Digit Murphy, shown in a 2002 file photo, certainly possesses many of the qualifications to be the next men's hockey coach at Brown.

AP photo / Tim Boyd

PROVIDENCE — The buzz started shortly after Brown University announced that men’s hockey coach Roger Grillo had resigned after 12 seasons to become regional manager of USA Hockey’s American Development Model.

According to U.S. Hockey Report, Digit Murphy had applied for the job. Digit Murphy, a woman.

In fact, Murphy, the well-known and well-respected coach of the women’s hockey team at Brown for the last 20 years, has not applied. She confirmed that much on Wednesday from Chicago, where she was instructing at a hockey camp.

But will she apply upon her return this week? She wouldn’t say, and declined further discussion about the opening.

Michael Goldberger, director of athletics, has launched a national search for Grillo’s successor. He was not in his office Friday to discuss the intriguing possibility of his women’s coach taking over his men’s program, or the notion of any woman coaching any men’s team. Murphy, however, warmed to that topic.

“Every person deserves an opportunity to apply for any job, and coaching shouldn’t be treated differently,” she said. “Women are fighter pilots, engineers, professors. Gender shouldn’t be a factor. Qualifications matter. Are you a good coach? Do you know the game? Do you know how to relate to athletes? Do you know your product?”

But what about the locker room? A woman in a locker room of towel-wrapped hockey players?

“That’s not a criterion,” Murphy shot back. “Can she coach? Can she motivate? Does she know the game? Those are the criteria. You want to be above board and search for the right person.”

She’s right. Limited locker room access hasn’t stopped Geno Auriemma from coaching the University of Connecticut women’s basketball team to national championships and prominence. Limited access has not hampered Bob Deraney from coaching the Providence College women’s hockey team to Hockey East success. At Brown, Phil Pincince has coached the women’s soccer team for more than two decades, and the locker room has not been an issue. And Craig Lake has served as director of men’s and women’s cross country and track and field at Brown for four years with nary a problem.

Craig Lake is a woman.

“We have to answer those kinds of questions, unfortunately,” Val Villucci said.

She coached the University of Rhode Island men’s tennis team for four years until the program’s dissolution a year ago as a result of budget cuts.

“It was one of the best coaching experiences I’ve ever had, and I would love to do it again,” she said.

She recently was named head coach of the URI women’s team, which she had coached before taking over the men in 2004.

“It could have been I just had a great group of guys. They had respect for me and I for them,” she said.

Villucci learned that coaching men is different than coaching women.

“Guys get hot-headed and want to get into a fight and get over it. Girls want to talk about it for five weeks,” she said with a chuckle. “You have to learn how to deal with it. I got my guys to treat their anger as a positive thing. That was the fun part.”

Villucci’s father steered her toward sports at a young age, and, like Murphy, she grew up in Cranston playing against boys.

“He raised me more as a boy, and that’s what makes me think different. Maybe that’s why it felt so natural to coach them,” she said.

She coached the boys team at Smithfield High School before taking the women’s job at URI the first time.

Villucci asserts that a qualified woman can coach men, and the key word is “qualified”, not “woman”.

“They have to know that you know what you’re doing. There’s no way around it,” she said. “A woman brings a different side and perspective to it.”

Villucci dealt with gender bias during her four years with the URI men — her players would hear, “You’re getting coach by a woman?”

“But my guys backed me up,” she said. “That stereotypical stuff will always be there. You have to get through it. It’s always a little harder for us. That’s the way it is.”

With former All-Staters Jared Dorfman of La Salle at No. 1 singles and Jeff Cote of Warwick at No. 2 singles and combining at No. 1 doubles, Villucci’s 2008 men’s team posted a 17-6 record and seventh-place finish in the Atlantic 10 Conference, one of the best season’s in URI tennis history.

Murphy’s credentials in college hockey are impeccable. A 20-year record of 313-200-49. Four appearances in the national semifinals and three in the final. Rosters sprinkled with All-Americas, Olympians and a Kazamaier Award winner as the best player in women’s hockey. She has coached various national teams and delivered national television commentary. She is passionate about her sport and helped launch a girls hockey program in Northern Rhode Island.

Can she coach the hockey men of Brown? Not unless given the opportunity. She has to apply to be considered, and as of last Wednesday had not done so.

mszostak@projo.com