One of the most talented two-sport athletes to grace the playing
fields and ice surfaces of New England, Carol Thomas Handley
’93 proved to be one of the most influential female athletes
of her era, setting a standard for success by which current
student-athletes are measured.
Thomas established her athletic pedigree at an early age. Beginning
her hockey life at the age of eight, she was a goaltender in the
Assabet Valley girls’ hockey program in Concord,
Massachusetts, that won multiple age-group national
championships.
A high school All-American soccer player at Concord-Carlisle High
School (MA), Thomas came to Bowdoin after a strong post-graduate
year at Northfield-Mount Hermon. A dominant soccer and hockey
player at each of these levels, Thomas carried her success to
Brunswick, and the records she set in Dayton Arena still
endure.
Clearly a talent ahead of her time, Thomas’s offensive
statistics are staggering. During her four years at Bowdoin, she
set nearly every scoring record and contributed mightily to putting
the women’s ice hockey program on the map. Her
accomplishments on the ice became the foundation for the rise of
one of the most successful Division III women’s ice hockey
programs in the nation.
In only sixty-six career games, Thomas tallied 96 goals (still
ranks first all-time) and added 60 assists for a total of 156
career points, a record that was broken just four years ago. A
player who excelled in pressure situations, sixteen of her goals
were game-winners, and she still holds the record for most hat
tricks in a career with twelve. Thomas led her team in scoring in
each of her four years and was team captain during her senior
campaign.
An outstanding soccer player as well, Thomas’s exceptional
athleticism proved an important asset, as she transitioned from the
team’s leading scorer as a junior into an All- American
defender as a senior. In her senior campaign, Bowdoin won its
first-ever women’s soccer ECAC Championship.
Her accomplishments were acknowledged with numerous personal
accolades. In hockey, Thomas was named the 1991 ECAC Division III
Player of the Year, an ECAC Division III All-Star in 1991 and 1992,
and an ECAC All-Division All-Star in 1993. On the soccer pitch,
Thomas earned NSCAA Second-Team All-America and First-Team All-New
England honors in 1992.
While at Bowdoin, Thomas was a psychology major with a minor in
history. A native of Carlisle, Massachusetts, Carol Thomas Handley
now resides in York, Maine, with her husband, Craig, and their four
children.
