Olivia Spellmire, a 2018 finalist for the Laura Hurd Award that goes to the nation’s top NCAA Division III women’s hockey player, has been hired as the University of Maine women’s ice hockey volunteer coach.
Spellmire replaces Emily Bruns, the granddaughter of former UMaine men’s hockey assistant and 2017 UMaine Sports Hall of Famer Grant Standbrook, who took a similar position at Clarkson University.
Head coach Richard Reichenbach said he was worried UMaine might not be able to find someone to replace Bruns because of the timing of her departure.
“We’re really lucky to get Olivia,” he said. “I didn’t know if we could find somebody with the quality that we were looking for but we did,” he added. “She has been awesome so far.”
Spellmire, a native of Bloomington, Minnesota, tallied 53 goals and a school-record 79 assists in 110 games at Lake Forest College in Illinois.
“It feels good. This is what I wanted to be doing all along. And Maine has such a good program,” said the 23-year-old Spellmire, who earned a degree in finance and was working in that field before deciding to leave to play in Sweden during their playoffs.
After returning, she was mulling another finance job when she saw the UMaine vacancy on the American Hockey Coaches Association website.
“Hockey is important to me and if you want to stay in the game and you can’t play any more, you can get into coaching,” said Spellmire, who had never been to Maine. “I got lucky, Maine had an opening.”
Spellmire, who is working on her master’s degree, will be involved in a lot of video work as well as on-ice skill development.
“It’s a great group of girls to work with,” she said. “They’re very nice. They have come up to me and gotten to know me. It’s humbling that they have shown so much respect to someone who is close in age to them.”