CALGARY – Hockey Canada announced the coaching staff for the national women’s team for a pair of upcoming events: the 2011 IIHF Twelve Nations International Tournament Series, August 24 to September 3 in Vierumäki, Finland, and the 2011 4 Nations Cup, November 9-14 in Nyköping, Sweden.

Dan Church (York University, OUA) will serve as head coach, while Doug Derraugh (Cornell University, ECAC) and Danielle Goyette (University of Calgary, Canada West) will join Church behind the bench as assistant coaches.

“We are extremely pleased with the coaching staff that we have assembled,” said Kalli Quinn, director of female national teams for Hockey Canada. “Dan, Doug and Danielle bring a variety of experience at the international level, and we feel this is the right group to continue Canada’s proud tradition on the international stage.”

Please note that Canada’s coaching staff for the 2012 IIHF Ice Hockey Women’s World Championship in Burlington, Vermont, will be named in the coming months.

Dan Church, 38, is entering his eighth season as head coach of the York University women’s hockey team following eight years as an assistant coach with the University of Toronto. He has served as president of the CIS Women’s Hockey Coaches Association since 2007. Church won a silver medal as an assistant coach with Canada’s National Women’s Team at the 2011 IIHF World Women’s Championship, a gold medal as head coach of Canada’s National Women’s Under-22 Team at the 2008 Air Canada Cup and a gold medal as head coach of Canada’s National Women’s Under-18 Team at the 2010 IIHF World Women’s Under-18 Championship. He also won a gold medal as Canada’s head coach at the 2009 FISU Games in Harbin, China, the first to include women’s hockey.

Doug Derraugh, 42, is entering his seventh season as head coach of Cornell University’s women’s hockey team. Derraugh guided Cornell to the NCAA national championship game in 2010, along with back-to-back NCAA Frozen Four appearances in 2010 and 2011. He was named the Division I Coach of the Year by the American Hockey Coaches Association in 2010 and ECAC Hockey Coach of the Year in 2011. Derraugh played professionally from 1992 to 2004, recording 604 points in 637 games in Germany, Austria, Italy and Finland.

Danielle Goyette, 45, is entering her fifth season as head coach of the University of Calgary’s women’s hockey team. She has twice served an assistant coach with Canada’s National Women’s Under-18 Team, winning silver medals at the IIHF World Women’s Under-18 Championship in 2008 and 2009. A two-time Olympic gold medallist and eight-time world champion, Goyette retired following the 2006-07 season and currently sits third all time in goals (114), fifth in assists (105) and third in points (219) in Canada’s National Women’s Team history.

Canada’s roster for the 2011 IIHF Twelve Nations International Tournament Series, created as part of the IIHF initiative to grow the women’s game leading up to the 2014 Olympic Winter Games, will be announced in the coming weeks.

Hockey Canada will hold a National Women’s Team evaluation camp in late September in Calgary, Alta., before announcing the roster for the 2011 4 Nations Cup.