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 Josette Babineau Named Field Hockey Coach
Feb. 1, 2007 ORONO, Maine - The University of Maine announced on Thursday the hiring of Josette Babineau as the head coach of the field hockey program. She has spent the last three years as an assistant field hockey coach at Cornell, where she worked primarily with the team defense. She was also a standout player at the collegiate and national levels in Canada. "We are very excited to have someone with Josette's experience and success as our head coach," said Maine Director of Athletics Blake James. "I am confident that we will see continued success both academically and athletically with our field hockey program." "I am very thankful to be given such a wonderful opportunity," said Josette Babineau. "I have a great deal of respect for the program's history of success. I am looking forward to the challenge and I am excited to meet the team and get started." A strong technical coach whose game video analysis was critical to the success of Cornell, Babineau helped to implement a zone defense that resulted in opponents taking 50% fewer shots in the 2005 campaign than they had the season prior. In 2005, the team finished with ten wins, a school record for most wins in a season. Cornell also posted winning records in the Ivy League in 2005 and 2006, marking the first time in the program's history of having consecutive winning seasons in conference play. Prior to joining the staff at Cornell, Babineau served as an assistant coach at the University of Calgary during the fall of 2003, and she filled the role of technical director for the Saskatchewan Field Hockey Association from 1995-2004. With Saskatchewan, she was responsible for all aspects of the organization and developed male and female Under-14, Under-16 and Under-18 programs. The Under-21 team consistently finished as one of the top three teams in the country. In addition to her head coaching duties with Field Hockey Canada's Under-18 team from 1998 to 2000, she also served as an assistant for the Under-21 squad. Babineau is also a former head coach for the Canadian Under-18 national team. She headed up New Brunswick's Canada Games team in 1993 and later was the head coach for Saskatchewan's Canada Games squad in 1997 and 2001, when she led the team to a bronze medal. A native of Moncton, New Brunswick, Babineau was a five-time All-Canadian player at the University of New Brunswick, was the Canadian University Player of the Year in 1993 and played in the Under-21 World Cup for Team Canada in 1989. She graduated with a degree in business administration from New Brunswick in 1993. For more information on University of Maine field hockey, visit www.GoBlackBears.com.
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