Head Coach: Emily Busta

Emily grew up playing hockey in Akron-Canton, Ohio Flames and Hoban High School.  She is a graduate of SUNY Cortland where she played at the Division III NCAA level. She graduated with a degree in Communications and returned to Northeast Ohio, where she began coaching the Lady Barons U14 Black team for a season while also coaching with the Wooster program from 2021-2023.  Emily coached the U12 part time elite girls and the u14 girls elite team this year. She is looking forward to continue coaching the U14 Elite girls team again this year. 

Assistant Coach Shane Bennett

Shane grew up playing youth hockey in the Buffalo area, later playing juniors for Buffalo JR Sabres, Milton Ice Hawks and Halton Ravens.  Following his time in Juniors, Shane played professionally in the SPHL and in the ECHL and ended his career at Quad City Storm as their all-time leading scorer. Shane is still actively playing professional roller hockey for the Buffalo Wings. Along with Emily, he has been helping coach the Wooster High School Hockey team as well as the U12 Wooster youth team. Shane is looking forward to the upcoming season with the Lady Barons as the next step in his hockey career.

Head Coach: Mindy French

Mindy grew up in Mississauga Ontario, playing for the Mississauga Chiefs. At 16 her family moved to Phoenix, AZ where she played for the AZ Lady Coyotes and Lady Mustangs. Following this, she played at North Country College in Saranac Lake, New York. She was part of Team Ontario and attended both Team Canada and Team USA development camps. After College moved back to Phoenix and started coaching, which she holds to be her true passion. She has coached for a variety of organizations including the Pittsburgh Vipers, Chandler Polar Bears, Arizona Kachinas.  This season she coached both our U10 Elite and U10 Black pre-post teams along with being a co-coach on our Lady Barons U14 Elite team.  She has also served as a coach for various camps through USA Hockey’s Pacific District, Polar Ice Arizona, Turcotte Stick Handling School and the Kachinas Girls Hockey Program. Her greatest joys in life come through teaching, mentoring, and coaching hockey skills to youth and adults alike. She believes that effort and heart make a good hockey player, and that a player must put in the work to show results. 

Assistant Coach: Lauryn Gillis

Lauryn grew up playing in Elyria before moving to play for the Ohio Flames Girls AAA hockey organization. Following her youth hockey career, Lauryn went on to play college hockey at SUNY Cortland. After moving back to Cleveland upon graduation, she most recently assisted with coaching the Gilmour Academy Girls Prep (U19 Tier 1) for the 2017-2018 and 2018-2019 seasons. 

Lauryn is excited to get back into the coaching arena and share her love of the game by helping young players grow and develop their skills, understanding and love of hockey.