Coaching Carousel

Nobody may have thought much of it at the time, but St. Cloud State’s decision not to renew assistant coach Brad Willner’s contract is now being felt throughout the entire WCHA, and possibly even the CCHA.

Willner had done a very good at St. Cloud the past few seasons, and it was a shame to see him lose his job(even though personally, I’ll never feel any sympathy for a member of the 93-94 LSSU team), but it became apparent why St. Cloud had to make room on their bench, when they were able to woo Minnesota assistant coach Bob Motzko away from the Gophers.

Motzko made the seemingly lateral move to become an assistant for the Huskies to make himself a more attractive candidate for the head coaching position after this season if Craig Dahl is fired, or in two years when Dahl’s current contract expires. This was a great move for St. Cloud. Dahl has done a lot of great things at St. Cloud, but has stagnated in recent years, and the fans are ready for a new face to inject some life into the program. Even the thought of a new assistant and a potential new head coach has given new life to some Husky fans who have grown weary of the teams failings under Dahl.

This left a position open on the Gophers staff which now looks like it will be filled by Alaska-Anchorage head coach John Hill. Hill is a former Gopher assistant, and a good friend of Don Lucia. Hill told an Anchorage Newspaper, “Obviously, there's more than just a professional relationship[between himself and Lucia]”. Ummmmmmm, ok John. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

Hill’s move does seem a little strange. Certainly it isn’t even a lateral move, it’s a backward move, and if this is the job Hill really wanted, why did he leave it four years ago to coach in Alaska? Perhaps just didn’t enjoy being a head coach that much. He certainly faced his share of hard times in Alaska, that included a one win season, a textbook scandal, and his captain punching out a teammate, but Hill was steadily improving Alaska’s team.

Hill should really help the Gophers. His teams in Anchorage weren’t the most talented, but they were always hard-working teams, which is what the Gophers need most. No one can question the talent that Minnesota will have. The only thing that will hold them back is an effort like they gave for much of the second half of last season.

Now the focus will turn to who Alaska-Anchorage will find to replace Hill as head coach. Charlie Walters of the St. Paul Pioneer Press said today that Northern Michigan assistant Dave Shyiak is one potential candidate for the job. While the credibility of the source is up for debate, the plausibility of the rumor is sound. I think Shyiak would be the perfect hire for Anchorage. Shyiak has been wanting a head coaching position for a couple of years now, and this looks to be the perfect opportunity. As a credit to his character, even Northern fans are hoping Shyiak finally gets his big shot at running a program, even if it means leaving them. With the BCHL pipeline that Shyiak helped create at Northern, traveling out West would be perfect for him.

Of course, Anchorage could also just hire Brad Willner as their head coach to bring this thing full circle. Sure it would be out of the ordinary, but given what has already happened this summer, it would fit right in.

UPDATE: It now looks as though Frank Anzalone will be leaving/removed from his head coaching position at Lake Superior State. Anzalone struggled at Lake Superior, trying to use wacky coaching tactics in lieu of having talented players. LSSU has been plagued by losing seasons, poor offense, and a number of players leaving the program to go elsewhere. Anzalone couldn’t have been too confident in his job security, though it is a little surprising to see him go this soon.

It looks as though LSSU will replace Anzalone with Jim Roque, who served as an assistant under Anzalone and former Clarkson coach Mark Morris, who was fired after a physical confrontation with a player. Hopefully Roque has better success than his mentors.