Hanover
Schuler is Dartmouth’s ninth head coach and succeeds Mark Hudak, who resigned in February after 13 years on the job. The Big Green is 28-54-6 the last three seasons, endured a 15-game losing streak last winter and finished 6-19-3, out of the eight-team playoffs in its 12-team conference.
“I am incredibly excited to have Laura take over the reins of the Dartmouth women’s hockey team,” athletic director Harry Sheehy said in a news release. “Her passion for teaching the game was evident to all who spent time with her. We welcome Laura and her wife, Jessi.”
Winner of a silver medal with her native Canada at the 1998 Winter Olympics, Schuler also played and coached extensively for her country in other international competitions before taking over the national team last year. In an article published by the Toronto Globe and Mail newspaper earlier this month, she said that she wanted to hold the job through the 2018 Olympics. A Canadian Broadcasting Company online story last year noted that the national team coaching job is not a full-time position.
Schuler, a Toronto native, is a 1994 graduate of Northeastern University and began her coaching career with one season at nearby UMass Boston in 2003. She moved back to coach her alma mater the next four years, compiling a 23-99-10 record.
Schuler’s next stop was as an assistant at Minnesota-Duluth. The Bulldogs won the 2010 national title, but Schuler and the program’s all-female coaching staff were notified midway through the 2014-15 campaign that their contracts would not renewed for the next season. Schuler told the Duluth News Tribune at the time that she planned to apply for the program’s head job.
The newspaper also reported that UMD head coach Shannon Miller was the highest-paid NCAA Division I head coach in the country with annual compensation of $215,000 and that Schuler made $67,000. The university contended the coaches’ contracts were not renewed because it could no longer sustain their current salary levels while wrestling with a budget deficit. UMD failed to reach the NCAA tournament during the three seasons after the 2010 national title and was only five games over .500.
Minnesota Public Radio reported that “Miller’s firing led to suggestions of gender inequality… and to allegations that her gender identity also was a factor.” Miller was one of three former UMD coaches to sue the school for a combined $18 million last year, alleging they were fired because they were female and gay.
Schuler did not join in the lawsuit. UMD hired Harvard assistant Maura Cromwell to replace Miller and gave her a five-year contract that started at $140,000 for last season and could reach $170,000 for the 2019-20 campaign, the News Tribune reported.
Tris Wykes can be reached at twykes@vnews.com or 603-727-3227.