Women's Hockey — One Tragedy, One Farewell

TigerBlog has always liked Dodie Calavecchio, Class of 1988.

She was a four-time All-Ivy League selection in women's soccer as a goalkeeper, and she was the second Tiger to be honored as league Player of the Year in her sport when she won the award in 1985. She also was named to the Ivy League's women's soccer silver anniversary team. 

She spent one year as the head coach of the women's hockey team, in 1994. She even spent her senior year on the women's hockey team.

These days she's an accomplished architect. TB hadn't heard from her in a long time, so his first reaction last week at receiving an email from her was to smile. 

Then he read the email.

Dodie asked TB if he'd heard the news of the passing of Lisa Brown Miller, the one-time head coach of women's hockey at Princeton. She said she wasn't sure if TB had been at Princeton when Brown Miller was, and the answer was yes, he was, and yes, he knew her. 

Brown Miller was only 58 years old at the time of her passing. 

A New Jersey native, Brown Miller played college hockey and then joined the US Women's National Team at a time when there was no women's hockey in the Olympics. She was on four US teams that finished runner-up to Canada at the World Championships, and she and her teammates picked a really good time to break through — taking the first-ever gold medal at the 1998 Winter Games in Japan.

She coached the Tigers from 1991-96, with a record of 60-46-5 and two Ivy League championships. 

TigerBlog hadn't heard about her until Dodie's email. It's always stunning to see that someone you knew was gone, especially someone younger than you are. 

In this case, it was no different. You can read Brown Miller's obituary HERE (and it's painful to have to write that). 

Princeton women's hockey has had only five head coaches in its entire history. It's about to get a seventh. 

The first head coach was Bill Quackenbush, who took over when the program achieved varsity status in 1979. Quakenbush was a former NHL player who had played for the Detroit Red Wings and Boston Bruins back when the league only had six teams. 

The second was Bob Ewell, who, among other accomplishments, is the father of the great Nate Ewell, one of the TB's favorite Princetonians ever. Brown Miller was Ewell's assistant coach, and she took over for him. 

When she left in 1996 to devote herself full-time to the national team, she was replaced by a former men's player, Jeff Kampersal, whose tenure lasted for 21 years and 327 wins. When Kampy went on to become Penn State's head coach, the head job went to his top assistant, Cara Morey. 

And now her tenure has come to a close as well. 

The news broke last week that Morey was leaving Princeton to become the general manager of the expansion Vancouver team in the Professional Women's Hockey League. 

Morey, a Canadian, played at Brown (where she was an All-American in ice hockey and field hockey), but she's been a part of Princeton women's hockey for 14 years, including being the head coach since 2017. Her best season was in 2019-20, when she led the team to the ECAC championship. 

Had the pandemic not come along, Princeton had as good a chance as any team to win the NCAA title. 

You don't usually associate Princeton women's hockey and the last week of May, but that's where things are right now. 

The news about Morey's departure brought up feelings of appreciation for all she's done at Princeton and good wishes for her next challenge. It has to be exciting, and a bit daunting, to build a professional team from scratch — especially with only a few months to do so. 

The news about Brown Miller?

That was just horrible.  

TigerBlog sends his condolences to her family.