COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KOAA) — COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KKTV) — Longtime Air Force Academy hockey coach Frank Serratore announced Tuesday that the upcoming season will be his last.
The upcoming 2026-27 season will be his 30th at the Air Force Academy. He enters that season with a record of 490-472-106 with the Falcons, according to academy staff. His overall 33-season record as a college head coach is 539-564-115. His teams have won 539 times — 490 at the academy and 49 at Denver — the second most among active NCAA coaches and the 14th most in NCAA hockey history. Staff also said his wins at the academy are the most in school history.
Last season, Serratore’s team enjoyed an 18-15-4 record — the first winning season since 2018-19.
“Coach Frank Serratore has left an indelible mark on Air Force Hockey and the national hockey community as well,” Air Force interim athletic director Nancy Hixson said.
Serratore is also the second-longest tenured coach at the academy. He earned his 500th career victory on Jan. 20, 2024 — only the 16th Division I coach in NCAA history to do so.
“Most professional coaches are nomadic contractors endlessly wandering the hockey highway from job to job, I was on this track until I came to Colorado Springs,” Serratore said. “I am deeply indebted to the Air Force Academy, this job has provided me with a home, an identity, and a legacy. After 29 years at the helm, my name is synonymous with Air Force hockey, it defines me, it’s who and what I am, and I’m enormously proud of this.”
Hixson said that Jon Doyle has been selected as the head coach in waiting. Doyle, an academy graduate, has coached a total of 22 seasons. Doyle also assists with the academy’s recruiting efforts, with many of those recruits starting careers in the Air Force.
Doyle is also a member of the academy’s Hockey Wall of Fame. He was selected as the team’s MVP during his junior and senior years, and was part of the first class in academy history to post four consecutive winning seasons.
“I have been here on Frank’s staff for 20 of his 30 years and I’ve watched him take Air Force hockey from the bottom of the standings to seven NCAA tournaments and three Elite Eights,” Doyle said. “That kind of transformation doesn’t happen by accident, and most people never imagined it could happen at a service academy.”
The academy’s 2026-27 hockey season begins Friday, Oct. 2 against Omaha at Cadet Ice Arena.
