A familiar face will be taking over the top spot of the Western Mustangs Women's Hockey program.
WOODSTOCK - The Western Mustangs have announced that Kelly Paton will be the new head coach of the Woman's Hockey team at the University.
Paton is from Woodstock and accepted a job with Western last year to serve as an associate coach. She accepted the promotion today and will look to take the program to the next level. Paton is only a few years removed from her playing days and is hoping to use her personal experience to help relate to the players on the team.
"I think that is definitely a positive, I can reflect on my own playing experience and hope that the game hasn't change too much, obviously you can't overlook experience and I know I will be up against some coaches who have a few more years behind the bench than I do."
Paton started her career with the Woodstock Jr Navy Vets and then moved onto the London Devilettes before getting a scholarship with the New Hampshire Wildcats. During her NCAA career she racked up 162 points in 141 games and was one of three finalists for the Patty Kazmaier Memorial award presented to the top Division 1 player in the nation.
Paton says she is really excited to take over the reigns as head coach and is looking forward to next years team, despite losing a lot of top players to graduation and she thinks a lot of the younger players are ready to step up.
"Towards the second half of the year, I though that some of our first year girls and some of our younger players really started to take off in their development and they started to buy into their own confidence as a player and also you saw a huge developmental curve in their own play to from a coaching perspective and I am looking forward seeing those girls maybe playing a bigger role in the next couple of years as well."

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