Black women have been shattering barriers in sports for some time. When the college hockey season begins later this year, Kelsey Koelzer will officially add her name to this list of sports pioneers.
In 2019, at the age of 24, Kelsey Koelzer was hired by Arcadia University as the head coach of the women’s hockey team. This made Koelzer the first Black ice hockey head coach in the history of the sport.
Not first Black female NCAA ice hockey coach. No.
First Black ice hockey head coach, period.
Yet it’s not as simple or glorious as it sounds. You see, Arcadia doesn’t have a women’s hockey team yet. They’re slated to begin their inaugural season later his year. That means Koelzer has had to recruit, build and coach the team from scratch. But it’s something she convinced the university that she could do.
“She sold us,” said Brian Granata, Executive Director of Athletics and Recreation at Arcadia, to BNC. “She sold us on her vision. She sold us that she was the right person and had the means to be successful. And could be a really good fit for Arcadia.”
This challenge is just another hurdle faced by an individual who barreled through obstacles and made history before she arrived at Arcadia.
In 2016, the Metropolitan Riveters drafted her with the first overall pick in the National Women’s Hockey League (NWHL) Draft. That made Koelzer the first African American player selected with the top pick in the highest level of professional hockey in America. And she did not disappoint. Two years later, she led the Riveters to the NWHL championship and was named Co-MVP of the 2018 NWHL All-Star game.
Her hockey journey started in Pennsylvania at an early age. A journey rife with many challenges.
“Initially, my mom did not want to let me play hockey because it was not something that girls did back in 1998/99,” Koelzer said to WPVI TV.
And especially not one done by Black girls.
“As you’re growing through the sport it becomes even more apparent how rare it was for girls to play hockey,” she said. “I had to play in co-ed leagues from the time I started until I was 13 or 14.”
Koelzer excelled in the sport and moved on to Princeton University where she dominated for the Tigers.
Her collegiate resume made it easy for the Riveters to select her first overall. Three-time, First-team All-Ivy League honoree, including being named Princeton’s first First-team All-American. In her senior year, she was team captain, Ivy League Player of the Year, Ivy League Champion, and led the Tigers to the NCAA national quarterfinals.
But her new challenge is leading from the bench instead of on the ice.
“It’s gonna be weird for me,” says Koelzer. “For 20 plus years I have been on the other side of it, so being behind the bench is just gonna be a completely new experience that I’ll get to live through like I’m playing the sport for the first time again.”
After two decades in hockey, Kelsey Koelzer understands how her complexion influences people’s reactions when they discover her hockey prowess.
“The shock that you see on people’s faces when I tell them that I play ice hockey, I went to Princeton, I was captain of the women’s ice hockey team — all different kinds of things,” said Koelzer.
She’s well aware of her position as a star athlete, coach, and Black woman in hockey. A sport that, unfortunately, holds many challenges relating to racial and gender diversity.
“[But] on the day-to-day, it’s not something I think about. I’m just me,” Koelzer said to WPVI. “I do sit there and recognize that I am the first in some senses, but I think it’s exciting to know that I won’t be the last.”
She might be the first in some ways. But with players like Saroya Tinker and Sarah Nurse carrying the torch for women of color in hockey, she definitely won’t be alone.
For that’s what pioneers do.
Open the doors for others to follow so that they won’t be the last.
