On Sunday afternoon—coincidently during both the emotional aftermath of the Gopher women’s basketball win to advance to the Sweet Sixteen AND in the middle of the NCAA women’s hockey championships game, the University of Minnesota announced that Greg “Boom” May would be the third head coach in the history of the Minnesota Gophers Women’s Hockey Program. May most recently was an Associate Head Coach for Brad Frost for the past three seasons. The press release stated that “The University and May have
agreed to a four-year term, pending the completion of a background check and Board of Regents approval”.
May is a Burnsville native and has held many roles in high school and college hockey over the course of his career. A 2003 graduate of Burnsville High School, May played college hockey at Augsburg and was a MIAC all-conference honoree. He spent eight years as a health and physical education teacher locally and helped coach Farmington High School’s hockey team before joining Blake High School in 2016 as the head coach of their hockey team. After three seasons at Blake May was named the the director of operations for the Minnesota men’s hockey program from 2019-21. He returned to his alma matter in 2021 to coach the men’s team at Augsburg from 2021-23. The team played in the NCAA tournament both years and advanced to the Frozen Four in 2022. He was named the MIAC Coach of the Year in 2022 and the team won the MIAC regular season title in 2022 and the MIAC tournament championship in 2023. He joined Frost’s staff for the 2023-24 season where he worked with the forwards and oversaw the team’s power play, which consistently ranked as one of the best in the nation. May was an assistant coach on the USA Women’s U18 National Team that went 6-0 and won a gold medal at the U18 World Championships in January 2026. May coached the forwards and led the power play, as the team outscored its opponents 56-2.
Coyle released this statement in the press release:
“Boom is a relationship-builder and a strong recruiter who brings success as a head coach to our program. He knows Minnesota hockey, but he has also coached and had success at the international level. Our program is in good hands with Greg at the helm. I am excited for the future of the program, and I am excited for Greg, his wife, Lenia, and their two daughters Marina and Cole.”
Reaction to the May hire from Gopher fans has been generally muted. May is known as a good recruiter and has been one of the main architects of Minnesota’s recruiting classes the last few seasons. Yet, Coyle hired the lead assistant coach of the guy he just let go for not doing a good enough job. There is a bit of a disconnect there.
Most Minnesota fans wanted the Gophers to make a run at Ohio State head coach Nadine Muzerall and it did appear that Coyle may have made an approach as Muzerall signed a new five year contract with the Buckeyes on Thursday ahead of OSU playing in the Frozen Four. The Buckeyes would lose 3-2 to Wisconsin in the NCAA Championship Game—the fourth consecutive matchup in the title game of the Gophers two strongest rivals at the moment. Many Minnesota fans are wondering if May will be the guy to get Minnesota back at that level, and frankly after the past three seasons are a bit skeptical.
Coyle and May are slated to meet with the media at 3:45 Monday afternoon. Coyle also will take questions after the May portion of the press conference is over on the men’s hockey coaching search which if the rumors appear to be true seems to be trending towards either former Gopher Grant Potulny or St. Cloud State Head Coach Brett Larson. Needless to say, the most hardcore of Gopher hockey fans are not thrilled with that outcome either.
Only time will tell if Coyle had made the right hire, but to say the most vocal members of the hockey fanbase on both sides are a bit skeptical would be an understatement.
