The architect of Manhattanville’s men’s hockey program,
Keith Levinthal completed his 12th season as the Valiants’ head coach in 2010-11.
The only coach the program has ever known, Levinthal started the Valiants from scratch before the 1999-00 season, had Manhattanville in the ECAC West Championship Game in his second season, and today has Manhattanville perennially among the top programs in the country.
A strong recruiter, teacher and leader, Levinthal’s teams have been over .500 every season since the debut year of 1999-00 and have gone to four NCAA Tournaments. A two-time ECAC West Coach of the Year, he has hit his stride in the last seven seasons, posting a combined 131-38-18 (.749) record and leading the team to two ECAC West regular-season titles and four ECAC West Tournament Championships. The team has also been ranked number one in the nation in two of those seasons and has spent 143 of the last 156 weeks ranked in the top 15 in the country.
Aside from the successes on the ice, Levinthal’s teams also thrive in the classroom and in the community. His Valiant teams perform nearly 1,000 hours of community service each year and routinely have a cumulative grade point average above 3.20. The Valiants consistently rank among the ECAC West leaders on the Academic All-Conference Teams, and Levinthal’s teams have also been profiled in several publications for their charitable work in Westchester County.
The Valiants had their 11th straight winning season in 2010-11, posting a nearly perfect 12-0-1 record versus non-conference competition and a 15-10-1 overall mark despite playing in the toughest conference in Division III. The team was ranked in the USCHO.com Division III National Poll for the first 15 weeks of the season and reached as high as fourth in the rankings after winning the Northfield Savings Bank Holiday Tournament, when the Valiants stormed past #7 Adrian and host #4 Norwich by a combined 11-3 score. Levinthal also won his 200th game behind the Valiant bench on January 13 at Curry, becoming the first Manhattanville mentor in any sport to reach 200 career wins and the eighth-fastest NCAA men’s hockey coach to pick up 200 Division III victories.
After a one-year absence, Levinthal led Manhattanville to its fourth ECAC West Tournament title in six seasons in 2009-10, helping the Valiants reach the 20-win plateau for the fourth time in program history on the way to a 20-6-1 record and an eighth-place finish in the USCHO.com national rankings. On the way to the title, the Valiants set an NCAA Div. III record by winning 17 consecutive games on the road and posted their eighth straight top-two conference regular-season finish. After the season, Manhattanville had a program-record five players honored by the ECAC West, including Player of the Year Mickey Lang, Rookie of the Year Scott Hudson and Defensive Player of the Year Dillon Henningson. Perhaps more impressively, Lang and A.J. Mikkelsen were both named AHCA All-Americans, marking the first time in program history that more than one Valiant was named to an All-American team in a season.
The Valiant leader got all that he could from the 2008-09 team, placing second in the ECAC West Conference and possessing a 16-4-5 overall record that resulted in a 10th-place ranking in the final USCHO.com Div. III poll of the season. On an individual level, Levinthal was named the conference’s Co-Coach of the Year for the second time and he also guided Chris Trafford to the ECAC West Player of the Year award. Trafford was also named an All-American and was a finalist for the Sid Watson Award as the Division III National Player of the Year.
In 2007-08, Levinthal led the Valiants to an 18-7-3 overall record and a No. 3 national ranking in the final USCHO.com poll of the season. The team won the ECAC West Tournament Championship for the second consecutive season and reached the NCAA Tournament quarterfinals for the fourth straight year.
Perhaps Levinthal’s more impressive coaching effort came in 2006-07, when a supposedly rebuilding Valiant team went the first 23 games of the year without a loss, maintaining the nation’s number one ranking for 11 straight weeks and advancing to the program’s first Frozen Four with a 5-3 quarterfinal win at home against ECAC East Champion Babson College.
Aside from the team achievements – including the program’s first ECAC West regular-season and tournament titles in the same year – senior goaltender Andrew Gallant won the Sid Watson Award as the AHCA Division III National Player of the Year, becoming the first Valiant student-athlete in any sport to win a National Player of the Year award, while Chris Mills also achieved another first for the program by earning ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District honors.
In addition, Gallant was named the USCHO.com Player of the Year, ECAC West Player of the Year and was a first-team All-American and All-Conference selection. Mills also earned All-USCHO honors in 2006-07 while Levinthal was recognized as the ECAC West Coach of the Year for the first time and was a finalist for the National Coach of the Year award.
Levinthal’s team the prior season was nearly as successful, starting the year 10-0-0 on the way to the first of back-to-back ECAC West regular-season championships. Jason Murfitt also recognized as the ECAC West Player of the Year, beginning a stretch of four Valiant conference players of the year in five seasons.
Levinthal’s 2004-05 team began his recent run of success with the longest winning streak in program history to start a season, going 14 games without a loss or tie to open the year. The Valiants took over the top spot in the USCHO.com National Poll for the first time in program history on Jan. 17, 2005 of that season and won the ECAC West Tournament Championship with an upset victory over top-seeded Utica College.
Aside from his work with Manhattanville’s hockey program, Levinthal has also served as the department’s Director of Athletics since 2003-04. Levinthal supervises Manhattanville’s athletic department and has overseen some of the most successful years in school history since his appointment. Levinthal oversaw the department’s move to the highly-competitive Freedom Conference in the summer of 2007 and spearheaded the addition of volleyball and men’s and women’s cross country, indoor track and outdoor track programs.
Levinthal also served as a member of the NCAA Men’s and Women’s Ice Hockey Rules Committee from 2004-08, leaving his four-year post on September 1, 2008. At the time, Levinthal was one of only four committee members from a Division III institution.
Prior to arriving at Manhattanville, Levinthal served as the top assistant coach at his alma mater, Hobart College. During his playing career with the Statesmen, Levinthal set the program’s all-time scoring and goal records and was a two-time All-Conference selection before graduating in 1995. For one season following his graduation, Levinthal played minor league hockey in Florida.
Year by Year Record
1999-00: 8-17-1
2000-01: 14-11-2
2001-02: 16-7-3
2002-03: 18-6-2 Final ranking: #15
2003-04: 15-5-2
2004-05: 21-4-1 Final ranking: #2
2005-06: 20-5-2 Final ranking: #4
2006-07: 21-2-5 Final ranking: #1
2007-08: 18-7-3 Final ranking: #3
2008-09: 16-4-5 Final ranking: #10
2009-10: 20-6-1 Final ranking: #8
2010-11: 15-10-1
Record at Manhattanville: 202-84-28 (.688)
