Bill Riga enters his fourth season as head coach of Holy Cross men’s hockey team in the 2024-25 season.
Riga joined the Crusaders after 13 years at Quinnipiac University, the last seven of which were spent as the Bobcats’ associate head coach. A native of Westboro, Mass., Riga helped lead the Bobcats to five ECAC regular-season championships, six NCAA Tournament appearances, two Frozen Fours and two NCAA National Championship games during his 13 years in Hamden.
Riga, who served as the Bobcats’ recruiting coordinator, has helped develop 13 NHL draft picks and eight NHL players. He has also coached four All-Americans, including First Team selection Odeen Tufto in 2020-21, four Hobey Baker Top-10 Finalists, and one Hobey Baker Hat Trick Finalist at Quinnipiac.
Since 2008, Quinnipiac has accumulated 286 wins for a .621 winning percentage and nine 20+-win seasons. During the 2020-21 campaign, a shortened season due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Riga and the Bobcats went 17-8-4, 10-4-4 in the ECAC, won the ECAC regular-season championship and advanced to the NCAA West Regional.
Quinnipiac finished the 2020-21 season ranked No. 12/11 in the nation. The Bobcats were 12th nationally with 3.45 goals per game, while their defense ranked fifth at 2.03 goals allowed per game.
From 2016-20, Riga served as the Vice Chair of the NCAA Men’s and Women’s Ice Hockey Rules Committee, where he was one of three Division I coaches responsible for developing and implementing rule changes across the NCAA.
In addition to his duties at Quinnipiac, Riga has also served as a Team Coach at USA Select 16 and 17 festivals since 2009. Before joining the Bobcats, Riga served as an assistant coach at Union College from 2003-08. There, he worked as the team’s primary recruiter and recruited players who would go on to win ECAC Championships and compete in the Frozen Four.
Other stops for Riga include the Boston Junior Bruins (EJHL), where he was the associate head coach, and the Rivers School (ISL) as the head boys’ hockey coach and director of hockey.
A 1996 graduate of UMass Lowell, Riga was a four-year letterwinner for the River Hawks, playing in two NCAA Tournaments and earning his bachelor’s degree in exercise physiology. He went on to earn his master’s in organizational leadership from Quinnipiac in 2015.
Riga and his wife, Kim, have two children, Bryce and London.
