Centennial girls hockey tabs Olympian Maddie Rooney as new goalie coach

Maddie Rooney played with the varsity boys in high school, shined at Minnesota-Duluth in college and, of course, won Olympic gold for the United States. The next step in her hockey journey will be balancing her first season as a pro player with serving as an the goalie coach for the Centennial H.S. girls hockey team.

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Rooney’s former coach, Sean Molin, took over as head coach of the Cougars program this offseason. One of his first moves was to call Rooney, whom he coached in youth hockey, to see if she was interested in helping out.

Her acceptance was big news for the Cougars goalies.

Rooney will balance playing her first pro season in the Professional Women’s Hockey Association with serving as the Cougars goalie coach.

Already well known to high school and college hockey fans, Rooney burst onto the national scene when she backstopped the U.S. to gold at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics in 2018. Her save in a shootout was the Final-clinching play in the gold medal match against Canada.