A former Catamount goaltender, Jeff Hill ‘08 enters his sixth season with the UVM men’s hockey team. Hill was promoted to assistant coach for the 2018-19 season after spending two seasons as the team’s director of hockey operations and one as a volunteer assistant.
Hill works primarily with the team’s goaltenders, including Stefanos Lekkas ‘20, who in 2019-20 became Hockey East’s all-time saves leader and finished his career fifth on the NCAA leaderboard with 3,913 saves. Lekkas graduated as UVM’s record holder in save percentage (.918) and in the top-five in every other major goaltending statistic.
Hill spent four years as a two-sport athlete for the Catamounts form 2004-2008, playing both hockey and lacrosse. As a senior, Hill received the Mike Gilligan Award, given annually to the player who distinguishes himself through leadership on and off the ice and through service to the community. Hill graduated from UVM in 2008 with a degree in psychology and a minor in sociology.
Upon graduation, Hill was the assistant coach for three seasons with the Rice Memorial High School prep program, which he helped create in 2009. Hill also spent the 2011-12 season as an assistant coach at nearby St. Michael’s College. After Rice, Hill moved on to become the head coach and hockey director at Culver Military Academy in Culver, Indiana. In his three years at Culver, Hill recruited and coached over 30 Division I players and three NHL draft picks.
Originally from Cranston, Rhode Island, Hill currently resides in Essex Junction with his wife, Emily, a 2006 graduate of UVM.