St. Thomas assistant women's hockey coach Marty Sertich and players Nicole Vallario, Elvira Svensson and Saskia Maurer were featured in an article by Twin Cities Pioneer Press on how the European connections brought Vallario and Maurer to the team roster this season.
From the article: Sertich joined the Tommies as an assistant coach in 2017 and most recently served as the interim head coach prior to Joel Johnson taking over.
Sertich’s coach in Switzerland, Colin Muller, is now the head coach of the Swiss women’s national team. The two reconnected last fall.
“Once it was officially announced that St. Thomas was going Division I, I started networking with different coaches and thought he would be a great guy to connect with,” Sertich said.
“He has had plenty of players through the years who had played NCAA hockey, so he was very familiar with it. He had a good gauge of the level of play in NCAA hockey, and especially the WCHA, and said that he had some players we should take a look at.”
