Rich Faraci
Goaltending Specialist & Collegiate Hockey Coach
Rich Faraci is a lifelong hockey player, goaltending specialist, and coach whose decades of coaching and leadership experience span elite youth programs, collegiate hockey, and professional-level player development. As Co-Founder of Stride Hockey, Faraci brings deep expertise in goaltending, program design, coaching methodology, and athlete mentorship to guide the organization's mission and operations.
Faraci's playing career began during his youth hockey years on Long Island, where he developed as a goaltender competing for several prominent programs including the Great Neck Bruins, Long Island Edge, Nassau County Lions, and Suffolk County PAL from 1989 to 1997. He continued his hockey career at Clarkson University from 1997 to 2001, serving as goaltender for the university's JV team while earning a role as walk-on and practice goaltender for the varsity program.
His coaching career began early — in 1998, he served as assistant coach for the Long Island Summer Selects AA 12U team, followed by the AAA 13U team in 1999, before becoming head coach of the AAA 14U team in 2000. From 2000 to 2002, he served as goaltending coach for Suffolk PAL Hockey, working closely with young goaltenders on technical fundamentals, mental preparation, and in-game decision-making.
Faraci later joined the coaching staff of the Long Island Gulls, one of the premier youth hockey programs in the country, serving as assistant coach for the Squirt Major AAA team in 2005 and the Bantam A team in 2012 — contributing to player development within one of the most competitive youth hockey environments in the United States.
At the collegiate level, Faraci served as assistant coach for the Columbia University Women's Ice Hockey Team during the 2009 season before becoming the program's head coach from 2010 through 2017. During his tenure, he played an instrumental role in developing student-athletes both on and off the ice, emphasizing skill development, game intelligence, leadership, and personal growth. Most recently, Faraci served as a coach for the New York Islanders women's hockey team in 2025.
Across every level of hockey — from youth development to collegiate and professional competition — Faraci has built a reputation as a thoughtful, technically precise teacher of the game. His coaching philosophy centers on discipline, technical precision, mental toughness, and the importance of building confident, well-rounded athletes. As Co-Founder of Stride Hockey, he combines this extensive coaching background with executive leadership to shape programs designed to develop players at every stage of the game.
Michael Artsis
Five-Time Emmy Award Winner & Hockey Coach
Michael Artsis is a five-time Emmy Award–winning journalist, media executive, entrepreneur, and lifelong hockey player, coach, and mentor whose career bridges elite media production, technological innovation, and grassroots youth sports development. He brings decades of hockey expertise and executive leadership to his role as Co-Founder and Executive of Stride Hockey.
A competitor since age five, Artsis earned three Gordon Cup Championships, a 1996 Maccabi Games Championship, and multiple league titles across ice and roller hockey. He served as captain for many of the teams he played for, and in the mid-1990s served as general manager, head coach, and player for competitive roller hockey teams throughout the Northeast, building rosters and helping grow the sport during its early expansion years.
His coaching journey began as a teenager. While playing for the Great Neck Bruins, Artsis stayed after practices to coach younger players under the mentorship of respected coach Fred Ondris. By age 17, he had taken on formal coaching responsibilities as assistant coach at the South Shore JCC hockey program. In the early 2000s, he continued developing young athletes as a coach with the New Jersey Avalanche hockey organization in Hackensack, NJ.
Artsis additionally served as a volunteer assistant coach and scout with the New Jersey Ice Dogs and the Palisades Predators youth hockey organizations. During his time with the Ice Dogs, the program captured a championship. He also served as a board member of the New Jersey Ice Dogs, contributing strategic leadership to the organization's growth and mission.
As a journalist and producer, Artsis covered the NHL extensively — including the New York Rangers, New York Islanders, regular seasons, playoff runs, and Stanley Cup Finals — reporting from locker rooms and behind the scenes. This experience gave him a rare perspective on the sport from both media and player-development vantage points.
Artsis helped assemble the Sophie Gerson Healthy Youth / New York Rangers Learn to Play Program, which provides equipment, instruction, and ice time to underserved children in New York City. In the 2020s, he renewed his on-ice mentoring through volunteer coaching with Buds for Bruce Hockey Clinics and the New York Rangers Learn to Play Program, working with beginners and underserved youth on skating and hockey fundamentals.
As Co-Founder and Executive of Stride Hockey, Artsis combines his executive leadership, deep expertise in hockey systems, player development, and talent evaluation with a lifelong dedication to the game. His goal remains the same: to give back to the sport that shaped him and to make a lasting impact on the next generation of hockey players.
Courtney Wunderlich
Development & Strategic Partnerships Leader
Courtney Wunderlich is a development executive, marketing strategist, and passionate advocate for the power of sport to transform lives. As Co-Founder and Executive of Stride Hockey, she leads the organization's strategic partnerships, development initiatives, and community outreach — working to ensure that as many young people as possible have the opportunity to step onto the ice.
Wunderlich brings a distinguished career spanning both nonprofit leadership and strategic marketing in the financial sector. Her work has consistently focused on building partnerships, mobilizing resources, and creating initiatives that generate meaningful, lasting social impact.
She began her career in the nonprofit sector at the American Cancer Society, where she played a key role in fundraising and development initiatives supporting cancer research, patient services, and community programs. She later worked with Guthy-Renker, designing and implementing development and outreach strategies for mission-driven organizations seeking to scale their impact.
Wunderlich also built extensive experience in the private sector, serving in marketing and development roles at investment banking firms Houlihan Lokey and William Hood & Company. In these roles she focused on communications, relationship management, and strategic positioning — skills that have proven invaluable in building partnerships and expanding opportunities within the nonprofit and philanthropic communities.
Today, Wunderlich serves in a leadership role with both the Dr. David M. Milch Foundation and the LEDI Foundation, where she advances initiatives that use art, education, and storytelling to promote empathy, historical understanding, and social impact. Her work includes development strategy, partnerships, and program expansion for initiatives that reach thousands of students and community members.
A devoted hockey fan, Wunderlich is particularly inspired by the legacy of Herb Brooks Arena in Lake Placid — site of the legendary 1980 Winter Olympics Miracle on Ice. For her, the arena represents everything that makes hockey extraordinary: determination, teamwork, belief, and the idea that the impossible can become possible. Through Stride Hockey, she works every day to bring that spirit to a new generation of young players across New York City.