BRAD BERRY

College hockey programs look to bolster coaching staff with third assistant

Matt Wellens — Fri, 03 Jul 2020 22:30:00 GMT

Editor’s note:

In the finale of a three-part series looking at the lives of NCAA Division I men’s hockey assistant coaches, what impact would a possible third full-time assistant coach make if the NCAA would allow it? Part 1 of the series — which covers the challenges faced by modern day assistants — can be found here. Part 2 — which looks at how recruiting has become a year round job — can be read here.

Playing for his hometown Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs during the first half of the ’90s, current St. Cloud State head coach Brett Larson remembers the assistants of head coach Mike Sertich each having a distinct role when it came to recruiting.

Jim Knapp was always with the team. He’d recruit locally. Meanwhile, Glenn Kulik was on the road nonstop.

“I felt like there were months I never even saw Glenn,” Larson said.

These days it’s rare in college hockey to find a staff where one assistant coach pounds the pavement — and skies — while the other just coaches. Instead, the responsibility to scout and recruit players is spread amongst the entire three-person coaching staff. Today’s NCAA Division I men’s hockey assistant coaches take turns hitting the road in search of talent, a week at a time.

The death of month-long trips — at least in-season — doesn’t mean players are seeing all their coaches on the ice more often, however. With high school games to catch during the week and then junior games and midget tournaments on weekends, head coaches have found themselves alone on the ice at times working with 28-30 student athletes while their assistants are out recruiting.

That’s why coaches in the NCHC, such as Larson, would like to see the NCAA allow programs to have a third full-time assistant coach on staff. Teams are currently only allowed two full-timers and then a volunteer assistant — who often serves as a goaltending coach, working with netminders separately before or after practices.

Larson and others who support the addition of a third full-time assistant said it would improve the student-athlete experience on and off the ice, and help keep good coaches — who would like to spend less time on the road recruiting, and more time at home with their families — in the game longer.

“We really need to keep pushing for a third assistant. I think it's critical for college hockey,” said Larson, who was an assistant at UMD (2008-11, 2015-18) and Ohio State (2013-15) before taking over the Huskies program in 2018. “There are times where the only coach on the rink is your head coach at practice, and that's not good for player safety or for development. We need to have at least two coaches on the rink with these players. A 1-to-28 ratio at times isn't good enough. It doesn't happen too often, but when it does, I think it's a disservice to the players.

“We need to really push for that third assistant to retain really good assistants, to keep them in the game, and to give the student-athletes a better and better experience on the ice.”

Financial battle

North Dakota head coach Brad Berry, who was an assistant at UND for nine seasons (2000-06, 2012-15) before taking the head job in 2015, said the topic of a third full-time assistant coach comes up every year during the NCHC’s yearly meetings, as well as during the annual NCAA Division I coaches meeting at the American Hockey Coaches Association convention in Florida — that was cancelled this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It has yet to gain the necessary support in the sport.

Opposition by other schools to adding a third full-time assistant coach is mostly financial. Not every program can afford to pay another full-time assistant coach, while those smaller budget programs that could afford to add another staffer may not be able to pay that person as much as other programs. A pay discrepancy among assistants at smaller and larger-budget schools already exists, and adding a third full-timer would only put those smaller programs at a further competitive disadvantage.

Of course, every athletic department is now in a budget crunch thanks to a coronavirus pandemic that is showing no signs of slowing down, at least in the United States. That makes the addition of a third full-time assistant even more unlikely for the foreseeable future, despite the need.

“We’re very sensitive on financial budgets of institutions and different things, but we find that you almost get overwhelmed dealing with 27-28 players, and some organizations have up to 30 players on their team,” said Berry, who would like to use the extra staffer in more of a developmental role with players rather than add another recruiter. “When you look at not just practicing, but you're looking at the academic side of it as far as making sure that they're getting a great education and support through their four years of college — and just the other student-athletes and taking care of them — you need an extra person in your group.”

Bulldogs head coach Scott Sandelin, an assistant at North Dakota for six seasons (1994-2000) before taking over UMD in 2000, is in support of the NCAA permitting a third full-time assistant coach for many of the same reasons cited by his former UND teammate, Berry, and his former assistant, Larson, and for another reason.

After being hired by Dean Blais at North Dakota shortly after his professional playing career came to an end, Sandelin said “opportunity” is always on his mind when hiring a new assistant coach. That is why he would support the NCAA allowing teams to hire graduate assistant coaches as a compromise in the quest to expanding coaching staffs.

“If we can't get a third assistant right away, I would really love to have the opportunity that a program can have a grad assistant or two, because it gives those guys an opportunity to get involved, maybe be on the ice and get going with coaching,” said Sandelin, who has given former Bulldogs Larson, Derek Plante (2010-15) and Adam Krause (2018-present) their first coaching jobs in the last 12 years. “A lot of those guys are going to be your alumni that you want around your program, you want around your players.”

More than a stepping stone

Sandelin is in the process of wrapping up an assistant coach search after associate head coach Jason Herter — another rookie college assistant hired by Sandelin back in 2011 — stepped down in late April after nine seasons at UMD. While looking to pursue other opportunities in hockey at the moment, Herter didn’t rule out a return to the college game someday.

And he wouldn’t be the first to step away, only to be lured back on campus.

Mike Gibbons, who retired this spring after 24 seasons as an NCAA Division I assistant at four schools, took a 13-season break to coach in juniors, the American Hockey League and at Eastview High �� in Apple Valley, Minnesota, before capping his career with 13 seasons at St. Cloud State.

Berry rejoined the North Dakota staff as an assistant again in 2012 after six years as a coach and scout in the AHL and NHL.

And then there is Dave Shyiak, who spent a season as an NHL scout after 10 seasons as an assistant coach at Northern Michigan and eight seasons as head coach at Alaska-Anchorage. He jumped back on campus to work for Andy Murray at Western Michigan in 2014, and this year starts a new job as associate head coach at St. Cloud State under Larson.

Once a stepping stone, the job of NCAA Division I men’s ice hockey assistant has become a coveted — while grueling — profession that many have turned into lifelong careers.

Shyiak said he and other coaches get a high coaching at this level.

“I’m one of the few people in the world that loves what he’s doing,” Shyiak said. “You find something you love doing and you stick with it. It’s been good to me. It’s been good to my family. The biggest part of all of it is building those relationships with kids and parents, giving them an opportunity to play Division I hockey and play for a championship and get an education. I think that's real rewarding, and you're meeting people from all over the world. Not many jobs can say that.”

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Being an NCAA men's hockey assistant coach is one of the sport's most demanding jobs

Matt Wellens — Wed, 01 Jul 2020 22:30:00 GMT

Editor’s note:

In Part 1 of a three-part series looking at the lives of NCAA Division I men’s hockey assistant coaches, former assistants Jason Herter, Brett Larson and Brad Berry summarize the challenges faced by modern day assistants, and how their jobs compare to others in the game.

DULUTH, Minn. — Former Minnesota Duluth assistant and associate head coach Jason Herter, who stepped down this spring after nine seasons with the Bulldogs, has been told by colleagues in professional hockey there is no harder job in the sport than being an assistant coach at the college level.

Brett Larson, the current head coach at St. Cloud State and former assistant with UMD and the Ohio State Buckeyes, has heard it from friends in the pros as well.

As for North Dakota head coach Brad Berry, no one has to tell him about how the job compares having worked as an assistant in the NCAA, AHL and NHL.

“There are a lot of demands. It’s probably not for everybody,” said Berry, who was elevated to head coach in 2015 after nine seasons as a Fighting Hawks assistant — with a six-year break to coach and scout in the pros. “At the end of the day, you got to love what you do. You got to love going to the rink and doing what you’re doing, even though that gets to maybe be a little bit of a grind.”

While modern day NCAA Division-I men’s hockey assistant coaches may not have to wear as many hats as they once did, the demands of the job have never been higher thanks to bigger budgets, the competitive nature of those in the profession and a recruiting cycle that can only be slowed down — but not halted — by a global pandemic.

It’s an underrated position in the game as well, one that doesn’t receive the accolades it deserves despite assistant coaches doing just as much work as the head coaches they work for, Berry said. The lack of recognition is something he and Larson say they both realize now, having moved on to become head coaches in the ultra-competitive NCHC.

“As an assistant coach you've always got this battle with your time, because a big part of your job may be working with one of the special teams, and either the forwards or the 'D,'” said Larson, the Duluth native who coached under Scott Sandelin at UMD for six seasons (2008-11, 2015-18) and at OSU for two seasons (2013-15) under former Sandelin assistant Steve Rholik.

“You have those day-to-day responsibilities," Larson said, "yet at the same time, a huge part of your job is recruiting — whether it's making phone calls and emails, touching base with junior coaches, high school coaches, midget coaches, advisors and the players themselves. You have two really important things pulling at your time every day.”

College vs. the pros

Current and former assistant coaches interviewed for this series — including longtime NCAA assistants Mike Gibbons and Dave Shyiak — said in-season, their time is split about 50-50 between recruiting and coaching, though once the season ends, it’s all recruiting — with this offseason being the exception due to COVID-19.

Meanwhile, their colleagues in the AHL and NHL are taking the summer off to spend time with family and recharge.

“You’re doing it all on the college side of it,” said Berry, who spent two seasons as an assistant coach with the AHL’s Manitoba Moose, two seasons as a scout with the Vancouver Canucks and two seasons as an NHL assistant with the Columbus Blue Jackets before returning to Grand Forks in 2012. “At the pro level, when you’re coaching, you’re coaching.”

Berry said it’s not just that professional coaches don’t have to scout and recruit players — that’s what the scouting department and general managers are for — it’s that pro coaches don’t have any time to do anything else but coach during a 76-game AHL regular season or 82-game NHL schedule.

“I’ll tell you what, when you were going, you were going 100 miles an hour,” Berry said. “There was no stopping. You’d get to the rink at 6 a.m. and wouldn’t leave until 6 p.m. and on game nights, it was probably midnight. You didn’t see your family at all.

“Then you’re on the road and you could be gone — depending where you’re playing and what market you’re in — for a week or two weeks.”

Road warriors

Of course, it’s not uncommon for assistant coaches to find themselves on the road for a week or more at a time — even in season, on top of weekend road trips with the team — scouting and recruiting throughout Canada. That’s even more true for programs that aren’t within a day’s drive of junior teams in the United States Hockey League or North American Hockey League.

With head coaches tied to home base, it’s the assistants who often rotate hitting the road for extended recruiting trips, missing practices and games to do so.

“The way I always looked at it is, I don’t know how many days I was on the road, but the only time I could count to be off the road were a couple weeks in May and a couple weeks in August,” Larson said of his days as an assistant.

Since becoming the head coach of the Huskies in 2018, Larson said he’s physically home with his family more than when he was an assistant with the Bulldogs and Buckeyes.

However, as his wife notes, there is a catch.

“Mentally, I am not,” Larson said of life as a head coach. “(As an assistant) when I would get home and after dinner, if I didn’t have any calls, I found it a little bit easier to turn my mind off and enjoy my family. As a head coach — I’m hoping this comes with experience — I haven’t found that as easy yet.”

Herter said he always took what his friends in pro hockey said as a compliment, not a dig on college hockey.

“It’s a different life. Very rewarding, don’t get me wrong, in a lot of ways,” Herter said. “But I don’t think people — unless they are close to assistant or head coaches — understand the pressure to be good when you build a program, the pressure to be great, to continue to make your mark on your school history.

“Because we’re so competitive, it eats at you. When you’re not on the road, not finding players, it just eats at you.”

Up next:

In Part 2 of a three-part series looking at the lives of NCAA Division I men’s hockey assistant coaches, a look at how recruiting has become a year round job, and the toll that takes on assistant coaches.

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Hockey legends to golf this weekend in Warroad

Jess Myers — Thu, 27 Jun 2019 20:27:15 GMT

WARROAD, Minn. — Following the 1992 Warroad Celebrity Golf Tournament, when the winning foursome was introduced by banquet emcee “Mean” Gene Okerlund, the famed pro wrestling announcer heard some playful taunts from a member of the audience. The friendly heckler noted that the golf course owner’s son was among the winners, so clearly the fix was in.

“Ladies and gentlemen, let me assure you...” deadpanned Okerlund in his booming voice. “I would NEVER let myself be involved with anything that could be called ‘fixed’ or ‘fake.’”

Okerlund died in January. But a significant swath of the region’s hockey world will gather at the challenging 18-hole course north of Hockeytown USA. There will still be a throng of fans lurking around each of the greens, politely seeking autographs from national champion college coaches (Brad Berry, Dean Blais and Scott Sandelin), Mr. Hockey award winners (Tom Chorske, Paul Martin and Larry Olimb), Olympic gold medal winners (Bill Baker, Bill Christian, Dave Christian, Gigi Marvin and Buzz Schneider) and a host of other notable names on Saturday.

This summer marks the third event in the second incarnation of this midsummer celebration of hockey, which raises funds for youth sports in Warroad. The community does not charge for ice time in its youth hockey ranks, but freezing a rink and keeping the lights on still costs money, hence the need for fundraising. Bringing big hockey names to town to play golf is a decades-old idea. As of late this week there are 34 foursomes, with participants each paying $250 for a round of golf with a hockey celebrity, and a dinner to follow.

In the wake of the 1980 Miracle on Ice, the Christian and Marvin families helped organize the first Warroad Celebrity Golf Tournament in the summer of 1981, bringing an eclectic mix of U.S. Olympians, NHLers and local college players to town. A few dozen boys and girls from the community would volunteer to caddy (the battle that first year among the kids was who would get to carry Steve Christoff’s bags), earning an autographed scorecard and maybe a $20 tip for their efforts. The golf was always on Saturday, with a banquet that night, and the late Cal Marvin would organize a Lake of the Woods fishing trip and fish fry on Sunday.

Fans quickly learned it was a great place to meet with some hockey heroes in a relaxed setting, and the region’s college coaches found it to be a great way to get access to recruits, especially among Warroad’s talent pool, when the Warriors made it to three straight state tournaments in the late 1980s. Retired Minnesota Gophers coach Doug Woog recalled being peeved in 1987 when he got to Warroad for the tournament only to learn that Olimb, the Warriors' star defenseman, had been placed in a foursome with then-North Dakota coach Gino Gasparini. Olimb would eventually end up with the Gophers and remains their all-time assist leader.

In 1990, the tournament brought together most of the Miracle on Ice players for a 10-year reunion, and three years later paired the tournament with the grand opening of their current arena, The Gardens. That event drew Mr. Hockey himself, Gordie Howe, to Warroad where he golfed, signed autographs, stood at center ice and blessed the new rink, and then caught walleyes.

“The building is beautiful. Please leave it like you found it,” Howe said.

In the 1990s, the golf tournament tradition ended, but it was re-born in 2017 and has quickly attracted a crowd of regular participants and attendees who are treated to a day of fishing — with guides donating their time and gas — and a day of golf.

“There was a group of us that wondered if we could do it, and we felt like our summers were missing that big event that we always had,” said David Marvin, Warroad’s girls hockey coach and one of the chief organizers of the weekend. “We felt like we had new connections and from there things have really fallen into place. It was one of those things like, ‘could we, should we, let’s try it’ and it’s been really well-received.”

Marvin (formerly Marvin Windows and Doors), the Warroad-based building materials company, donates seats on a few of its corporate planes to get celebrities from the Minneapolis/St. Paul airport to Warroad in 75 minutes (as opposed to the six-plus hours it takes by car). David Marvin said the event doesn’t work without the company donating the transportation. Though the community has never paid appearance fees, the celebs get VIP treatment in town, with food and lodging provided.

The day on the links is followed by a banquet and steak dinner held at the arena, and this year the event will be opened to the public after the meal is served so people can witness the ceremony retiring the jerseys worn by Bill and Dave Christian when they were Warroad Warriors. A silent auction and a raffle where winners get their pick of more than a dozen autographed NHL and college jerseys is another highlight.

The fiscal goal for the last two tournaments was to raise $45,000, and David Marvin said the money goes primarily to pay for hockey officials.

“One of the biggest costs in youth hockey, for Warroad and I would imagine everywhere, is referees,” Marvin said. “We’re a town that advocates volunteering and we do pretty good with that, but you still need to pay refs. That’s been a rising cost, so the youth hockey program depends on the golf tournament substantially for operating expenses.”

Additional information is available at

https://celebritygolfinvite.hockeytownusa.org/

Note: Jess Myers of The Rink Live and Forum News is a Warroad native and will serve as emcee for the tournament’s golf, banquet and jersey retirement events for the second consecutive year.

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UND hockey coach Brad Berry inks new five-year contract

Brad Elliott Schlossman — Sat, 05 May 2018 00:18:35 GMT

GRAND FORKS -- Bill Chaves knew one of his first priorities as the University of North Dakota athletic director would be to sign head men’s hockey coach Brad Berry to a new contract.

With only one year remaining on Berry’s contract, Chaves began studying the contracts of other college hockey coaches.

He found that, among the 60 head coaches at the Division I level, Berry’s contract value ranked in the second quartile -- somewhere between 15th and 30th.

Chaves wanted to change that.

On Friday morning, Berry signed a five-year contract extension that will begin this summer and go through the 2022-23 season.

His base salary will start at $400,000 this season with an annual 3 percent increase. It will be up to $450,000 in his final year.

His contract also is filled with performance bonuses for everything from hosting a first-round National Collegiate Hockey Conference playoff series to reaching the NCAA tournament to winning playoff games to player performances in the classroom.

Berry’s bonuses cap at 45 percent of his base salary. If he were to hit enough of them -- the largest is a 20 percent bonus for an NCAA national title -- he could make an additional $180,000.

“Prior to this contract extension, Brad was in the second quartile of coaches from a dollars and cents standpoint,” said Chaves, who started at UND on March 1. “Now, he’ll be in the first quartile. And I think that’s where UND hockey is and should be.

“We’re excited given what he’s been able to do in his years as head coach here. It’s very well deserving moving forward.”

Berry is getting a big raise from his last contract, which scheduled to pay him $306,000 in base salary this season with the same bonus structure.

It’s behind the contract of new Minnesota coach Bob Motzko, who will be paid $525,000 in base salary this season and $654,075 by Year 5 of his deal. Financial details of new St. Cloud State coach Brett Larson’s contract, signed last month, were not immediately available.

“This was one of the first things I wanted to make sure that we were looking at as we came in here administratively, knowing that coach Berry was going to be going into his last year of his contract,” Chaves said. “It was incredibly important that we solidify and stabilize this program so that we can go forward and make sure we can build on what this coaching staff has already been able to do and what we’re hoping we can do in the next three, four, five years.”

Berry took over as head coach in the summer of 2015 after Dave Hakstol left to be the head coach of the Philadelphia Flyers.

In his first season as coach, Berry led UND to its eighth NCAA national championship. He was named the NCHC’s Herb Brooks Coach of the Year and was a finalist for the Spencer Penrose Award as the national coach of the year.

During his three seasons, he’s already sent nine of his players to the NHL -- a development that had an impact on last year’s UND squad, which failed to make the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2002.

During Berry’s three seasons, UND is 72-35-17 (.649).

“I’m excited and very grateful and honored to continue to be the head coach at North Dakota,” said Berry, who specifically thanked Chaves, UND President Mark Kennedy, Kris Engelstad McGarry and the Engelstad family. “It’s a very special place for myself. I came down here in 1983 as a player. To continue the path on as a coach, I’m very humbled and honored.”

Although Chaves is new to Grand Forks, it didn’t take him long to determine that Berry was the right guy to lead the program long into the future.

“Sometimes, you look back and look historically,” Chaves said. “There aren’t many coaches of the 60 in the country that have won a national title. You start with that. That was exciting for me coming in.

“I wanted to make sure we had a connection. I think from the moment I got here, I felt like we were going to be a great partnership, if you will. That’s what it is, a partnership. We hit it off right away and I’m just excited we were able to get this done.”

Berry’s contract contains penalties if he leaves for another college program or to be an NHL head coach. Berry does have previous NHL experience as an assistant with the Columbus Blue Jackets.

If Berry leaves during the first year of his contract, he would have to pay the school $100,000. That number decreases by $20,000 each year.

His contract also is designed to retain his assistant coaches. It allocates a money pool for them. Associate head coach Dane Jackson and assistant coach Matt Shaw have passed on NHL opportunities in the last three years to stay at UND.

“That’s one thing I wanted to make sure of,” Berry said. “We want to keep our coaches.”

And Chaves wanted to make sure UND kept Berry.

“Brad, having been a player here, an assistant here, an NHL player, he has a world of experience for our student-athletes,” Chaves said. “And beyond that, he’s a good man.”

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