Chris Lombardo enters his eighth season as an assistant in 2024-25 for the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire women's ice hockey team.
In his time with the Blugolds, the D-Core have consistently been among the best in Division III women’s hockey in several defensive and offensive categories. Part of that success has seen one defenseman named an All-American (Holly Turnbull) and several others being named all-conference, as well as a goaltender, current Blugold Goalie Coach Erin Connolly, named an All American.
Lombardo came from Brewster, New York, after a successful stint as Director of Hockey Operations and Player Development at the Brewster Ice Arena. Along with overseeing Brewster Ice Arena’s travel hockey program, Lombardo has been coaching with the Westchester Express AAA program and the Brewster Jr Bulldogs Junior teams for the last 15 seasons. In his tenure as Director of Hockey Operations, he has had the privilege of seeing twelve former Westchester Express players have their names called in the NHL Draft, and six players have been chosen to play for the United States Player Development Program. In addition, twenty players have gone on to play in NCAA Division I and more than thirty men and women have gone on to play in NCAA Division III.
Lombardo has seen success with defensemen in his coaching career as three former Express defensemen are enjoying careers in the National Hockey League in Charlie McAvoy (Boston Bruins), Brett Pesce (New Jersey Devils) and Steven Santini (Tampa Bay Lightning). A handful of former forwards are also enjoying careers in the NHL including John Hayden (Seattle Kraken) and Adam Erne (Edmonton Oilers)
As the Mahopac High School Varsity Hockey coach for five seasons, Lombardo’s teams enjoyed success on the ice and in the classroom. In his tenure there, Mahopac won the League championship in the 2015-16 season. He was also named NY State Section 1 League 1A Coach of the Year for the 2015-16 season. Lombardo always placed emphasis on being a model student-athlete as they had a four-year run of winning the NY State Scholar Athlete team award.
Lombardo resides in Eau Claire with his wife Erica and daughters, Emmeline and Juliet and son George.
