SCSU's JIm Fetter to Coach Team Canada U18 Squad
7/18/2012 12:25:00 PM | Women's Hockey
CALGARY, Alta. – Hockey Canada recently announced that Jim Fetter, an assistant women's hockey coach at St. Cloud State. will serve as head coach of Canada's National Women's Under-18 Team. Fetter will take part in Canada's National Women's Under-18 Team selection camp on Aug. 2-14 at the WinSport Canada Athletic and Ice Complex in Calgary, Alberta.
Fetter will also lead Team Canada at the upcoming 2013 IIHF Ice Hockey U18 Women's World Championship in Vierumäki, Finland in January.
He will be joined on the Team Canada staff by assistants Rebecca Russell (Lethbridge, N.L./Okanagan Hockey Academy, Midget AAA), Laura Schuler (Scarborough, Ont./University of Minnesota Duluth, WCHA) and Joe Johnston (Lower Sackville, N.S./Dalhousie University, CIS).
Hockey Canada announced Tuesday the 40 players who have been invited to Canada's National Women's Under-18 Team selection camp, taking place Aug. 2-14 at the WinSport Canada Athletic & Ice Complex in Calgary.
The invitation list includes four goaltenders, 12 defensemen and 24 forwards. Invitations have been based on performance at Canada's National Women's Program strength and conditioning camp held in Toronto, Ont., in May, as well as evaluations by Hockey Canada scouts during the 2011-12 season, including past performances with their school and club teams and at events such as the 2011 National Women's Under-18 Championship held last November in Saguenay, Que., and 2012 Esso Cup, Canada's National Female Midget Championship, held in Charlottetown, P.E.I., in April.
The 40 players will be split into two teams, Red and White, and will participate in several practices and games, including games against national teams from Kazakhstan and Norway. It will be held in conjunction with Canada's National Women's Under-22/Development Team selection camp, which will split another 40 players into two teams, Blue and Yellow, for practices and intersquad games.
From the selection camp, Hockey Canada will choose 22 players for a three-game series against the United States' Women's Under-18 Select Team, scheduled for Aug. 16-19 in Blaine, Minn.
Following the series, Hockey Canada scouts, along with the team's coaching staff, will continue to evaluate players with their club teams during the 2012-13 season, in preparation for selecting the Canadian team that will compete at the 2013 IIHF Ice Hockey U18 Women's World Championship in Vierumäki, Finland in January.
Originally from Waterloo, Ont., Fetter will begin his second season with the Huskies in 2012-13.
Prior to his move to SCSU, Fetter was the head coach at Wayne State (Mich.). A three-time recipient of the College Hockey America Women's Coach of the Year Award, he was also a finalist for the American Hockey Coaches Association Women's Division I Coach of the Year Award in 2006 before earning the award in 2008.
Fetter began his duties at WSU in August 2003. He came to WSU following four years as a Division I assistant coach, including the three previous seasons (2000-2003) at Mercyhurst College. Prior to joining the Mercyhurst staff, Fetter spent one season (1999-2000) as an assistant women's hockey coach at the University of Maine.
A 1995 graduate of the University of Lethbridge, Fetter earned national level experience as an assistant coach for Team Alberta's Under-18 squad that won the bronze medal at the Canada Winter Games in Corner Brook, Newfoundland. Along with being an evaluator for the Canadian Women's National Team in the western region, Fetter was also a guest coach for the men's Canadian National Team against Team Norway and served as an assistant coach for the 2011-12 Canadian National Women's Under-18 squad.
In the summer of 2006, he was selected to Hockey Canada's National Women's Program Coaching Pool. Fetter served as an assistant coach for Team Canada's Under-18 squad for 2007-08 and has also worked summer evaluation camps with the U-22 and National women's team. For the 2008-09 and 2009-10 seasons, he was chosen as an assistant coach for the Under-22 team before being selected head coach in 2010-11.
His women's coaching career began in 1996 when he led his midget team to a bronze medal at provincials and a gold a year later. Fetter then served as head coach for the University of Lethbridge women's team of the Canadian Interuniversity Athletic Union (CIAU) in its inaugural season of 1998.
