Detroit native Stacey Bean was named head field hockey coach at the University of Rhode Island in April 2002 after spending the past two years as a Boston College assistant and winning five straight conference titles at the University of New Brunswick (Canada) from 1995 through '99.

Bean, 31, took over a URI program that has eight starters returning from a 5-13 team that finished sixth in the Atlantic 10 Conference. She succeeded Rebecca Provost Campbell, who resigned in late January after going 49-92 in seven years and reaching the A-10 tournament finals four times.

Bean helped Boston College (11-8) finish second in the Big East last year with a 4-1 regular-season record before a double-overtime loss to No. 3 seed Villanova in the conference semifinals. In 2000 the Eagles (10-8) climbed to 13th in the national rankings before dropping their last two games and missing the league playoffs.

Bean, who moved to Canada at 14, earned both all-Canadian and Academic all-Canadian honors as a player at New Brunswick in 1993 while leading the team to second place at the national championships. Two years later she took over as head coach and led the Reds to conference titles in each of her five years at the helm (1995-99). The Reds finished fourth at the Canadian national championships in 1995 and again in '98.

Bean ran up a 65-15-7 record at New Brunswick and earned four Coach of the Year awards in her conference, the Atlantic University Athletic Association (1995, '96, '97 and '99). She was also a finalist for National Coach of the Year honors in each of those four seasons.

At New Brunswick, Bean turned out 18 all-Canadian picks, three National Players of the Year, 26 all-conference selections and 24 Academic all-Canadians. At Boston College she coached five regional all-Americans and one national all-American, defender Amelie Wulff.

As BC's goalie coach, among other duties, Bean helped Jill Dedman become Big East Goalkeeper of the Year in 2000 and earn a spot on the U.S. national team for the Champions Challenge tournament in South Africa in February 2002.

Although she remained a U.S. citizen, Bean took part in the Canadian National Team program by coaching at the Junior National Team training camp in 1995 and '96 and at the Senior National Team Identification Camp from 1998 to 2000. She was also a field hockey venue official at the 1999 Pan American Games.

This summer Bean will shift her focus to the U.S. national team development program by taking on a second new role as assistant coach of the New England Eclipse. The Eclipse is one of seven teams in the five-year-old United Airlines Field Hockey League, a summer league for elite players run by the U.S. Field Hockey Association.

Bean earned a bachelor's degree in physical and health education at Laurentian University in Sudbury, Ontario, graduating with honors in 1993. She played field hockey for four years (1989-92), earning all-conference honors in '92 from the Ontario Women's Inter-University Athletic Association. She was a two-time team captain and a player-assistant coach in '92.

Bean moved on to graduate school at New Brunswick, where in 1993 she led the Reds to a conference crown and the national title game in her fifth year of eligibility, permitted under Canadian rules. The following year she became the team's assistant coach and also served as head coach of the school's indoor hockey team.

Bean took charge at Rhode Island on Sunday, April 21, as the Rams traveled to New Haven, Conn., for the Yale Spring 7-a-Side Tournament.

Phone: (401) 874-5276
Fax: (401) 874-5354
Address: 3 Keaney Rd, Suite 1
Kingston, RI 02881
e-mail: bean@uri.edu