The Hockey Coaching Bible

About Joseph Bertagna

Joe Bertagna has been a collegiate hockey administrator for more than 30 years. Since 1997 he has served as commissioner of Hockey East the preeminent conference in college hockey whose member schools have earned seven NCAA championships under his leadership. Before his move to Hockey East Bertagna served 15 years with the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) where he held the positions of tournament director executive director and commissioner. Both with ECAC and Hockey East Bertagna has been a champion of womens hockey having initiated ECAC Division I and Division III league play and led the formation of the Womens Hockey East Association whose championship trophy is named in Bertagnas honor. In addition to his commissionership of Hockey East Bertagna is executive director of the American Hockey Coaches Association a position he has held since 1991. He also serves on the board of directors of both USA Hockey and the Hockey Humanitarian Award Foundation. For 40 years Bertagna has operated his own clinics for thousands of goalies of all ages. Bertagna began his professional coaching career in 1985 with the National Hockey Leagues (NHL) Boston Bruins where he was goaltender coach until 1991 and then again for the 1994-95 season. He also was assistant coach for the U.S. mens national team at the 1991 Canada Cup the U.S. Olympic mens ice hockey team at the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer and the International Hockey Leagues Milwaukee Admirals from 1994 to 1996. As a player Bertagna was a standout goaltender for Harvard University. After graduating in 1973 he played professionally for the Milwaukee Admirals and in Cortina Italy where the team won the Italian Ice Hockey Championship in 1975. Bertagna and his wife Kathy reside in Gloucester Massachusetts with their three children.