Patrick Foley begins his fourth season as assistant coach for the men’s hockey team in 2014-15. Foley possesses a unique coaching background, both at the collegiate and international levels. The Milton, Massachusetts native not only coached at Harvard, but also served as an assistant coach for two years with the U.S. National Team Development Program (NTDP). In 2008, Foley was an assistant coach for the U.S. National Junior Team at the International Ice Hockey Federation World Junior Championship in the Czech Republic.
Foley oversees the Huskies’ penalty-killing unit and works with NU’s student-athletes as their academic liaison. His penalty-killing corps was strong in his third year at Northeastern, killing off 92 of 103 penalties (89.3 percent) in the final 25 games of the season, which was third in the nation in that span. Foley’s penalty killing units also potted six shorthanded tallies, the most for the team since the 2008-09 season.
With for one of the youngest rosters in college hockey consisting of 19 underclassmen, including 12 freshmen, Madigan guided the 2013-14 Huskies to one of their best seasons in program history. NU was 19-14-4, which was tied for the sixth most wins in team history as well as tied for the fourth largest turnaround in the NCAA. Madigan’s squad reached the Beanpot championship game for the third time in the last four years and returned to the playoffs for the first time since 2011.
Northeastern finished the 2013-14 campaign ranked 19th in the USCHO.com poll, and was ranked as high as ninth on two occasions, NU’s highest ranking since the end of the 2008-09 season. The Huskies were also 18th in the final PairWise ranking, narrowly missing an at-large bid to the national tournament.
In his first season on Northeastern’s bench, Foley helped NU to its fifth-longest unbeaten streak in program history. He also assisted the Huskies to three road victories against the No. 2 ranked team in the country during the 2011-12 season.
Foley had previously directed the Crimson’s penalty-kill unit. Harvard killed 84.9 percent of the power plays it faced in his first season, good for 24th nationally. In ECAC Hockey play, the Crimson had the league’s top penalty kill at 91.3 percent. Highlights of the Crimson’s accomplishments in Foley’s tenure included trips to the 2008 Beanpot and ECAC Hockey title games and sweeps of road playoff series in 2010 and 2011.
Foley arrived at Harvard following two years as an assistant coach with the U.S. National Team Development Program (NTDP), where he helped guide Team USA to a gold medal in the 2006 IIHF Under-18 World Championship and a silver medal at the 2007 championship. He also served as an assistant coach for the U.S. National Junior Team at the 2008 International Ice Hockey Federation World Junior Championship in the Czech Republic.
Foley worked primarily with NTDP forwards during practice, with responsibility for team defense and penalty killing. He helped groom a group of 13 NTDP players chosen in the 2006 National Hockey League Entry Draft and saw NTDP forwards taken with the first two overall picks in the 2007 draft. He helped direct NTDP teams to a gold medal at the 2005 Four Nations tournament in Finland and a silver medal at the 2006 Five Nations in Russia.
Off the ice, Foley was in charge of evaluation and recruitment of potential players. A former NTDP player himself, Foley spoke to hockey associations across the nation on behalf of USA Hockey, served as the alumni liaison to the NTDP and monitored players’ host families and academic progress. He twice served as a USA Hockey Level 4 coaching certification symposium speaker. He also served as the director of the NTDP Summer Hockey School.
Foley was the second UNH player ever to serve as captain for three straight seasons. He helped the Wildcats to Hockey East titles and trips to the Frozen Four in 2002 and 2003. He was a finalist for the 2004 Hockey Humanitarian Award, played for the 2000 U.S. National Junior Team and was drafted by the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2000.
A Dean’s List and Hockey East All-Academic honoree, Foley earned a kinesiology degree from New Hampshire in 2004. While in school, he founded Team 25, a charitable organization. In that role, he organized an auction that raised money for a teen center and arranged for UNH hockey players to take stuffed animals to children in hospitals. Foley also participated in the first NCAA conference and seminar on celebratory behavior and rioting among college sports fans.
Foley attended St. Sebastian’s School in Needham, Massachusetts before moving to Michigan and graduating from Pioneer High School while playing for the U.S. National Under-18 Team. Following his UNH graduation, Foley returned to the Boston area and worked in the community relations office of the Boston Red Sox.
Foley’s brother, Kevin, was a four-year letterwinner for the Northeastern football team, and ranks sixth on the Northeastern record list for career touchdown receptions (12).
