Women's Ice Hockey Head Coach - Mike Collins

Mike Collins

Mike Collins enters his fifth season as the women's hockey coach at UW-Eau Claire continuing to climb up the conference standings and in the win column. The Blugolds have increased their total wins in each year of Collins's tenure, including more than doubling their conference wins from 2002-03 to 2003-04.

The 2003-04 season included the Blugolds' first-ever win over national finalist UW-Stevens Point and a 5-2-2 record against schools from the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC), including the program's first-ever wins over St. Catherine's and St. Thomas. The Tommies were ranked nationally at the time of the Blugold victory. The Blugolds' five conference wins equaled the conference win total of the previous three seasons combined.

Individually freshmen Allison Campbell, Tara Hayner and Laura Suppes received honorable mention All-Northern Collegiate Hockey Association (NCHA) honors in 2003-04. The Blugolds led all conference schools with six representatives being named to the 26-member NCHA All-Academic Team. Amanda Schultz was recognized for her academic success by being named to the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) District V Women's At-Large Women's College Division Academic Team.

Collins came to Eau Claire from the San Angelo Outlaws of the Western Professional Hockey League where he spent one year as the head coach. However, Collins is returning to familiar territory having played collegiate hockey at UW-River Falls.

Collins has a bachelor's degree in secondary education from UW-River Falls and a master's degree in athletic administration from Ohio University in Athens, Ohio.

Since 1984, he has served as an instructor at numerous camps in Canada and the United States, several of which have included women.

Collins has had a well-traveled career as a hockey coach. After serving as an assistant to Rick Kozuback at UW-River Falls (1987-89), Collins went to Bellingham, Washington as head coach of the Bellingham Ice Hawks (1990-92) of the British Columbia Junior "A" Hockey League. There he took Bellingham to a divisional championship in its first year in the league and was named the Coach of the Year. After two years, he took a position as assistant coach of the Washington-based Tri-City Americans (1992-93) of the Western Junior "A" Hockey League but returned to Bellingham the following year as the head coach and general manager. After two more years (1993-95) in Bellingham, Collins accepted the position of head coach and Director of Hockey Operations for the Amarillo Rattlers (1996-98) of the Western Professional Hockey League in Texas. From there, he gained a position as associate head coach of Division I Lake Superior State in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan. A year later, he moved back to Texas for his most recent position with San Angelo.

Collins is a native of Cornwall, Ontario and attended high school at General Vanier Secondary School. He played junior hockey with the Belleville Bulls in the Ontario Provincial Junior "A" League for two years before heading for UW-River Falls where he played on the Falcons' first national championship team in 1983.

He and his wife Shannon, a speech and language pathologist, are the parents of two boys: Braxton (b. 3/11/96) and Hutson (b. 4/28/00). A native of Oakdale, Minnesota, Shannon received her bachelor's degree from UW-River Falls and a master's degree from Washington State University.

Updated 8/18/04