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Auburn University's women's hockey team coach Jack Rosenhammer (center), is pictured talking to the team.

Auburn University's women's hockey team coach Jack Rosenhammer (center), is pictured talking to the team.

Jack Rosenhammer’s love for ice hockey might have derived from his Northern roots in New York City, but it was in the Deep South at Auburn University where he found a unique opportunity to coach his favorite sport.

Rosenhammer, who is pursuing a doctoral degree in educational psychology in Auburn’s College of Education, has for the past three years coached Auburn’s women’s ice hockey club sports team. That’s right — Auburn has a women’s hockey team.

“As I was getting out of the Army in 2022, I recognized the need for a hockey equipment store in the local area as the closest one was over two hours away in north Atlanta,” said Rosenhammer, who currently resides in Columbus, Georgia, which is about a 45-minute drive away from Auburn.

“I opened up the shop in the spring of 2022 and learned Auburn was starting a women's hockey team.  I messaged them on Instagram with the intent of helping them secure equipment, jerseys, etc., at cost as I figured they would not have a lot of funds starting out. One thing led to another, the team expressed the need for a coach, and here we are three years later.”

Coaching support

Rosenhammer said his wife’s journey to Auburn initially piqued his interest in the university, leading him to pursue his advanced degree in Auburn’s College of Education with a focus not only on his becoming a better coach but helping other coaches do the same.

“My wife is a Math Ed Ph.D. student at Auburn, and I have listened to her talk for a few years now about how education has evolved over time. I noticed many parallels to the coaching industry and wanted to learn more about how to improve as a hockey coach and how we can train coaches better.”

At Auburn, Rosenhammer said he’s found an amazing support system.

“I really enjoy working with and learning from my classmates and instructors,” he said. “An Auburn classroom contains a wealth of knowledge and life experiences all students can learn from. Before starting my Ph.D. coursework, I had not been in a classroom for almost a decade. So, it was a little bit of a culture shock being back in an academic setting. While I did suffer from some impostor syndrome when I first started, my classmates, advisor, Dr. Paris Strom, and instructors, Dr. Sean Forbes and Dr. Matthew Miller, have done an incredible job helping me adjust to going back to school.”

Hockey ambassador

Miller said Rosenhammer is both a great student and a wonderful ambassador of hockey. He said Rosenhammer not only coaches Auburn’s women’s hockey team, but he also helps with youth hockey programming through the Columbus Hockey Association. On the academic side of things, Rosenhammer is a student in Miller’s Advanced Sport Psychology class. 

“He brings a wealth of knowledge to the class from his experience as a hockey coach, and the entire class and I benefit from his insights,” Miller said of Rosenhammer.

Beyond the classroom, Rosenhammer admits that most of his time is spent in a hockey rink.

“All I really do outside the classroom is related to hockey and our women's team here at Auburn,” he said. “It is a privilege to coach and mentor these young women and help create more opportunities for the local community — especially children — to participate in the sport that has been a huge part of my life for almost 30 years.”

Rosenhammer said Auburn’s women’s hockey team is leading the way in the growth of opportunities for girls and women to pick up a hockey stick and participate in a part of the country that doesn’t traditionally offer hockey as a sporting option. He said Auburn’s team is comprised of players with a wide swath of experience, with some having played AAA-level amateur hockey before coming to Auburn and others taking their first steps on the ice upon joining the team.

Auburn’s team practices twice a week at the Columbus Ice Rink in Columbus, Georgia. In addition to its competitive play in matches, the team is also heavily involved in community outreach, with players hosting a “Girls Try Hockey For Free” event each semester for girls looking to try the sport at no cost. Such efforts by the team have recently been featured on such news outlets as ESPNW, SEC Network and The Hockey News.

”Helping grow women's hockey in a non-traditional market is something I will be able to look back on when I am in my rocking chair and know I helped make a difference."

- Jack Rosenhammer, coach of Auburn's women's ice hockey team and College of Education grad student

A shining example

“This team is a shining example of what incredible things can be accomplished when passionate people put their heads together and refuse to take ‘no’ for an answer,” Rosenhammer said. “We have girls from across the United States and Canada who routinely contact us about playing for Auburn. We would love to have the opportunity to skate in an ice rink in Auburn one day and help build a youth program to get local children into the sport and provide them the opportunity to one day pull on the AU jersey.”

Rosenhammer added that "Our success is built on the unwavering dedication of our all-volunteer staff, who continually go above and beyond to create a top-tier playing environment for our athletes. Assistant coaches Tiana Schneider and Auburn student Zach Small — set to graduate this semester from the Harbert School of Business Master of Real Estate Development program — relentlessly seek opportunities to enhance our program. 

“Equally invaluable, our medical staff, consisting of active-duty Army medics Adam Kralina and Phil Gray, generously volunteer their time and expertise to ensure our players receive top-quality care during games, practices, and team events. The staff's dedication, professionalism, and commitment set an incredible example for our players while serving as role models both on and off the ice.”

In addition to growing Auburn’s team and its reach, Rosenhammer said he also has his sights set on the path forward following his graduation from Auburn’s College of Education.

“I would like to work in coaching education after graduating,” he said. “Ideally, I would like to work within USA Hockey's education department or for the NHL or International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF). I am also open to working in academia doing research related to coaching education or how we train people joining the trades, how to better educate our service members, or those moving from a non-technical field to a tech role (cloud/AI technology, software engineering, etc.).”

For now, Rosenhammer is in his second semester of grad school, and he’s implementing on the ice all he’s learning in the class. And ultimately, with a clear goal ahead of him, he says he’s focused on doing all he can to accomplish a big win for women’s ice hockey in the Deep South.

”Helping grow women's hockey in a non-traditional market is something I will be able to look back on when I am in my rocking chair and know I helped make a difference,” he said.

Educational Psychology

Educational Psychology (in the Department of Educational Foundations, Leadership, and Technology within Auburn's College of Education) is a diverse field that spans a variety of areas including human motivation, human development, learning theories, and teaching practices and pedagogy. Students’ research areas include development, learning, individual learner differences, and more.

Learn more