The 2023-24 season will be Sean O'Malley's third as head coach of the Foresters and 10th with the program.

The Foresters were 11-12-4 overall in 2022-23 and finished eighth in the Northern Collegiate Hockey Association standings with a 7-8-3 mark in league play. Including non-conference and postseason play, they were 3-1-3 against the top two teams in the conference. Defenseman Matteas Derraugh (six goals, 14 assists, +16) earned All-NCHA and First Team West All-American honors while forward Colin Bella (14 goals, 12 assists) was named to the NCHA All-Freshman Team. Derraugh was also one of a league record-tying 22 Foresters to qualify for NCHA All-Academic Team status.

O’Malley has helped lead Lake Forest to an 105-94-22 overall record and a 78-66-14 mark in NCHA play over the last nine seasons. At 18-6-3, the 2019-20 Foresters posted the program's best overall record since 1991 and their 14-4-2 mark in the NCHA is a school record. The team also qualified for the NCAA Division III Tournament for the first time in nearly three decades.

Nine Foresters have been named all-conference, including a pair of NCHA Players of the Year and three First Team West All-American selections, since O’Malley joined the staff. In addition, Lake Forest has had a player named to the NCHA All-Freshman Team in five of the last seven seasons.

Lake Forest has broken or tied 15 program records in the last nine years, including a 15-game unbeaten streak that was the longest in the nation during the 2014-15 season.

The Foresters have also been extremely successful in the classroom, earning 135 NCHA All-Academic Team accolades during that time, including a league record 22 in 2020-21 and 2022-23.

O’Malley came to Lake Forest from the State University of New York at Potsdam, where he served for two seasons as an assistant coach, recruiting coordinator, and academic advisor. 

For seven years O’Malley was an on-ice instructor at Can/Am Hockey Schools in Lake Placid, New York, and Guelph, Ontario. He spent last summer in Cleveland as an on-ice instructor for the Ohio Hockey Project, where he coached Junior A players. O’Malley has also served as an evaluator with USA Hockey Development.

O’Malley, a 2010 graduate of the College at Brockport, was a four-year member of the Golden Eagles men’s ice hockey team. As a senior he served as an assistant captain and was the recipient of the Bob Pedersen Coach’s Award, exemplifying character and work ethic as a student-athlete. After graduating with a degree in criminal justice, O’Malley pursued a professional career with the Wheeling Nailers of the East Coast Hockey League as well as various minor league teams. 

A native of Cleveland, Ohio, O’Malley played golf and hockey at St. Ignatius High School, and is a member of the St. Ignatius Hockey Hall of Fame. He also played as a post graduate for Gilmour Academy and the Syracuse Stars of the EJHL.

O’Malley, who is also the head women’s golf coach at the College, lives in Lake Forest.