Emily McNamara

Emily McNamara was an American women's ice hockey player and coach whose life was rooted in Middlebury College and the NESCAC. A North Hampton, New Hampshire native and Phillips Exeter Academy three-sport athlete, she arrived at Middlebury in 2003 and helped the Panthers win three consecutive NCAA Division III national championships from 2004 to 2006, plus NESCAC titles in 2005 and 2006. A defensive mainstay, she played all 116 games of her career, scored 66 points on 22 goals and 44 assists, earned All-NESCAC honors, and captained the 2006-07 side while graduating with an English degree in 2007.

McNamara stepped straight onto Bill Mandigo's coaching staff from 2007 to 2011, helping Middlebury to NESCAC crowns in 2009 and 2011 and NCAA semifinal runs. After a season coaching Mid-Fairfield Connecticut Stars U16 girls, she became head coach at Hamilton College in 2012. Over 11 seasons she compiled a 135-95-23 record, twice won NESCAC Coach of the Year, and in 2022-23 led Hamilton to a program-record 22 wins, a first conference championship appearance, and the NCAA semifinals, earning AHCA and USCHO Division III National Coach of the Year honors.

She returned to Middlebury as an assistant in 2023, again beside Mandigo, helping the Panthers to further deep NCAA runs. Colleagues and players called her Coach Mac: demanding in practice, fiercely loyal, and a mentor whose players collected All-American and conference awards. She also completed a master's in coaching and athletic administration at Concordia University Irvine in 2015, deepening the craft she already lived daily on the bench.

On 20 March 2026, during snowy conditions on Route 74 in Cornwall, Vermont, her vehicle collided with a construction truck. She suffered life-threatening injuries including a traumatic brain injury and multiple fractures. After months of ICU care, surgeries, ventilation and rehabilitation, she died on 11 September 2026 at 12:04 p.m., aged 42. Her husband Dave Campbell and family chronicled the fight and thanked a wide support network that had followed every update.

Middlebury President Ian Baucom, Hamilton women's hockey, and the wider college hockey community mourned a three-time national champion player and national coach of the year whose legacy, as Hamilton put it, lives on in every player she coached and every life she touched along the way.