SCHENECTADY, N.Y. – After eight years leading the Union College women’s ice hockey program, Josh Sciba has resigned his head coaching position to accept a spot on the coaching staff of PWHL New York, it was announced on Saturday afternoon.
The position reunites Sciba with new PWHL New York head coach and former Colgate University head coach Greg Fargo, under whom Sciba served as an assistant for four years in Hamilton from 2012-16 before making the move to Schenectady.
“I want to thank Josh for his dedication to our student-athletes over the last eight years and the work that he put into our women’s hockey program. The opportunity to coach at the professional level does not come around often, and so we wish Josh well in his new position,” said Director of Athletics Jim McLaughlin ’93. “We look forward to finding the next leader of our women’s hockey team and seeing the continued strides forward that this program will take in the future.”
“I want to thank my student-athletes, President David Harris, Jim McLaughlin, my coaching staff, and the entire Union College community for embracing my family and I over the last eight years,” said Sciba. “I’m so grateful for this experience and everything that I’ve learned throughout it. I wouldn’t be the coach that I am today without Union College. With the talented women in our locker room, a new facility, scholarships, and a very distinguished degree, I know the best years of Union women’s hockey are yet to come. Union College will always hold a special place in my heart.”
The winningest coach in Union women’s hockey history, Sciba and the program have taken steps forward in both wins and level of competitiveness over the last two seasons. The team won 11 games and earned its first-ever win over a nationally ranked team during the 2022-23 season, and the team’s 19 victories over the last two seasons are the most in a two-year span in the program’s Division I era. The last two seasons have also seen three new entries in both the team’s single-season goals and points record books, as well as three of the program’s nine hat tricks as a D-I program.
In addition, Sciba recruited and guided student-athletes to success off the ice as well. Union players merited 125 ECAC Hockey All-Academic Team selections over the last eight seasons as well as four College Sports Communicators Academic All-District honors, and two recent graduates (Meredith Killian ’24 and Allison Smith ’24) were inducted into Phi Beta Kappa. The team also continued its long history of community engagement and support through multiple initiatives both in and out of the rink.
With the recent addition of athletic scholarships and a new hockey rink on the horizon for 2025, the future is bright for the Union women’s hockey program. A national search for the program’s next head coach will begin immediately.
(Photo by Union College Women’s Hockey Dept.)
