SUNY Cortland C-Club Hall of Fame
One of the nation’s fastest rising collegiate men’s ice hockey coaches, Nate Leaman has been the head coach of the Providence College Friars since 2011.
In 2013-14, he led the Friars to their first NCAA Division I tournament appearance since 2001 and their first NCAA victory since 1991. They finished with a 22-11-6 record, tying for the third-most wins in program history. Providence ranked in the top 12 in the national polls for 24 consecutive weeks and advanced to the Hockey East semifinals for a program-record third straight year. Leaman became the 16th NCAA Division I men’s ice hockey head coach to lead two different teams to the NCAA tournament.
Prior to Providence, Leaman spent eight seasons as head coach at Union College (N.Y.) and posted 138 victories, the most in school history. Leaman led the program to an ECAC regular-season title and the NCAA tournament, earned the Spencer Penrose Award as the Division I Men’s Coach of the Year and received his second straight ECAC Coach of the Year honor in the 2010-11 season.
As head coach at Providence and Union, Leaman has coached 110 all-conference academic and 15 all-conference selections, eight all-conference rookie team honorees, three ECAC Student-Athletes of the Year and two CoSIDA/ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District honorees. He has coached 22 NHL draft picks, six All-Americans and one Hobey Baker finalist. His teams also have been involved in community service with Habitat for Humanity, the Ronald McDonald House and the YMCA, among other groups.
Leaman was an assistant coach at Harvard University from 1999-2003 and a volunteer assistant at the University of Maine in 1998-99 when the Black Bears won the NCAA title. In addition, Leaman was an assistant coach with USA Hockey for the U.S. World Junior Team in 2007 and 2009.
The Westerville, Ohio, native earned a bachelor’s degree from Cortland in 1997 and a master’s degree at the University of Maine in 1999. While at Cortland he played four seasons and served as a team captain his junior and senior years. He currently ranks 11th at the school in career assists and 18th in career points. In the classroom, Leaman earned the Aldo Leopold Award for excellence in environmental science.
UPDATE (4/12/15): Leaman led Providence to the 2015 NCAA Division I men's ice hockey title with a 4-3 win over Boston University on 4/11/15 in Boston.
