HERSHEY, Pa. – The Hershey Bears announced on Thursday that the team has hired Emily Engel-Natzke as the team’s video coach, and in addition revealed that Jared Elenberger has been promoted to become the video coordinator for the Washington Capitals after serving the role for the Bears during the 2019-20 season.
Engel-Natzke becomes the first female coach in the Capitals organization after working with the men’s and women’s ice hockey teams at Wisconsin from 2015-17 and solely with the men’s team since 2017. The full release from the Bears is below.
The Hershey Bears announced today that the club has hired Emily Engel-Natzke as video coach. The announcement was made by Hershey vice president of hockey operations Bryan Helmer.
Engel-Natzke, 29, joins the Bears from the University of Wisconsin where she served as the assistant director of operations/video coordinator. With the Badgers, she worked with both the men’s and women’s hockey teams from 2015-17, and exclusively with the men’s team from 2017-20. The native of Fort Collins, Colorado assisted the coaching staff by producing game-by-game video breakdowns and opponent pre-scouts, while also creating video content for players, recruits, and alumni. As a member of the women’s coaching staff, she helped the Badgers to regular season and WCHA tournament titles in 2015-16 and 2016-17.
“We’re excited to welcome Emily as our new video coach,” said Helmer. “She impressed in the interview process, and we feel the passion and detail in her work, along with her skill set and experience, will make her the perfect person to join our talented coaching staff and add to our rich history and tradition.”
Engel-Natzke also started working with USA Hockey in 2013, and served as the video coach for USA Hockey’s U18 and Senior Women’s National Teams. She was part of the World Championship winning staff for the U18 team in 2018 in Russia, and the 2019 Senior Women’s team in Finland. The graduate of the University of Colorado-Boulder also worked at USA Hockey camps and festivals.
“Emily possesses the necessary experience, skill set and work ethic and will be a tremendous addition to the Hershey Bears and the Capitals organization,” said Capitals director of player personnel Chris Patrick. “We feel that she will complement the Bears coaching staff to continue to create a winning culture and help develop our prospects in Hershey.”
With Hershey, Engel-Natzke replaces Jared Elenberger who has been named Washington’s video coordinator. Elenberger spent the 2019-20 season with Hershey after previously serving as an intern with the Washington coaching staff during the club’s Stanley Cup winning 2017-18 season.
Both the Capitals’ Director of Player Development Chris Patrick and Hershey’s own Vice President of Hockey Operations Bryan Helmer had glowing words for Engel-Natzke, and she expressed excitement in an interview with the Washington Post on Thursday.
“It’s definitely a dream come true,” Engel-Natzke told Samantha Pell of the Washington Post. “It’s something I’ve really worked towards and wanted to do for a long time and everything just kind of seemed to fall into place. I don’t know if the right time is the right word, but with everything else going on, everything just fell into place.
“I’m really excited, I’m really honored that they felt like I would be a good fit for their organization and it really is just a dream come true to make that step.”
Engel-Natzke worked with former NHL forward and coach Tony Granato in Wisconsin in addition to working with several programs with USA Hockey. The below video from the Badgers shows Engel-Natzke in action from January with some of her work in the Wisconsin program.
Engle-Natzke plans to join the team in the Hershey area at the start of the New Year as the Bears plan for a hopeful start to their 2021 season on February 5, 2021.
