Sophie Leclerc joined the Colgate women's hockey staff as an assistant coach in July 2015. She was promoted to the top assistant in July 2016.
"I'm thrilled about this promotion and the fact that we are returning a great person on our staff moving forward,” head coach Greg Fargo said. “Sophie came on board and the impact was immediately felt by all of us.
“We are keeping a very hard working, passionate and caring person on our team with this news, and everyone is looking forward to having her back in a larger role."
Leclerc helped guide Colgate to another banner year in 2018-19. The Raiders began the season with their highest preseason ranking in program history at fifth in the country and finished the regular season with the number two seed in the ECAC Tournament. Throughout the year, Colgate racked up five wins over ranked opponents and ended the campaign with 23 victories and 15 in the league.
She also played an instrumental role in bringing in the nation's number one ranked recruiting class (neutralzone.net) for the 2019-20 season.
The Raiders advanced to the national championship game for the first time in program history in the 2017-18 season with the guidance of Leclerc. Colgate won a program-record 34 games, shattering their previous high of 22 games. In each of her three years as part of the staff the Raiders have either set or tied program records for wins in a season.
The 2017-18 Raiders experienced several program firsts including: first Regular Season ECAC Hockey Conference Title, first conference title game appearance, first NCAA Tournament berth, first Frozen Four, first national championship game.
In 2016-17, the Raiders recorded 22 victories for the second straight season along with a program record 13-game unbeaten streak and seven-game winning streak. The Raiders posted three separate winning streaks of at least five games. The Raiders also set another first, climbing up to the No. 5 ranking in the USCHO.com Poll, the highest in program history.
Colgate finished with a No. 8 national ranking after climbing into the top 10 for the first time in program history in her first season on staff. The Raiders posted a 22-9-7 overall record for a .671 winning percentage. Both the victory total and percentage were program records, and the Raiders also made history by finishing fourth in the ECAC Hockey standings and hosting a league tournament quarterfinal series for the first time.
Colgate captured that series in dramatic fashion, defeating Harvard 2-games-to-1 thanks to an overtime goal in the decisive third game. That overtime tally came in the final collegiate contest played inside historic Starr Rink and further etched the storybook finish into Colgate lore.
Leclerc came to Colgate after two seasons as the primary assistant coach at Norwich. While there, she helped the Cadets to back-to-back NCAA tournament appearances, including a Division III national runner-up finish in 2014.
Prior to Norwich, the Barre, Vermont, native spent one season as the head girls hockey coach at Kimball Union Academy in Meriden, New Hampshire, before returning to her alma mater in the fall of 2013.
Leclerc was a four-year star for the Cadets and helped build the Norwich women's hockey program from the ground up. She played for the inaugural varsity squad in 2007-08 and went on to cap her sensational career by guiding NU to its first national championship with a 5-2 victory over RIT in 2011.
Leclerc finished as the all-time program assists leader and ranked second in nearly every other offensive category, including career points. She scored 72 goals and tallied 91 assists for 163 points in 112 career games played.
In her senior year, Leclerc set new single-season personal records with 26 goals and 28 assists for 54 points. She was named the ECAC East Player of the Year, New England Division III Player of the Year, American Hockey Coaches Association (AHCA) First Team All-American and was the runner up for the Laura Hurd Award (National D-III Player of the Year).
The Cadets finished the 2010-11 campaign with a 25-4-1 record that included an unbeaten 17-0-1 ECAC East regular season. NU received a bye into the NCAA Tournament National Semifinals where it beat Gustavus Adolphus 5-4 before upsetting the top-ranked RIT Tigers 5-2 the next night to claim its first national championship in just its fourth year as a program.
Leclerc graduated from Norwich in 2010 with a bachelor of science degree in physical education. She then returned there to obtain her master's degree in organizational leadership in 2012.
