Duluth’s Bellamy ready to tackle challenges looming at Harvard

Apr 20, 2024

DULUTH — Laura Bellamy was just 24 years old back in 2015 when she decided to jump on a job offer in her hometown from newly-hired Minnesota Duluth women’s hockey coach Maura Crowell.

Bellamy, a Duluth native and Denfeld High School graduate, had spent the previous six years at Harvard, first as a goaltender and then as an assistant coach. When she took the assistant coach job at UMD, she said she told Crowell — an assistant, interim head coach and associate head coach during Bellamy’s time at Harvard — that it would only be for a couple more years.

Well, a couple of years turned into eight seasons at UMD that included four NCAA tournament berths (2017, 2021-23), back-to-back NCAA Frozen Four appearances in 2021 and 2022, and an appearance in the 2022 national championship game. In 2019, Bellamy was promoted from assistant coach to associate head coach of the Bulldogs.

Now Bellamy, 32, is finally moving on, but not from coaching. The former Duluth Northern Stars standout goalie is returning to Cambridge, Massachusetts, as head coach of the Harvard women’s hockey team. She takes over from Katey Stone, who retired in June after 29 years as head coach following reporting and an investigation into the program’s culture.

“I'm really excited about the future of the program,” Bellamy said Thursday evening while traveling through Chicago en route to Boston for her new job. “We'll be focused on moving forward and getting the program back at the forefront of women's hockey again. That pretty much mirrors closely what we wanted to do when we came in at UMD. And what I can say now, is we did so. Hopefully eight years from now, I'm saying the same thing about Harvard.”

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Bellamy could have remained at Harvard eight years ago to become Stone’s top assistant when Crowell left for UMD, however, Bellamy decided to continue her coaching career in Duluth because she knew Crowell would challenge her as a coach. It wasn’t just about coming back home, Bellamy said.

Crowell was head coach of NCAA Division III Massachusetts-Boston for five seasons before spending five seasons on Stone’s staff at Harvard, including the 2013-14 season as interim head coach while Stone coached the United States Olympic team. That was the first time Bellamy learned what it was like to work under Crowell, who isn’t interested in hiring young coaches just to push pucks around at practice.

“Fortunately for me, Maura is the type of head coach who is a really good delegator and trusts her assistants a ton,” said Bellamy, who in her time at UMD has oversaw the defensemen and goaltenders, and served as recruiting coordinator, among many other things. “I've had a lot on my plate, just a lot of responsibility that not a lot of head coaches want to give up to their assistants, really from Day 1. She's given me opportunities to try different things throughout my career.

“I knew she would put my feet to the fire right away. That was what she said from the beginning and she stayed true to that. It's been invaluable experience that she's given me, and her mentorship has been everything. I 100% would not be in this spot if it weren't for her.”

Bellamy has her work cut out for her at Harvard both on the ice and off it, with her hiring coming just two months to go before the start of the 2023-24 season.

Stone, who had been at Harvard since 1994, led the Crimson to 523 wins, 12 NCAA tournament appearances, six NCAA Frozen Fours and the 1999 American Women’s College Hockey Alliance national championship. However, only 94 wins and one NCAA tournament appearance have come in the past seven seasons — Harvard’s 2020-21 season was canceled by the Ivy League because of the COVID-19 pandemic — and the Crimson haven’t played for a national title since Bellamy and Crowell’s last year on the coaching staff in 2014-15.

Harvard has finished below the .500 mark in four of their last five seasons, going 7-21-3 in 2022-23. Two of those 21 losses came to UMD at Amsoil Arena, with the Bulldogs routing the Crimson 4-0 and 9-0.

But Harvard’s issues extend beyond the boards of the Bright-Landry Hockey Center. In articles published by the Boston Globe and The Athletic this year, former players and parents of former players have come forward with allegations of mental abuse and intimidation by Stone, and hazing by upperclassmen within the program. The reporting prompted an investigation into the program, and Stone’s retirement in June.

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Crowell said Bellamy is equipped to handle everything that could come her way on and off the ice as a head coach. Not only was Bellamy a standout goaltender for the Crimson, but she was a strong leader during her playing days as a junior and senior captain, Crowell said.

“Her leadership skills were clear. As a captain at Harvard, she always had a good head on her shoulders, pretty even keeled and always had a good moral compass,” Crowell said. “There are always things that come up on teams, and sifting through some of those things, I feel like she always knew what was right, and was sure of herself in those ways.”

Crowell, who has worked with Bellamy for each of the past 13 seasons, has seen Bellamy evolve into an even stronger leader since beginning her coaching career 10 seasons ago at Harvard.

And Bellamy is better equipped than anyone to handle what’s happening now at Harvard after watching Crowell replace Shannon Miller after the five-time national championship coach was pushed out of UMD, prompting a legal battle that dragged on through the end of 2019.

“Lu watched and learned and did a lot during those those early, challenging years,” Crowell said of their time together at UMD. “When you’re a head coach, it’s a little bit different and she's going to find that out now. The spotlight is on you and you're the one that has to answer the questions and handle the pressure,” Crowell said. “She was right alongside me for so much of that experience at UMD, so in terms of people that have been through something similar, it's a very short list of uniquely qualified people who can do it.”

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