Lake Forest College head women's hockey coach Carisa Zaban is one of 11 individuals set to be inducted into the Illinois Hockey Hall of Fame on Sunday, January 26.
Five of the 11 new IHHF members, including Zaban, will be inducted in the Players Category. She was the first girl to play on the Glenbrook South High School varsity boys team and she did so all four years. She also led the Wisconsin Challengers girls AAA team to a national title and participated on the first Junior Olympic Team.
Zaban was the leading scorer at the University of New Hampshire in each of her four seasons and helped lead the Wildcats to a pair of Division I national championships. She earned All-American honors as a junior and senior and is still the program's career leader with 263 points on 118 goals and 145 assists.
After completing her collegiate career, Zaban competed on the US National Team that earned a silver medal at the 2001 World Championships. She was also a member of the 2002 Pre-Olympic Team. Zaban continued her playing career in the Swiss Women's League, which she led with 68 points in 18 games. Finally, she played three years for the US National Roller Hockey Team and captured a gold and two silver medals at the World Championships.
Zaban then began a career in coaching, spending a year as an assistant coach at Glenbrook South and a season as the head coach of Team Illinois U19 before becoming the head coach at Lake Forest. She is currently 118-79-32 in her ninth season with the Foresters and has been named Northern Collegiate Hockey Association Coach of the Year twice, including in 2010 when she directed the team to its first NCHA title.
