HUNTSVILLE | The University of Alabama in Huntsville hockey program and head coach Mike Corbett announced on Monday the addition of Lance West as assistant coach for the 2018-19 campaign.
 
"We are very excited to bring Lance and his family back to UAH," Corbett said of West. "His experience in college hockey is invaluable to our staff, our players and our department. He is a Charger and can help our program continue to grow and improve."
 
"I am tremendously excited about the opportunity to rejoin the UAH hockey program," West said. "The chance to return to the program and my alma mater, along with being able to reunite my family, was highly intriguing to me. UAH has always been a special place for me and I'm eager to help this program continue to rise."
 
West – a four-year letterwinner for the UAH hockey team from 1991-95 – returns to Huntsville after a 10-season stint at fellow WCHA member Alaska Fairbanks where he was an assistant for nine campaigns before guiding the squad to the conference playoffs as interim head coach this past season.
 
Overall in his time with the Nanooks, West helped lead the team to six winning seasons in addition to the program's first-ever NCAA tournament appearance in 2009-10.
 
Prior to Alaska Fairbanks, West served as an assistant coach for UAH for a total of seven seasons from 2000-07 when he helped the team to a pair of College Hockey America regular season championships, four conference tournament appearances and one NCAA tournament berth. Moreover, West was a volunteer assistant coach for the Chargers from 1995-98 following his playing career, aiding the squad in winning the NCAA Division II National Championships in 1996 and 1998.
 
During his playing career with the Chargers, the Penticton, British Columbia, native appeared in 106 career games and amassed 108 points on 43 goals and 65 assists over four seasons as a forward on the squad.
 
This past season the Chargers experienced the program's strongest campaign since joining the WCHA in 2013-14, as the squad finished as the seventh seed for the league playoffs with a WCHA record of 10-16-2 for 33 league points while finishing with an overall record of 12-23-2 which is the highest win total for UAH since 2009-10.