Canada's women's hockey coaching staff announced for 2017 Winter Universiade

OTTAWA (CIS) – Canadian Interuniversity Sport announced Thursday Canada's women's hockey coaches and support staff for the 2017 Winter Universiade in Almaty, Kazakhstan (Jan. 29 – Feb. 8). 

ALMATY 2017 WEBSITE: www.almaty2017.com

Rachel Flanagan, who recently completed her ninth season at the helm of the University of Guelph Gryphons, will serve as head coach for the red and white contingent. She will be accompanied behind the bench by assistant coaches Kelly Paton of Western University and Shaun Reagan of the University of Waterloo. 

Rounding out the team personnel are McGill equipment manager Jean Huynh as well as therapist Anik Ladouceur, who previously worked with the Montreal Carabins.

Flanagan and Huynh both have previous Universiade experience with Team Canada. The former was an assistant coach with the gold medal-winning squad in 2013 in Trentino, Italy, while the latter was the equipment manager in 2015 in Granada, Spain, where Canada claimed silver. 

Canada has enjoyed remarkable success at the biennial competition since women's hockey made its World University Games debut in 2009 in Harbin, China. Represented by a team of CIS all-stars on every occasion, the Canucks won the first three tournaments – going 21-0 overall in the process - before settling for second place a year ago.     

"I'm honoured and excited to be given the opportunity to lead the FISU women's hockey team at the 2017 Winter Universiade," said Flanagan, who this past season led Guelph to a CIS-best record of 21-2-1 in league play and the program's first OUA conference title since 1998. "I'm really looking forward to working with this exceptional staff as we attempt to improve on 2015's second-place finish." 

The Canadian roster for the Almaty tournament will once again be comprised entirely of CIS standouts. 

Hockey Canada has invited Team CIS to participate in its August 2016 development camp in a round-robin format along with approximately 40 of Canada's best under-22 players and Team Sweden. The list of CIS invitees to the camp, which is set for August 5-14 in Calgary, will be announced in the coming weeks. 

The final Universiade roster will be unveiled in the fall. 

University of Regina head coach Sarah Hodges has been appointed CIS team leader for the development camp. A team leader for the Universiade tourney will be selected at a later date. 

TEAM CANADA COACHING STAFF 

Head Coach: Rachel Flanagan (University of Guelph)

Assistant Coach: Kelly Paton (Western University)

Assistant Coach: Shaun Reagan (University of Waterloo)

Equipment Manager: Jean Huynh (McGill University)

Therapist: Anik Ladouceur

Team Leader (Development Camp): Sarah Hodges (University of Regina)

Team Leader (Universiade): TBD