ST. CLOUD — It was a historic hire for the St. Cloud State University athletic department.

Mira Jalosuo

was officially introduced as the seventh head coach of the SCSU women’s hockey team during a press conference on Tuesday, July 22 at the Husky Den in the Herb Brooks National Hockey Center.

Jalosuo is the second woman (Kerry Brodt Wethington, 1998-2002) to have the position at SCSU, but she will lead the first all-female coaching staff for the Huskies in program history.

“For our student-athletes, that speaks volumes,” SCSU director of athletics Holly Schreiner said at the press conference.

Jalosuo’s assistant coaches are Jinelle Siergiej, Noora Räty and Emily Ach. Jalosuo has some history with each one of them. She was Ach’s coach at an SDP Hockey camp in Brooklyn Park.

ST. CLOUD STATE UNIVERSITY

“I was thinking yesterday that I still feel young,” said Jalosuo, who is 36. “But then I was thinking about Acher and thinking, ‘I’m actually old. If there’s a player I used to coach on my coaching staff, I’m old now.'”

Räty and Jalosuo are the same age and played together for the University of Minnesota from 2009-13 and on the Finland’s national team.

“Noora is not here today, but she’s my best friend,” Jalosuo said. “She is the godmother of my son. I would take a bullet for her every day. She is just a fantastic human being. I’m biased, but she’s the best in the business in goaltending.

ST. CLOUD STATE UNIVERSITY

“I just got back from Prague and there was a good player and I went to her agent and said, ‘I want this player.’ He said, ‘That’s funny. Noora was the first person to come to me and say that she wants this player.’ I called her and said, ‘How did you know this player is good?’ I stood in the crease for 30 years, so I probably know who is a good hockey player and who is a bad hockey player.’ I said, ‘That kind of makes sense.'”

Jalosuo is replacing

Brian Idalski, who was the team’s head coach from 2022-25.

She was

an assistant for Idalski during his first season with the Huskies

and worked with Siergiej, who is staying on the staff.

“One of the big reasons I ended up taking this job is because of Jinelle,” Jalosuo said. “I thought that Jinelle would want to take this job, but she gave me a call and asked me if I’d be interested in taking this job. I think that speaks volumes about her and what type of human being she is. She’s always thinking of other people and the conversation was great. She’s kind of the mom of the group. The players feel very comfortable going to her.

ST. CLOUD STATE UNIVERSITY

“She has been here 10-plus years and knows the recruiting landscape extremely well. I’m looking forward to continuing to build this program that you and Brian built in the last three years.”

While Jalosuo’s staff makeup is groundbreaking at the university, it is also not that common in NCAA Division I women’s hockey. There will be 45 Division I programs this fall and Jalosuo’s hiring gives the sport 21 women’s head coaches. SCSU is one of seven teams (Bemidji State, Delaware, Harvard, Lindenwood, Long Island and Stonehill) with an all-female staff.

Andy Rennecke / St. Cloud LIVE

Jalosuo’s hiring happened in short order. Idalski was hired to be the first head coach of the

PWHL team in Vancouver on June 23.

Jalosuo was hired to be

SCSU’s head coach on June 27.

It was an interesting tight rope. Jalosuo spent the last two seasons as an assistant coach for the PWHL’s Minnesota Frost and was the team’s director of scouting. Idalski reached out to her as he was in the process of interviewing for his job.

The PWHL Draft was held on June 24 in Ottawa.

“I felt like I had to put all my effort into the 2025 draft in Ottawa and he respected that,” Jalosuo said. “I meet Brian for breakfast on Wednesday (June 24) and we went through some things. I had some questions about the team and the university. We got delayed in Ottawa on Wednesday night when I’m coming home. I didn’t have time to think about this super deeply. I’m sitting in the plane for three hours in the Ottawa airport.

“I had some time to think about it and my gut feeling was, ‘I need to take this job. There is so much potential in this team. I think we can make it very far this year in the NCAAs and make some Husky history.’ At the end of the day, it ended up being a no-brainer for me once I had time to think about it.”

Idalski said that he has a lot in common with Jalosuo as a coach. Jalosuo also sees a lot of similarities.

“Brian is a lifelong friend for me,” she said. “We always talk about hockey and we talk about possibilities. We bounce ideas back and forth. He bounced an idea to me that maybe it’s time for him to go to the PWHL and the pro lifestyle maybe fits him better as of right now with getting summers off.

“It also came into the picture that I also care about the Huskies a lot. He wanted to make sure the program was left in a great spot. It was his will that either me or Jinelle would take over the program.”

For Schreiner, there were some key elements that made Jalosuo stand out as a good fit.

“There were a few things that stuck out to me,” Schreiner said. “We needed the women to feel supported. We needed to make sure we had someone who had the drive, the dedication and the passion that our previous head coach did. And we wanted to take the new coaching staff to take us even further.

“Over the last couple years, it’s been so fun watching (Jalosuo’s) success in the PWHL with the Minnesota Frost and I’m excited about the opportunity that she brings to our staff to get us to that level as well. A championship would be great, but there’s no pressure.”

Clint Austin/Duluth Media Group

In the season that Jalosuo was a member of Idalski’s staff, the Huskies made some big strides. The season before Idalski arrived, SCSU was 9-23-3 overall and finished in seventh in the eight-team WCHA.

In Idalski’s first season, SCSU was 18-18-1 overall and finished fifth. Unfortunately for the Huskies, in each of the last three seasons, they have finished fifth in the WCHA and lost in a first round playoff series at Minnesota Duluth.

The Huskies lost 13 players to either graduation or the transfer portal from last season’s team. But the cupboard is not bare.

SCSU has two solid goaltenders returning in graduate student

Jojo Chobak

and sophomore Emilia Kyrkkö. Chobak sat out a redshirt season in 2024-25, but the previous season, she was 7-11-1 with a 1.64 goals-against average, .939 save percentage and four shutouts.

Kyrkkö split time last season with

Sanni Ahola

and was 7-7-3 with a 1.98 GAA, .926 save percentage and three shutouts. Kyrkkö is also a member of the Finnish national team.

“Goaltending has always been good at St. Cloud State University and I would say that we again have 1A and 1B,” Jalosuo said. “I would expect them to split time, especially early in the season. Defense is going to be very solid.

“The biggest difference for me compared to three years ago is that we have some skill on the offensive side of the puck. Now when we’re talking about expectations for forwards, it’s that we’re going to be scoring 3-4 goals a game. When I was here last time, it was more like one or two. So Brian, Jinelle and Emily have done a good job of finding some forwards who can put the puck in the net. The pressure is on that we’re not winning games 1-0 or 2-1. We are expecting to score three or four goals a game.”

Three of the team’s top four in points last season return in juniors

Alice Sauriol

(seven goals, 15 assists, 22 points),

Sofianna Sundelin

(11-9-20) and

Laura Zimmermann

(7-8-15).

Three defensemen who played 29 games or more last season return in junior Sydney Bryant (18 games, 0 points),

graduate student Grace Wolfe (36, 2-7-9)

and sophomore Siiri Yrjölä (32, 2-3-5).

The Huskies picked up three players in the transfer portal including

junior forward Sidney Jackel (Lindenwood),

junior forward Payton Holloway (Minnesota Duluth)

and

goalie Hali Lawrence (Post)

and there are 10 freshmen on the roster.

“We are bringing in 13, maybe 14, players,” Jalosuo said. “There are some big shoes to be filled. I’m excited about what they bring to the table.”

She is also excited to be back at SCSU after helping the Frost win the first two Walter Cups.

“After winning two Walter Cups with the Frost, I get back to that challenge. What else is there?,” she said “Yeah, I could go for the three-peat with another title, but I saw that St. Cloud State is a better opportunity and better challenge for me because there’s so much we can win with this program.

Andy Rennecke / St. Cloud LIVE

“The reason why I took the PWHL job … there was nothing was wrong with St. Cloud State. I was very happy here and I loved the people here. I loved Holly and she was a new AD at that point and she took great care of me. I saw the direction of this program and I knew it was going to get better.

“But I thought it was the one time in my life where I would be truly challenged because there were players that I played with like Lee Stecklein. If I could get a buy-in from Lee Stecklein, I think coaching is going to be very easy for me for the rest of my life. If you can get your peers to buy in, then coaching will become easy.”

Schreiner is also glad to have Jarosuo back on the team’s staff.

“I’m excited because I think we’ve got a direction that will keep us on pace of what we had under coach Idalski,” she said. “The ship is still moving forward and I’m super excited.”

And Jalosuo is excited about working with her staff.

“I’m a little bit different than most people in that I don’t think about the titles,” she said. “Everybody, to me, is at the same level. Obviously, I have the last say in the lineup. But I like to empower people.

“Brian was very much the same way with me and so was (Minnesota Frost head coach) Ken Klee. Every single decision we made, we made it as a group. Yes, I have the title of head coach, but at the end of the day, we all are equal. It was never my drive to be a head coach of a program.”

HOLDING COURT: Courtney Kessel, left, speaks at a press conference during her time as the head coach of the Boston Fleet of the Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL). Kessel was recently named as the head coach of the Princeton University women’s hockey team, succeeding Cara Gardner Morey who left Princeton to serve as the general manager of the Vancouver expansion franchise in the PWHL. Taking the Princeton job marks a homecoming for Kessel as she was an assistant coach for the Tigers from 2019-23 before taking the helm of the Fleet. (Photo provided courtesy of Princeton Athletics)

By Bill Alden

During her college years at the University of New Hampshire, Courtney Kessel kept busy starring for the Wildcat women’s hockey team.

Standout defender Kessel, nee Birchard, tallied 81 points on 34 goals and 47 assists from 2007-11, earning Hockey East All-Star honors along the way.

But Kessel made time to teach others the game while she was excelling on the ice.

“Even while I was in college, I would help run summer camps all the time,” said Kessel. “Every single week in the summer I was coaching hockey. I fell in love with it when I was really young. I really enjoyed it.”

After wrapping up her college career, Kessel starred for the Brampton Thunder of the Canadian Women’s Hockey League (CWHL) and had three stints on the Canadian Senior National Team where she helped the squad win gold in 2012 International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) World Championships and silver medals in 2013 and 2015.

Kessel turned her focus to coaching, starting with high school and the junior level with the Oakville Hornets before becoming the head coach of the Toronto Furies in the CWHL in 2018. She also served as an assistant coach for rhe Canada women’s national Under-18 team and helped it win silver in the 2018 IIHF U-18 Women’s World Championships.

“I think all of those opportunities helped me to just grow as a coach and also as a person,” said Kessel.

After the CWHL folded, Kessel came to Princeton University where she worked as an assistant coach for the women’s hockey team from 2019-23 and enjoyed helping her players grow.

“What I loved about it was the mentorship development side of it when they are at that age and how you can impact their lives,” said Kessel, reflecting on that experience. “They are intelligent women that are driven academically and athletically. I really enjoyed that side of things.”

In 2023, Kessel headed back to the pro level to be the head coach of the Boston Fleet of the Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL).

“It was completely different, a little more cut throat and it was more transactional,” said Kessel, who had another stint the Canadian women’s U-18 program, becoming head coach of the team and guiding to it a gold medal at the 2023 IIHF U-18 Women’s World Championships. “There was less development, you are coaching the best players in the world. A lot of them have been to the Olympics. They are just older. It was more Xs and Os, hockey-based. I really did miss the developmental side of things.”

Now, looking to focus again on developing players, Kessel, 36, returned to Princeton last month to take the helm of the women’s hockey program, succeeding Cara Gardner Morey, who left the post to serve as the general manager of the Vancouver expansion franchise in the PWHL.

“It is just a tremendous opportunity, it is one of the best academic schools in the entire world,” said Kessel. “To be able to do that and also be athletically gifted and trying to win championships, Princeton offers the total package. I had spent four years here so I know the players and it has a special place in my heart for sure. I think the development side and the mentorship was a really big thing for me. It is just the real reason why I coach.”

Kessel has hit the ground running as she has taken the reins of the team.

“I was so excited, I couldn’t wait to get going,” said Kessel. “I know there are lot of things that need to happen before November. We are moving as a family, we have two kids. It is getting through this recruiting class, just coming in literally after June 15. It is learning the numbers, the names. I have been out of those rinks for two years when I was in the professional world.”

Based on her previous experience with the team, Kessel is fired up to begin working again with the Princeton kids.

“They are just driven, you know what you are getting into when you come to Princeton,” said Kessel. “You know it is going to be hard academically and athletically. We want to win championships as well. The demand on these student athletes, it’s a lot. But they are intelligent and they care about other things outside the rink.”

Being part of the coaching staff that guided the Tigers to a 26-6-1 record in the 2019-20 season and the ECAC Hockey tournament championship before the rest of the season was canceled due to global pandemic was a highlight for Kessel.

“COVID makes that season even more special than it was at the time,” said Kessel. “We share that mutual disappointment of we thought we were on the verge of something really big. It was awesome to beat Q-pac in game three in OT (in the ECACH quarterfinal series). Cornell was ranked No. 1 at the time when we beat them in the ECAC final. It was super exciting. I had coached quite a few of those players before even coming into Princeton. I had coached Sarah Fillier, Kayla Fillier, Claire Thompson, Cassie Reale, and Dani Calabrese with either Hockey Canada or the Oakville juniors.”

Kessel took some valuable lessons from her time working with Gardner-Morey.

“Cara brings an energy every single day but it is just making sure you are having conversations,” said Kessel. “Sure we all want to win championships but at the end of the day we play this sport to become the humans we want to be. I just think the team atmosphere side of things and the culture was a really big thing.”

That focus on culture was the main theme of Kessel’s initial message to the Tiger players as she returned to the program.

“I have talked to basically the whole team, I am really excited and looking forward to being back with them and seeing what we can do,” said Kessel. “This is going to be our family. We are going to make this a place where we excel on the ice but off the ice as well.”

In order to get the Tigers to excel on the ice this winter, Kessel will be emphasizing an attention to detail.

“I am a pretty big habits-based coach with things like the details of back checking, possession changes and face-off details,” said Kessel. “I want to play a physical, fast game. That is the approach I took with Boston as well. It depends on the personnel.”

With a core of juniors leading Princeton to a solid 18-12-2 campaign last winter, Kessel is excited about the personnel on hand.

“I think we can score goals and score more than the other team,” said Kessel. “Our defense are young but super, super talented. I am excited to watch our senior class. They are the class I had when I left- Katherine Khramtsov, Emerson O’Leary, Jane Kuehl, Issy Wunder and Taylor Hyland- and I will get to see where they have come from over the last three seasons. I am really excited to be back, we want to win championships at Princeton.”

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LVSPORTSBIZ.COM, launched June 2017: We are a digital magazine providing market-leading news, intelligence, enterprise and breaking news on Las Vegas’ sports/stadium industry. Our stories are quoted nationally and we set the sportsbiz news agenda in Las Vegas. Publisher Alan Snel has reported on the business of sports and stadiums in Denver, South Florida, Seattle and Tampa besides Las Vegas and is considered a national authority on the topic. Please read our investigative reports on:

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