University of Wisconsin-Madison Women's Ice Hockey

Wisconsin head coach Mark Johnson has established the Badgers as one of the nation’s elite programs during his 22 years in Madison. Under his direction, Wisconsin has compiled eight NCAA titles, 11 Western Collegiate Hockey Association playoff titles and 10 WCHA regular season crowns. With a career record of 667-120-55, Johnson is the winningest coach not only in Wisconsin history, but is the winningest coach in NCAA collegiate women's hockey history. Six Badgers have won the Patty Kazmaier Memorial Award, awarded to the nation's top NCAA Division I women's hockey player, under Johnson. Sara Bauer was UW's first winner in 2006, Jessie Vetter won the award in 2009, Meghan Duggan took home the honor in 2011 before Brianna Decker won the award in 2012. Ann-Renee Desbiens won the honor in 2017 while Casey O'Brien won the 2025 award. No stranger to the Wisconsin program, Johnson stepped into the role of head women's ice hockey coach at UW beginning with the 2002-03 season, becoming the third coach in program history. Since taking over the program, Johnson and the Badgers have continued to shatter both school and national records while leading the program to the pinnacle of women's college hockey. The Mark Johnson File Hometown Madison, Wis. Education University of Wisconsin, 1994 B.S. in Kinesiology Family Wife, Leslie Children, Doug, Chris, Patrick, Mikayla and Megan NCAA National Championships 2025 2023 2021 2019 2011 2009 2007 2006 Coach of the Year 2025 AHCA Division I Coach o

Wisconsin associate head coach Dan Koch has been a pillar of the Badgers’ program, serving as an assistant coach for eight years before returning to UW in 2011 to serve as the associate head coach. The Koch File Hometown Madison, Wis. Education B.S., elementary education, Wisconsin, 1991 M.S., education, teaching and learning, St. Mary's, 2001 Coaching Experience Associate Head Coach, Wisconsin (2011-Present) Head Coach, Shattuck-St. Mary's U16 Girls (2009-2011) Assistant Coach, Wisconsin (2001-2009) Assistant Coach, St. Mary's (1999-2001) Head Coach, La Crosse Logan/Central HS boys hockey (1996-1999) Assistant Coach, Madison La Follette HS girls soccer (1986-1990) Assistant Coach, Madison La Follette HS boys soccer (1986-1990) USA Hockey Camps coach (2005-2014) USA Under-18 selection camp coach (2014) During 12 years as the Badgers' associate head coach and his nine as an assistant coach, Koch has overseen a stingy UW defense that has led the NCAA in scoring defense six different seasons, including the 2015-16 team that set an NCAA record with a 0.72 goals-against average. The Badgers' allowed only 29 goals in 40 games during the 2015-16 campaign, and had shutouts in 23 contests. In his 20 seasons at UW, the Badgers have ranked in the top-three in the country in scoring defense 17 times. The Madison, Wisconsin, native plays an instrumental role in UW’s penalty-killing efforts, as Wisconsin set the NCAA penalty kill record during the 2014-15 season with a .958 clip. UW has le

Jackie (Friesen) Crum, a former Wisconsin women's hockey player, will enter her 17th season on the Badger bench during the 2025-26 season. After serving as a...

Justin Kakuska is starting his second season as Wisconsin women's hockey's director of operations/video coordinator after spending the last six years working with the program. A Madison native, Kakuska has worked with the women's hockey program for the last six seasons - three years as an undergraduate video coordinator, two years as a graduate assistant video coordinator and the 2023-24 campaign as the assistant director of operations/video coordinator. During his time with the women's hockey program, Kakuska helped the Badgers to four NCAA titles while assisting with scout video and game breakdown. He also produced creative video content for the program and alumni and assisted with operation duties during the 2021-22 season. Kakuska earned a pair of Masters degrees from UW Madison, earning a Master of Science in educational leadership and policy analysis in 2022 and a Master of Science in curriculum and instruction in 2023. Kakuska graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in May of 2021 with a Bachelor of Arts in Communication Science and Rhetorical Studies. While at UW, he was a member of Sports Business Club where he served as a chair on the Events Leadership Committee. His other experience in addition to working with the women's hockey team for three seasons included an internship in the box office with Forward Madison FC where he worked on video board content and other creative content and working with the Madison Mallards baseball team as a cook, cashier and

Mark Greenhalgh has served as the goaltenders coach for the UW women's hockey program since the 2007-08 season. The Badgers have captured six NCAA titles during his time working with the UW goaltenders. While at Wisconsin, Greenhalgh has worked with four Olympic netminders in Jessie Vetter, Alex Rigsby Ann-Renee Desbiens and Kristen Campbell. Vetter and Desbiens are two of only three goaltenders to ever win the Patty Kazmaier Memorial Award, the highest individual honor in women's college hockey, while Rigsby is the all-time wins leader at Wisconsin with 100. Desbiens also left UW as the NCAA record-holder in most shutouts in a season, best goals-against average in a season, most shutouts in a career and the top goals-against average in a career. Campbell was a a two-time All-American and the 2019 NCAA Tournament Most Outstanding Performer. He has been involved with coaching goaltenders of all ages for 25 years, producing three all-state goalies while serving as an assistant coach at Madison Memorial. Prior to that, Greenhalgh assisted at UW-Whitewater, where the team made five appearances at the National Collegiate Club Tournament during his seven-year tenure. During the 1990's, Greenhalgh served as goalie coach for Team Wisconsin. He has also worked numerous hockey schools throughout the Midwest over the last two decades. Greenhalgh played his youth hockey in Janesville, Wis., where he was inducted into the Janesville Sports Hall of Fame in 2005. A walk-on with the Wisconsi

Paul Valukas joined the Wisconsin Olympic strength & conditioning staff in 2021 as an Assistant Strength & Conditioning coach. He currently oversees the Badgers' women's hockey programs. Valukas was elevated to the position of Assistant Director of Olympic Strength & Conditioning in the Fall of 2022. In this new role, Valukas will serve as the Olympic strength & conditioning department’s liaison with campus academic programs/student educational organizations and will additionally serve as the S&C department's lead for performance technologies at the Kohl Center. Valukas joins the Badgers after most recently serving as the head strength & conditioning coach for the Ontario Reign, the American Hockey League affiliate of the National Hockey League's Los Angeles Kings (2019-2021). Working with the LA Kings strength & conditioning staff, Valukas created and implemented the Reign's off-ice strength & conditioning programming, return-to-play protocols and rehabilitation programs for injured players. He previously also worked with the NHL's Chicago Blackhawks (July 2018 & July 2019) to aid in the execution of the team's physiology testing group to execute the strength testing battery and serve as a volunteer assistant strength coach. Valukas worked as the Director of College and Professional Athlete Development at the ETHOS Colorado Athlete Center (2018-19) where he created and oversaw daily operation of the athlete development program and constructed an educational series on nutriti

Badgers Sports Medicine staff since: September 2013 Professional credentials: MS, LAT, ATC NPI: 1578694733 Previous Professional Experience: 2013-2017, Athle...