Ainsley King of Peterborough has joined the coaching staff of Keene State’s first women’s varsity hockey program. As of fall 2024, the Owls women’s hockey team, formerly a club team, is now NCAA Division III.

“I’m really excited about it. I love working with the players and getting out there,” King said.

The Owls will open their season Nov. 1 against Plymouth State at 4 p.m. at Keene Ice. Previously, Keene State men’s and women’s hockey both were club teams. The men’s team is also jumping up to NCAA Division III for the 2024-2025 hockey season.

Head coach Rob Morgan, who joined Keene State last fall to build the varsity women’s hockey program, announced his inaugural staff on Aug. 2. Morgan, a native of Canada, has coached women’s hockey all around the country, including at Dartmouth.

“We are thrilled to welcome Ainsley King as an assistant coach,” Morgan stated. “Her strong background as a player, combined with her coaching experience and academic achievements, will be a tremendous asset to our young program. We look forward to the fresh perspectives and energy she will bring to our team.”

King will be joining the team as an assistant coach along with Jared Petito, who will also serve as an assistant coach, and Cecelia “CJ” Vinas, who will be hockey operations manager. Petito played Division I hockey for Slippery Rock University and has coached around the country, most recently coaching juniors in Utah. Vinas has a decade of professional coaching experience, most recently with Southern Connecticut Youth Hockey.

King said she is excited to be working with players from all over the country and around the world.

“On our roster, we have players from Canada, from Taiwan, and from Ireland, as well as from all over the country,” King said. “We have players from New Hampshire, Vermont, Maine and Massachusetts, and also Texas and Alaska.”

The team starts practicing in September, with its first exhibition game scheduled for October.

“We are working out all the details of the season right now, ” King said.

King, who grew up in Peterborough and attended ConVal schools through eighth grade, played varsity hockey for Hebron Academy in Hebron, Maine, and for Stevenson University in Owings Mills, Md. At Stevenson, King, who was a goalie, played in 30 games and made 599 saves. She was named MAC Conference Defensive Player of the Week three times and was a member of the National Honor Society for Student Athletes.

King spent many years assisting with youth development at the Keene Youth Hockey Association, where her dad, Jeff King, is league president. In July, after graduating with honors from Stevenson University, King participating in the USA Hockey 16/17 National Development Camp in Oxford, Ohio.

“The development camp got me really interested in coaching, so I started looking around to see what was available,” King said.

The oldest in a family of four hockey players, King learned to skate at age 4.

“I looked over at the kids who were learning how to play hockey and I said, ‘I want to do that,’” King said.

King says her father coached her almost every year of her youth hockey program, as well as coaching her two younger brothers and her younger sister. As a child playing for Henniker Youth Hockey, King remembers often being the only girl in the program.

“Women’s hockey has come a long way since I was little. When I played in Henniker, there were hardly any girls. But I was coaching in a Ryan Dooley hockey camp last week, and there were six or seven girls, ranging from age 7 through age 12. There are a lot more girls now, which makes it a little easier for them,” King said. “It’s really great to see that happening.”