Native Duluthian Laura Bellamy will enter her ninth season at UMD in 2023-24, and fifth as an associate head coach after four seasons as an assistant to UMD bench boss Maura Crowell.
Bellamy was selected the 2022 recipient of the Women's Ice Hockey Assistant Coach Award by the American Hockey Coaches Association, a national award that recognizes the career body of work of a women's assistant hockey coach. Bellamy and the Bulldogs made their third-straight NCAA Tournament berth in 2023 and in the past three seasons alone has guided UMD to an NCAA title game (2022), two NCAA Frozen Fours (2022, 2021, and earned five NCAA postseason wins over that span.
In eight complete seasons at UMD, Bellamy has helped guide an overall record of 153-100-21, including an overall NCAA Tournament record of 5-4 and four NCAA Tournament berths (2023, 2022, 2021, 2017) to go with two NCAA Frozen Four Appearances (2022, 2021). Bellamy has helped overseen two Patty Kazmaier Top-3 Finalists (Gabbie Hughes and Lara Stalder), as well as a Patty Kazmaier Top-10 Finalist (Élizabeth Giguère). Under Bellamy's guidance, UMD has had 86 WCHA Scholar Athletes and a total of 117 WCHA All-Academic Team members.
With Bellamy on the bench, UMD has had nine All-Americans, including this past season in goaltender Emma Soderberg and defenseman Ashton Bell in 2022-23. Other All-Americans under the past eight seasons have been Gabbie Hughes and Élizabeth Giguère in 2021-22, as well as Bell, Anna Klein and Soderberg in 2020-21 and two All-Americans in the 2016-17 season (Stalder and Sidney Morin). UMD has also had a run on league awards over Bellamy's tenure, most recently highlighted by Soderberg's second WCHA Goaltender of Year honor in 2022-23 after gloving the award in 2020-21. Bell was named the 2020-21 WCHA Defenseman of the Year, four years after Morin earned the accolade in 2016-17, and the program has landed three WCHA Student Athlete of the Year under Corwell in Soderberg (2022-23), Catherine Daoust (2017-18), and Morin (2016-17). Soderberg was also a finalist for the 2022-23 WCHA Player of the Year, while Stalder was named the 2016-17 WCHA Player of the Year. UMD has also had 25 players placed on All-WCHA Teams,
With Bellamy's assistance, UMD finished second place in the WCHA in 2020-21, just a single point from the top spot. The Bulldogs earned 19 WCHA wins in 2016-17, the program's highest since the 2010-11 season, and finished third in the ultra-competitive WCHA (and just three points out of second place). Bellamy also helped UMD back into the national rankings, and the Bulldogs final ranking in 2021-22 was second, one season after resting in third in 2020-21.
In addition to her UMD duties, Bellamy was named a coach for the fifth annual U.S. Women's National Team Goaltending Development Camp in May of 2019 at the Schwan Super Rink in Blaine, Minnesota. It is the third consecutive year that Bellamy has served at the camp, which annually brings together the nation's top female goaltenders from the U-18 to professional level, provides athletes with specialized training and mentoring, as well as critical resources to support their long-term development as elite goaltenders. Bellamy has also stepped in and taken the reigns when Crowell has been at the helm of the U.S. U-18 squads during the past three IIHF U-18 World Championships, having posted a 3-3 record in her own right.
A 2009 graduate of Duluth Denfeld High School and two-sport star with the Hunters, Bellamy spent two seasons working in that same capacity at her alma mater, Harvard University. In 2014-15, Bellamy was an assistant for a Harvard club that reached the NCAA national title game and finished 27-6-3 overall after going 23-7-4 and securing an NCAA playoff berth the previous winter while Crowell was Harvard's interim head coach. Bellamy enjoyed a rewarding four-year goaltending career (2009-13) with the Crimson, posting a 60-25-7 record, a 1.82 goals against average, a .915 saves percentage and 19 shutouts (the second most in program history) in 95 liftetime appearances. As a senior, she paced the nation in goals against with an average (0.92) and ranked second in saves percentage (.949) en route to landing All-Ivy League first team accolades.
Bellamy, who earned a History and Science degree from Harvard in 2013, started between the pipes for six years while a prep for the Duluth Northern Stars and in 2008-09 was chosen the Let's Play Hockey Senior Goalie of the Year. She also was a five-year starter and ace of the Hunter softball pitching staff.
