Dan Church was named the head coach of the Lions women’s hockey program in 2004 and is the longest-serving active head coach at York.
2025-26 marks Chruch's 22nd season as bench boss. Church celebrated his
20th season as York women's hockey coach by guiding an upstart group to within one win of the McCaw Cup final and a berth at the national championship. His team upset the vaunted Nipissing Lakers – behind whom the Lions finished by 34 points in the standings – in a stunning two-game sweep in round one. They then took Game 1 of the semi-final series against Waterloo, before ultimately losing the next two games and bowing out to the Warriors in three games. For his efforts, Church was nominated for York coach of the year in 2023-24.
The Lions earned their second straight playoff berth in 2024-25, finishing 5th in the OUA West and beating the Windsor Lancers 5-3 in the OUA's inaugural play-in game.
The 2019-20 season saw York qualify for the U SPORTS national championship for the first time in program history and the McCaw Cup final for the first time under his guidance. He was named York’s coach of the year at the end of the season.
In addition to his work with the Lions, Church is a coach mentor for the Ontario Women’s Hockey Association (OWHA). He also has extensive national and international experience with Canadian women’s teams at a number of different age levels. Most recently, he has been the head coach of the senior national women’s team at the world championships, leading the squad to a gold medal in 2012 with a 5-4 overtime victory over the United States, as well as a silver medal in 2013.
He was also the head coach of the senior women’s national team for the 12 Nations Tournament in Vierumaki, Finland, in August 2011 and the 4 Nations Cup in Sweden. In April 2011 he was an assistant coach with the Canadian senior women’s team that won the silver medal at the world championships in Switzerland.
In 2010, he served as head coach of the Canadian national women’s U18 team that won the gold medal at the world championships, Canada’s first women’s world title in that age group.
In 2009, he served as the head coach of the Canadian team at the 24th FISU Winter Universiade in Harbin, China and led the squad to the gold medal in the inaugural event. He also oversaw a selection camp for the team in the summer of 2008 at York University.
He was also head coach of the Canadian national U22 women’s team. That squad went 7-0 with Church at the helm, sweeping a series against the United States before winning the European Air Canada Cup in Germany. In August of 2006 he served as an assistant coach at Hockey Canada’s U22 national team evaluation camp. That team went on to win a gold medal at the Air Canada Cup in Germany in January 2007.
Church is an NCCP fully certified Level 4 Master Coach and a Chartered Professional Coach (ChPC) with Coaching Association of Canada. Before coming to York, he served as an assistant with the University of Toronto women’s hockey program for seven years. During that time, the Varsity Blues won four OUA titles and captured the CIS national championship in 2001.
Church is currently enrolled in a master’s program. He is studying for a Master of Science in Kinesiology focusing on Sport Psychology and Positive Youth Development. His studies centre around athlete leadership in elite women’s ice hockey.
