2017 CHA Coach of the Year
2012 USCHO National Coach of the Year
2012 CHA Coach of the Year
Paul Colontino recently completed his tenth season as head coach of the Robert Morris women's ice hockey program. Under Colontino, Robert Morris has made the CHA Championship game five straight years and recently captured their third tournament crown.
Colontino has compiled a 183-114-41 (.602) lifetime record as head coach of the Colonials. His 183 wins ranks 50th all time for Division I women's coaches.
Under Colontino, the Colonials rattled off three consecutive College Hockey America regular-season championships between 2017-19, going 53-17-9 in conference play since the start of the 2016-17 season. In the postseason, RMU has made the CHA title game in five straight years, highlighted by a playoff crowns and subsequent NCAA tournament berths in 2017 and 2021.
Following their 2021 CHA Title, Colontino helped RMU become only the second CHA Program in league history to reach the CHA Championship in five straight seasons. They also became one of only two schools with at least three CHA Tournament Championships to their credit.
Under Colontino, the Colonials have not lost an opening-round playoff matchup in the CHA Tournament since 2015 against RIT, a run that currently stands at six straight seasons.
In 2016-17, Colontino helped the Colonials to their first regular-season conference championship, their second postseason CHA crown, their second 20-win campaign and first-ever NCAA appearance. RMU finished at No. 8 in both major polls, the first end-of-season national rankings in program history. They finished the season ranked in the top-ten once again in 2021 following another CHA Title, ending the year at No. 10 in the USCHO Poll.
The Colonials also gained national recognition in 2013-14, as Colontino guided them a school record 24 wins (24-8-3) and their first appearance in the national polls. Robert Morris reached as high as seventh in the USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine Women’s College Hockey poll and eighth in the United States College Hockey Online (USCHO) rankings. The Colonials also held an unbeaten streak of 14 games, from Nov. 9 to Jan. 24. On Jan. 18, Colontino gained the top spot on the program’s career win leader board with his 53rd thanks to a 5-1 victory at No. 10 Quinnipiac.
In Colontino’s first season, he made an immediate impact on the Robert Morris program. He led the Colonials to the largest year-to-year win improvement in Division I women’s hockey in 2011-12 before guiding the squad to a storybook ending as RMU captured the program’s first-ever conference championship. His turnaround of the RMU program earned him USCHO (U.S. College Hockey Online) National Coach of the Year accolades.
Before coming to Robert Morris, Colontino had served as associate head coach at Mercyhurst since 2006. Prior to that, he was an assistant coach with the women’s team at the University of North Dakota for four years. Colontino began his coaching career as an assistant with Mercyhurst in 2000.
As a player at Mercyhurst, Colontino was the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) co-Defensive Player of the Year as a senior and an All-MAAC First Team selection.
Colontino earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Mercyhurst in anthropology/archaeology in 2000 and proceeded to earn a Master of Science degree from Mercyhurst in organizational leadership in 2002.
