LORETTO, Pa. (July 9, 2008) – Saint Francis University Director of Athletics Bob Krimmel announced on Wednesday that Stacey Bean has been hired as the school’s head field hockey coach.

Bean, who has nine years of head coaching experience, takes over for Liz deSimas, who was head coach from 2004-07.

“We are very excited to have Stacey join our Red Flash family as head field hockey coach,” Krimmel said. “She brings a wealth of experience that will be very beneficial to our student-athletes as they continue to grow. I am certain Stacey will help Saint Francis field hockey take the next step in becoming a top program in the Northeast Conference.”

Bean served as the head coach at Rhode Island from 2002 through 2006. She coached the first student-athlete in URI history to receive the prestigious NCAA Post Graduate Scholarship. She also had 22 National Field Hockey Coaches Association (NFHCA) Academic All-Americans, three NFHCA Regional All-Americans, 12 Atlantic-10 All-Stars, two A-10 All-Rookie Team honorees, an A-10 Defensive Player-of-the-Year and an A-10 Rookie-of-the-Year, in addition to numerous other academic and athletic honorees. Bean was named the 2006 A-10 Coach-of-the-Year when she guided URI to an 8-10 overall record, and a second place conference finish with a 4-3 mark. She also served as the 2002 NFHCA Senior All-Star Game head coach.

“I am excited for the opportunity to join the Saint Francis family,” Bean said. “I’m looking forward to helping build a winning tradition here. I would like to thank (Senior Associate Director of Athletics) Erika Renwick, Bob Krimmel and the search committee for giving me this opportunity.”

Prior to her time at Rhode Island, Bean was an assistant coach at Boston College, where she helped oversee the development of five NFHCA Regional All-Americans, one NFHCA National All-American, 10 Big East Conference All-Stars, one Big East Defensive Player-of-the-Year, one Big East Goalkeeper-of-the-Year, and one USA senior national team member in two seasons of work.

She joined the Eagles after five seasons as head coach at the University of New Brunswick, where she compiled a 65-15-7 record, and earned four Atlantic University Athletic Association Coach-of-the-Year awards (1995, ’96, ’97 and ’99). She was also a finalist for national coach-of-the-year honors in each of those four seasons. At New Brunswick, Bean coached 18 CIAU Field Hockey all-Canadians, three national Player-of-the-Year honorees, 26 all-conference players and 24 Academic All-Canadians. She also served in several other roles at New Brunswick, including Assistant Director of Campus Recreation, Academic Advisor for the faculty of Kinesiology, course instructor in Kinesiology and as an Advanced Practicum Supervisor in Kinesiology.

Bean has also remained active at other levels of field hockey. She was a regional selector for the USFHA National Futures Tournament Team (2000-04), the Massachusetts Elite Site head coach from 2000-02, and was an assistant coach with the Canadian Junior National Squad Identification Camps from 1996-99.

Bean earned her bachelor’s degree in physical and health education at Laurentian University in Sudbury, Ontario, Canada, graduating with honors in 1993. She played field hockey at Laurentian for four years (1989-92), and earned all-conference honors in 1992 from the Ontario Women’s Inter-University Athletic Association. She was a two-time team captain and a player-assistant coach in 1992.

Bean moved on to graduate school at New Brunswick, where she led the Reds to a conference crown and the national title match in her fifth year of eligibility in 1993. She was a CIAU Field Hockey all-Canadian and a CIAU Academic all-Canadian at New Brunswick in 1993. She became the team’s assistant coach the following season.

Bean has been a Level 3 certified field hockey coach since 1994, and graduated from the NCAA women’s coaching academy in 2005.

She inherits a team that won the most matches in program history in 2007 (4), and made the Northeast Conference Tournament for the first time in school annals.