Alex Gettens has lofty goals for his University of Maine women’s ice hockey program, and he is confident they can eventually be attained.
The Concord, New Hampshire, native was introduced as the school’s eighth head coach Tuesday in the film room at Alfond Arena on the Orono campus.
Gettens, who spent the previous two seasons as an assistant at Colgate University after a seven-year stint as an assistant at the University of Vermont and a year at UMaine, said the job was a “dream come true.”
“This is a pretty spectacular moment for me,” said Gettens, who began his coaching career in 2011 with the St. Paul’s School girls hockey team in New Hampshire and knew he eventually wanted to be a Division I women’s head coach.
He was an assistant at UMaine in 2017-18, which was one of the best seasons in program history as the Black Bears went 19-14-5 overall and 11-9-4 in Hockey East and finished third.
That team spent six weeks ranked in the top 10 in the country, peaking at No. 8, and it marked the first time UMaine had finished as high as third since the 2003-04 team wound up third. But there were just six teams in Hockey East in 2003-04 and nine in 2017-18.
The program hasn’t finished better than fifth since that 2017-18 season and wound up sixth or worse in all but one season.
The first year of the hockey program was the 1997-98 campaign, and UMaine then spent four years in the ECAC Hockey League before Hockey East was formed. UMaine has never played in a conference championship game or earned an NCAA tournament berth.
“When the opportunity at Maine became available, I was extremely excited,” Gettens said. “Having been here before for one of the best seasons in program history, there was an excitement level for me because I felt like there was so much this program could accomplish.
“It had some untapped potential and under the right guidance, there were great things ahead.”
Since he left, the Alfond Arena has undergone a $50 million renovation thanks to the $170 million gift to upgrade the athletic facilities provided by the Harold Alfond Foundation, and he said such an investment is a game-changer.
“It is first class. A-plus. You couldn’t ask for more,” Gettens said. “We have everything we need to be successful. And it doesn’t stop there, you’ve got the [new] women’s soccer field, softball field and the new basketball facility [currently being built]. The list goes on.
“We know as coaches to have these resources at our disposal is critical to get the programs winning the way we know they are capable of.”
He noted that when he spoke to Director of Athletics Jude Killy and the other people within the athletic department, “it became clear that Jude’s vision is aligned very similarly with what I would like to build within my own team.”
Killy said the university wants to become one of the top five Division I athletic programs in New England, and it all starts with hockey.
“Hockey has to be exceptional, and it’s all inclusive, men’s and women’s. It has to be a premier destination for college hockey [players],” Killy said.
“We were looking for someone who shared that same vision and could craft that same message and bring that same energy,” Killy said.
And Gettens checked all the boxes.
“We wanted someone who was a good communicator, a good recruiter and a developer of talent as well as a developer of people,” Killy said. “We wanted someone who was a winner and who would hold people accountable.”
Senior right wing Mikayla Boarder, the assistant captain, met with Gettens along with co-captains Lily Fetch and Brenna Curl, and she said they connected with him immediately.
“He’s a great guy. He was supportive of all of us without even knowing us. He was ready to get going. He talked to us about his plans and about the future of the program and what he wanted to do,” Boarders said.
“My first priority is to get to know the people in our program,” Gettens said. “I once got some great advice: If you want the best out of your players, you have to understand who they are as people first.
“It’s not going to be an overnight process. It starts with building relationships and cultivating an environment that’s going to bring out the best in where we are right now.”
The Black Bears will be an aggressive, in-your-face team under Gettens.
“In order to get to the top half of the league and be in the top 10 nationally, you have to play an attacking style,” Gettens said. “We have to see ourselves as a team that isn’t scared to take the fight to somebody else. We have to believe in ourselves and our style of play has to reflect that. We have to be an aggressive team willing to make plays with the puck.”
He pointed out that playing as if you are inferior to your opponent is “more often than not, exactly where you’re going to end up.”
“Our style of play is going to be dynamic, especially on the offensive side of the puck. That’s where the game is headed right now,” he said. “It is also a style of play that is not only exciting for our current players, but it also attracts top-end players in the recruiting process as well.”
Gettens knows what it takes to get to the next level.
In his first season at Colgate (2024-25), the Raiders went 30-9 and earned one of the eight NCAA Tournament berths. They lost to Minnesota 3-2 in Minneapolis in the quarterfinals.
UMaine went 13-19-4 this past season, 8-12-4 in Hockey East and wound up seventh. The Black Bears lost to UConn 6-1 in the quarterfinals after beating Merrimack 4-0 in their first round game.
Former coach Molly Engstrom, who took an assistant’s job with the new Detroit franchise of the Professional Women’s Hockey League, left Gettens with a young team with intriguing potential. The top five scorers return and four will be sophomores. Fifteen of the top 17 point-getters and two of the three goalies return, including standout Kiia Lahtinen.
Nine of its 19 losses were by one goal.
“To see so much point production coming from underclassmen is super encouraging. It’s a really well-rounded team,” said Gettens, who thanked his parents, his former coaches and mentors along with Killy, the UMaine search committee and UMaine men’s head hockey coach Ben Barr and his staff for their support.
“I’m incredibly honored to be the person who has been selected to take this team into what is hopefully an amazing next chapter,” he said.
“At the end of the day, Alex was sprinting towards this job,” Killy said. “He didn’t just want to be a head coach, he wanted to be the head coach at the University of Maine, and that means something and was certainly felt throughout our process.”