(left) Mike Guentzel won't have to endure the "Fifty-Seven" chants this season in the USHLThe tumultuous offseason continues for the Colorado College ice hockey program. The Des Moines Buccaneers (USHL) announced that Mike Guentzel has been named head coach. Guentzel takes the reins of the Buccaneers after serving in the role of assistant coach for Colorado College during the 2008-09 season.
Colorado College has seen star goaltender Richard Bachman & defenseman Brian Connelly leave school early for professional hockey this offseason. Then prized recruit John Moore, spurned his commitment to jump at an offer from the Kitchener Rangers. Now this late summer coaching vacancy.
Earlier in the summer Guentzel applied for the head coaching vacancy at the University of Nebraska-Omaha, but was passed over in favor of Dean Blais.
Guentzel, 47, attended and played hockey for the University of Minnesota from 1981 through 1985.
The 2009-10 season will mark the second stint in the USHL for Guentzel. He began his coaching career as an assistant with the St. Paul Vulcans (now Tri-City Storm) under current Sioux Falls head coach Kevin Hartzell during the 1988-89 season. He then became head coach of the club for three seasons, leading them to the Junior "A" national title in 1991.
No mention if the serious budget cutting in the CC Athletic Department is to blame for Guentzel's departure.
Colorado College has seen star goaltender Richard Bachman & defenseman Brian Connelly leave school early for professional hockey this offseason. Then prized recruit John Moore, spurned his commitment to jump at an offer from the Kitchener Rangers. Now this late summer coaching vacancy.
Earlier in the summer Guentzel applied for the head coaching vacancy at the University of Nebraska-Omaha, but was passed over in favor of Dean Blais.
Guentzel, 47, attended and played hockey for the University of Minnesota from 1981 through 1985.
The 2009-10 season will mark the second stint in the USHL for Guentzel. He began his coaching career as an assistant with the St. Paul Vulcans (now Tri-City Storm) under current Sioux Falls head coach Kevin Hartzell during the 1988-89 season. He then became head coach of the club for three seasons, leading them to the Junior "A" national title in 1991.
No mention if the serious budget cutting in the CC Athletic Department is to blame for Guentzel's departure.
14 comments:
That's pretty bad when your coaching staff realizes thier team sucks and the start jumping ship. Kudos to him for coming to his senses though. Atleast when Seth left Denver, he had s fresh, new aNational Championship on his resume.
according to our friends over at cctigerhockey.com, volunteer assistant coach, and former CC player, RJ Enga has left also
Nine Freshmen on the Roster. Including both goaltenders.
Best player, Chad Rau, graduated.
Three pro defections.
Coaching shake-up.
Looks like a 10-30-2 season to me.
You know all of this couldn't happen to a more deserving team...can we all hear their season being flushed down the drain!
Interesting times indeed for the Tigers. Last year the stars seemed aligned for them to be great and they weren't. This year the opposite is true. I'm curious to see how they fare.
My prediction: 2-39-1, with victories over the Littleton Hawks and the Summit High girls team.
Underestimate the Tigers at your peril. This is also a team with a ton of seniors, good speed and few expectations.
I think they will be around .500 and give a lot of teams fits.
Over at cctigerhockey, the CC poster Rich, who seems reasonable with good hockey knowledge, has a whole post about why CC might not suck as bad as they should next year.
I'm more inline with Rich and Swami in evaluating CC for next year. I think and expect DU will win the gold pan back next year, but it certainly won't be easy.
Hey Swami....have you gotten your CC season tickets yet?
Over/under on CC's win total for next season should be 8
I don' think that it is so much Guentzal jumping ship as it is his realizing that he will not get the head coaching postiion at CC anytime soon. He wants to be a head coach at the D1 level plain and simple. He was the bridesmaid at Minny for years and expected to get the head postion when Woog retired/was driven out but in came Lucia and the rest is history. Owens is not going anywhere despite recent struggles. CC will be competitive this season as they always are.
CC has a pretty difficult non-conference schedule this season. Northeastern (twice), Cornell, Air Force and either Maine or Princeton. With the exception of two layups against Robert Morris and a gimme against Mercyhurst, CC picked the wrong year to boost the Pairwise.
Their WCHA schedule is the opposite of DU's. Starts relatively easy and gets progressively harder. CC's last six games are against Minnesota, UND & DU.
DU will attempt to win the "Grand Slam" for the third time in their history ('60, '61, '68). Thats winning the MacNaughton, Broadmoor, & National Championship and CC wins less than 10 games in the same season.
No mention here of how Guentzel is bailing on his own son? "Sorry son, I know I recruited you here and all, but I'm bailing."
David, get your facts correct idiot. Gabe was not recruited by his father. Mike took the assistants job this time last year. His son was already enrolled in school.
Dare I say, the CC games might just be flat out boring now? They should be on the Denver Cup bill. I'd rather play Holy Cross or the UC Dino's, then having to sit through an hour of a lopsided-scoreboard while our boys tear apart CC. You wanna talk about a hot game... how about MTU v. CC? Woo hoo.... that's a high calivre game for ya.
Anonymous,
Thanks for pointing out the timing of pops' hiring, but the point here is that it's funny that he's leaving his own son and the rest of the program. Don't you think one of them going there had something to do with the other going there too? No need to insult me when we're all trying to share a laugh at CC's expense.
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