The Joe Burke Award was established in 1994 to honor those individuals who have shown great support and dedication to Girls/Women's hockey. Joe Burke was an avid fan of Girls/Women's hockey in the New England area from the late '70s to his death in 2017.
McGarrigle has served as Founder, Program Director and Head Coach for the Anaheim Lady Ducks since its humble beginnings in 1999. Now in her 23rd year of coaching ice hockey and 30th year teaching in the public schools, she focuses her efforts on the growth of the Lady Ducks program, from 6 & under thru 12u. These efforts have seen the Lady Ducks program win several medals at USA Hockey Nationals and place a number of young women from California into NCAA programs.
Kathy has overseen the Lady Ducks grow from four teams in 2007 to 14-15 teams this season. In addition to the girls' program, Kathy has competed and earned eight medals (2G, 2S, 4B) at the USA Hockey Women's National Championships. Kathy's dedication to see female sports succeed comes from her early experiences with sports, chasing her after brother and included some exclusion from participation in the early 1970s.
Following Title IX passage, opportunities for girls to play and high school sports grew rapidly. A four-letter athlete, earning CIF honors as well as an academic National Merit Scholar, Kathy took on the opportunity play Division I Tennis and attend college at USC. She competed for multiple years in the Pac-10 and NCAA Tennis championships as a student-athlete and earned a Sports Journalism degree from USC in 1989. She obtained her California Teaching Credential and later a Masters in Kinesiology & Sport History in 1998 from Cal Poly.
Coaching young tennis players in the 1990s, Kathy took her experiences as an athlete, strong student, instructor and teacher to develop the Lady Ducks program into the nationally-recognized program that it is today. In her spare time, Kathy enjoys travel, especially to historically notable destinations and working on literacy with disadvantaged children. In 1997 she taped the '98 Olympic NIKE commercial with Cammi Granato, "Just Do It!"
