Jeff Matthews

Biography

Head Women's Ice Hockey Coach Jeff Matthews has been behind the Amherst bench since 2012. The 2025-26 season marks his 14th year at Amherst and 13th season (due to the COVID-19 pandemic). Amherst has posted a winning record in every season of Matthews' tenure and has won three of the last five NESCAC Championships while advancing to the NCAA Division III Championship game in two of the last three seasons. Matthews has a career record of 209-81-34 entering the 2025-26 season. His 209 wins at the Division III level, accomplished in 12 seasons, are the most wins of any active Division III head coach with fewer than 19 seasons behind the bench. His .698 winning percentage is 10th-best among all active Division III coaches. A 1991 graduate of Deerfield Academy, he earned a bachelor of science degree in business management from Rensselaer in 1995, where he played in 124 games and helped lead the team to an ECAC Championship in his senior season. Following his graduation from RPI, Matthews played professionally for a season in Sweden, and he also went on to receive a master's degree in educational psychology from American International in 2002. Prior to Amherst, Matthews spent six seasons as the head coach of the Northwood School boys' junior team in Lake Placid, N.Y., racking up a 174-59-17 record and a .730 winning percentage. He has also served as the head boys' varsity coach at Northfield Mount Hermon from 2001–04 and as an assistant at Division I American International College,