The newest sport at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point has its first head coach.
Jason Lesteberg, a former All-America performer at Gustavus Adolphus College (Minn.), has been named the school's first women's ice hockey coach.
The program will make its debut as a varsity sport at UW-SP in the fall of 2000 after spending the past several years as a club sport.
"I'm very excited about the opportunity," said Lesteberg, who spent the past two seasons as an assistant coach with the men's squad at his alma mater after working one season as an assistant with the Gusties' women's program. "The commitment UW-SP has toward athletics is phenomenal. The community, the athletic department and the school are very committed to hockey and it's a place I really want to be."
Lesteberg, 28, played at Gustavus Adolphus from 1993-96 and ranks seventh on the school's all-time scoring list with 71 goals and 103 assists for 174 points. The Burnsville, Minn. native was a three-time All-Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference performer and a two-time team Most Valuable Player. Lesteberg earned American Hockey Coaches Association West Region All-America honors his senior season.
"It's a challenge," he added. "But it's exciting to think that you get to start from scratch with new systems, new equipment and new enthusiasm.
"Women's hockey is so appealing right now. You can see the excitement in their eyes when you recruit. It's a different ballgame than boys, who are all thinking about playing in the NHL. These girls just want to play."
"This is a key hire for us as this is the inaugural year of our varsity women's ice hockey program," UW-SP Athletics Director Frank O'Brien said. "We are very pleased and excited, after a national search, to have the opportunity to have Jason join us as a Pointer.
"Certainly his experience as one of the nation's premier Division 3 players, as well as his coaching and recruiting experiences, will have a very positive and immediate impact on our program."
The Pointers have had one of the nation's most successful NCAA Division 3 men's ice hockey programs, making a record six national championship game appearances and winning four national titles - all since 1989. This past season, the men's squad captured its fifth Northern Collegiate Hockey Association regular season crown.
"I'd love to get the (women's) program to the respectability of the men's program," Lesteberg said. "The men's program is outstanding, and one of the things I love about Stevens Point is that everyone is working towards one common goal."
Women's ice hockey will become the 20th varsity sport at UW-SP and is the first sport added to the school's varsity program since women's golf in 1996. UW-SP now offers 11 women's sports and nine men's programs.
UW-Stevens Point will become the third Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference school to add women's hockey. UW-Superior has had a program for two seasons, while UW-River Falls recently completed its first season. UW-Eau Claire will also add the sport in the fall of 2000, along with NCHA member Lake Forest College.
This past season, 26 Division 3 schools sponsored women's ice hockey, including seven Minnesota schools. The sport also was offered by 25 Division 1 programs and two Division 2 schools.