it. We think to the, ‘OK, something’s going on and they’re college students and life can be hard sometimes.’”
In their broader understanding of the challenges before their student-athletes, one can’t help but wonder if a head coaching job is a realistic possibility for Coomey and Lachapelle. After all, nine years is a long tenure as an assistant coach in the broader world of collegiate athletics, and Durocher said both have been involved with interview processes in the past.
For Lachapelle, she said becoming a head coach is likely her next path, but assured the grass isn’t always greener on the other side. Coomey agreed, explaining that few schools are invested in their hockey programs like BU is, so sometimes it’s best to stay put.
“BU is unique in a lot of ways, where we’ve experienced there’s not always that tight-knit community that there is here,” Coomey said. “That’s another hard thing to look beyond when you’re looking for other jobs. I don’t think we’ll ever truly find the fit you find here, and just the relationships you have with everyone from the custodial staff to the athletic director. It’s a really unique situation that’s hard to find anywhere else.”
Whatever the future has in store, one thing is clear: Coomey and Lachapelle have been indispensable in growing BU hockey’s reputation. Sure, Durocher may be the face of the program, but the duo are widely respected in the college hockey world and will always have their special bond.
They’ll have their memories, too, just like when BU defeated Mercyhurst in their first-ever NCAA Tournament game that was held at Walter Brown Arena.
“Remember when we won here against Mercyhurst and we threw all the seniors out for the last shift and [Lauren] Cherewyk is bawling?” Lachapelle asked Coomey. “I’m like, ‘Are you OK?’ She just was so excited, and you sometimes forget how they’re here for four years.”
And what followed? Laughter and a big smile from Coomey.
Jonathan's a New Englander who writes about sports, features and politics. He currently covers men's hockey at BU, worked as Sports Editor during the spring 2016 semester and is on the FreeP's Board of Directors. Toss him a follow on Twitter at @jonathansigal.
