The Penobscot Pioneers girls hockey team will head into next season with a new head coach.
Meghan MacDonald, a former volunteer assistant for the team, has been named to replace Jarrod Williams as head coach of the Penobscot Pioneers girls hockey team.
The Pioneer team, which just concluded its third season, features players from Bangor High, Brewer, John Bapst, Hampden Academy, Hermon, Old Town and Orono.
Williams guided the Pioneers to an impressive regular season record of 35-16-3 and berths in Class A North championship games in their first two campaigns.
MacDonald was a volunteer assistant for the Pioneers for their two seasons but stepped down to spend more time with her son, Seamus, who is a senior at Bangor High this year.
“I’m so proud to be able to help continue to grow girls hockey in this area,” said MacDonald, who played on several boys hockey teams in high school before taking her game to the college level.
She was a goaltender for the Bangor High, John Bapst of Bangor and Kents Hill boys hockey teams before playing for the Providence College women’s team.
The Pioneers have won at least one playoff game each year since being formed in 2022, and were 4-3 in the post-season with all three losses coming to top seed Yarmouth-Freeport.
The Pioneers were the second seed the first two seasons and the fourth seed this past campaign when they went 7-9-2. They lost to Yarmouth-Freeport 4-2 in the North semifinals after beating Lewiston 4-1 in the quarterfinals.
“I’m really excited,” said the 49-year-old MacDonald. “I haven’t had the time to be able to dedicate myself to being in a head coaching position but with Seamus going off to college in the fall, I will be wanting to fill some time and I love the sport and love the girls.”
MacDonald has coached hockey at a variety of levels. She was an assistant coach for the Bangor and John Bapst boys teams and the goalie coach and defensive coach at the University of Maine.
“We are so fortunate to have her back in the program,” said Brewer athletic director Dave Utterback, who is the lead administrator for the Pioneers’ cooperative program. “She is well-respected by the players and their families and also by the Pioneers and greater ice hockey communities.”
Utterback called her a “strong role model” for student athletes.
“We are excited to see how she moves the program forward. Again, we are lucky and excited to have her in the head coaching position,” Utterback added.
MacDonald, who is a quality manager at St. Joseph Hospital in Bangor, said she is going to come into the coaching job with a “clean slate.”
MacDonald said there are a lot of quality players graduating but she has a lot of very good players returning and “a lot of strong players coming in from the Inferno [youth] program” that gets stronger every year.
“I’m looking forward to taking some time to get on the ice with them and go through the tryouts to see what we have for talent. Once I understand what we have for talent, I will pick some good systems to fit with the talent we have,” said MacDonald, who has a degree in psychology from Providence College and a nursing degree from Husson University in Bangor.
She will build her team from the goal out and will focus on skill development.
“Where I thrive is from goal out but I’m going to work on the fundamentals with the girls,” said MacDonald. “The skill level can definitely be improved and that’s just going to be from hard work in practice every day, making sure we have some good systems in place. Keeping their feet moving, making good passes.”
MacDonald watched several games this past season and also saw some of the talent coming up through the lower levels to get a gauge for the upcoming season.
“There are little things I would like to work on and, hopefully, if we take care of those little things, the big things will take care of themselves,” said MacDonald.
There will be a voluntary summer program that she and her players and future players will be involved in. The official start to the season will be on Nov. 3.
