ASU Women’s Hockey: The sweet life of Kaley “Gibber” Marino

(Photo: Reed Harmon/WCSN)

“Quality interview content of me bragging about Gibber,” read the subject line of an email from senior goaltender Jordan Nash-Boulden. The goaltender has been with the program since the day it began, so she knows a thing or two about not only the players but the coaching staff as well. 

At one point, in her sophomore season, Nash-Boulden was the lone goalie on the roster. Now, she is supported by two current sophomores — Macy Eide and Landry Phelps. With the obvious help of the 19 other players on the team, the Sun Devils have orchestrated the best start in the program’s short history.  

Nash-Boulden is not the sole reason for their success, but the senior is having her best season of her career. She is posting a .944 save percentage and is 8-2 on the year. Eide and Phelps are combined 2-0 with both of their games ending in shutouts.  

It has been impressive to see what the Sun Devils can do when protecting the net. The consistency and credit do not fall solely on the players on the ice but the coaches off the ice as well.  

Kaley “Gibber” Marino is in her fourth season with Arizona State. The name “Gibber” originates from her maiden name, Kaley Gibson, but the coaches and players found “Gibber” to be the go-to nickname for the reliable goaltending and assistant coach.  

The former head goaltending coach of the Lady Coyotes found her way into the ASU coaching staff right when the program took off. 

“I heard [head coach Lindsey Ellis] was doing it…I heard it through the grapevine, I don’t really know-how,” Marino said. “And I fully intended on just being a goalie coach and coming out once a week or once or twice a month and watch games from not even on the bench.” 

Marino’s role quickly transitioned from a spectator to a concrete name for the program. 

“As the coaching staff changed, I just felt like she needed a little bit more support,” Marino said. “I stepped up and done more where I do the deed and run drills at practice, so I’m not just a goalie person. It’s definitely developed into more than I thought it would.” 

Because it has been a stable coaching staff for the first four years of the program’s existence, players like Nash-Boulden have found comfort and growth with Marino and Ellis at the helm. 

“[Gibber] has been a big part of my journey with this program from the beginning,” Nash-Boulden said. “I’ve had the chance to work with her, and her dad, a bit at different points when I was playing youth hockey, so it was nice to know someone in the program when I first contacted the coaches.” 

Marino is a native of Arizona and grew up playing hockey in the Phoenix area. She graduated from and played four years at NCAA D3 St. Norbert College in Wisconsin and was a team captain for two of those years. Her most successful season on the ice came in 2013, where she was a conference champion and appeared in the NCAA tournament. 

When Marino found herself on the roster for the St. Norbert program as a freshman, the team was in its inaugural season — sounds familiar, right? 

“I love the inaugural part of it,” Marino said. “I love being able to start from scratch and really build your own legacy — that was super important to me.” 

“#LeaveALegacy” is the motto to follow for this year’s ASU team — being built from not just the talent that skates back-and-forth each game but also the camaraderie that continues to grow with the mixture of experience and inexperience on the roster. 

From last season to now, the Sun Devils underwent a major transition of players and a change of culture. 

“We talk a lot about those things,” Marino said. “What our experience was in college and what we thought was important, and also what we have to do as a coaching staff to set the culture because we want to be one of those teams where the team models what the coaches are.”

It was a successful college experience for Marino. Minus the title of being a conference champion and the appearance in the NCAA tournament, she wore a letter on her sweater as a captain for her junior and senior campaigns.  

“I was super vocal and that’s what got me the letters,” Marino said. “I liked to communicate to the team about hard things, good things, and always tried to be kind of the joker, I guess.” 

The leader trait Marino possesses stems from the support of her father growing up. Her father, a well-known figure in youth hockey in the state of Arizona, was a coaching figure for Marino — but shared a father-first personality with her. 

“I’ve always been coached by him and not only coached but raised,” Marino said. “I’m pretty lucky to have a dad like him. He’s very well-spoken and very passionate and very thoughtful and very caring and wanting to be there for people.” 

Her father’s impact has a direct influence on Marino’s transition into the coaching position. “I think [he] really influenced the way I want to be there for these girls,” she said.

Larry Gibson is an Arizona household name if hockey was the sport of choice within the home. He was the first level five certified coach in the state and has been involved with USA Hockey for nearly 30 years. 

Today, he is the youth hockey director at AZ Ice Peoria, where he continues to guide the young and inspired into the growing sport of hockey in the desert. 

From 1991-1998, Larry Gibson was the goaltending coach for the Arizona State men’s team, before it was the Division I program it is now. In the net during that time was the current head coach of the Sun Devils, Greg Powers.  

ASU’s NCAA men’s hockey team is now one of the more recognized sports at the school, especially after the team made its first appearance to the NCAA tournament last season in its brief time as a Division I program and continues to gain global attention.  

Though the success in such a short time is heavily credited to the person who runs the show, Powers will never forget where he came from and who he was inspired by. 

“I’m not sure to this day I’ve ever known someone who loves being at the rink more than [Larry Gibson],” Powers said. “He has an infectious positive attitude that always resonated throughout the whole team. He’s just a great man. He loves the goaltending position and has really evolved as the position has evolved with his active role within USA Hockey.” 

The stress of living up to parents is always crucial as a kid, but Marino never faced the fear of criticism after a game from her father. Instead, those moments were always memories of the supportive father he was growing up. 

“He was always there for me,” Marino said. “I loved our rides home talking about hockey and not being yelled at for letting goals in, but talking about how fun it was and what I did good and what I can do better. He was always there for me and always encouraged me.” 

Marino continues her father’s coaching legacy not through the whistle and the drills, but through the type of person she is and the leader she continues to be. If there is one girl on the roster that knows how much Marino has been there for them, it’s Nash-Boulden. 

“It’s really been a process that’s been growing and changing every year,” Nash-Boulden said. “I’m much closer with her now than I was when I first started with the team four years ago, and I think a lot of that has to do with the fact that I’ve grown up a lot from where I was when I was a freshman, and she’s helped me with that while also sort of figuring out who I am as a person and how I play as a goalie.” 

Marino is also a graduate of Grand Canyon University. She sighed when releasing that information while wearing a Sun Devils jacket. “It was online, so I don’t technically call myself a Lope,” she said with a laugh.  

She received her Master’s in professional counseling at GCU, and it has been the result of her passion for helping others and giving back the love she always had while growing up. 

“I just had a great life,” Marino said. “And I just knew that it wasn’t like that for everybody, and I think that’s what led me to want to be part of it. I knew there were people going to school with me that didn’t go home to mom and dad, they’d go to group homes or foster parents.” 

Her parents are divorced now, but the atmosphere that her parents gave her growing up led her to where she is now. 

“That led me to want to share the love that I got [and] share with other people that might not have as much as I did,” Marino said. 

Marino currently works in foster licensing, where she and the agency she works for licenses families that want to foster children and adults with developmental disabilities. She helps monitor adults with developmental disabilities, in their new homes, makes sure they attend their medical appointments and monitors that they are getting the love and treatment they require. 

“I love it, I absolutely love what I do,” Marino said. “I get to work from home a lot, so I get Gunner three days a week…I look forward to getting back into the full-blown counseling at some point, but I’m super happy the way it is now.” 

Gunner Marino. Sounds like it could be a name on the NHL videogame, right? The nine-month-old baby may eventually get there since he already has time on the ice.

“I loved being pregnant and being on the ice [with him],” Marino said. “I felt like I was exactly where I needed to be. At the beginning of [this] season, getting on the ice without him, I’ve almost felt lonely.” 

With Gunner out-and-about and being the happy baby every mother and father wishes for, the Marino family knows exactly what it takes to continue the joyfulness a family needs.

Marino’s husband, Michael Marino, is also a former Sun Devil hockey player and was rostered from 2008-2009 when Powers was an assistant coach and the program was not an NCAA sport yet. Gunner’s father did not have the same experience of a dynamic family that Marino had, so the opportunity to give the love he never had to his son is a necessity for him. 

“He didn’t have the same childhood that I had,” Marino said. “I love watching him be dad. He didn’t have his dad in his life, so I love watching him be dad. And just sharing and the understanding and compassion of just being there for your kid, no matter what.” 

In a few words, “he’s a stud,” Marino said about her son. Gunner is already holding a hockey stick, but in the way that only Marino could imagine. 

“He has a player’s stick and he holds it like a goalie,” Marino said. “I don’t know how I deserved this kid.” 

She uses her career to her advantage when it comes to parenting but also when coaching the players. It’s hard to define her as just a coach for this program because she seems to be more of a friend for some. 

“It definitely takes a dedicated kind of person to devote your work to a field that helps others, and that really is the kind of person she is,” Nash-Boulden said. “Girls definitely aren’t afraid to go talk to her about anything, because they know that she’s going to be a good listener about whatever the situation is and she’s got a lot of experience that allows her to give that advice.” 

For the program and its coaching staff, Ellis and Marino are the building blocks for the team’s success. The success of a team that continues to evolve each season — with this year being its best. 

“[Ellis and I] get along really well,” Marino said. “We disagree often, which is good. We challenge each other and I think that we make the whole team, in terms of we have a lot of the same personality characteristics, in terms of work ethic is important to us and being serious and then being there for the girls.” 

Marino has no plans to leave the girls anytime soon. Her foot is cemented into Oceanside Ice Arena and the ASU Women’s Hockey team for years to come and has no signs of regressing the constant improvement that this program has continued to gain. 

If there will be one addition to the atmosphere at the games, it will be the presence of Gunner Marino.

“I look forward to having him here at Oceanside,” Marino said. “It’ll be fun outside of the womb.”

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