Monday, August 22, 2011

Will UNH Select Coach Sean Tremblay?

As the end of the summer grew near, Sean Tremblay, General Manager and Head Coach of the New Hampshire Junior Monarchs of the Eastern Junior Hockey League (EJHL),was probably thinking about Siberia, not Durham, NH. Tremblay will be bringing a team of EJHL All-Stars to play in the Junior World Cup in Omsk, Russia which begins on August 28th. The team is expected to leave for Russia on the 26th. In the midst of this hectic schedule, has Coach Tremblay been considering an opportunity to be the new Associate Coach at UNH? Since former UNH coach, David Lassonde, accepted a coaching position with the University of Denver less than a week ago, speculation about his possible replacement has swirled. Coach Tremblay certainly would qualify.

Sean Tremblay began his coaching career with the Great Northern Snow Devils, a charter member of the EJHL and predecessor of the Jr Monarchs. He was awarded his first EJHL Coach of the Year honor in 1997. The team moved to it's current headquarters, the Tri-Town Ice Arena in Hooksett, NH in 2001 and became the NH Jr Monarchs. Tremblay and his team have been a dominant force in the EJHL ever since. They won the Regular Season Title six times (2002, 2006-2010) and the Playoff Championship six times (2002, '04, '06, '07, '10, '11). Tremblay was the EJHL Coach of the Year three more times in 2002, '06, and '07.

Tremblay has also coached in the USA Hockey Selects Player Development Program and international competition. He was the assistant coach for the Under-17 team that won gold at the 2006 Three Nations Tournament and head coach for the 2010 team that won the Five Nations Tournament

Several dozen of Tremblay's players have earned scholarships at NCAA Division One Hockey Programs. Three of his former players - Brian Foster (UNH), Paul Thompson (UNH), and Brian Dumoulin (BC) were NCAA All-Americans. Three members of the 2011-12 UNH roster - Greg Burke, Trevor van Riemsdyk, and Ryan Randall - played for Coach Tremblay with the Jr Monarchs.

Who Would be the Goalie Coach?
If Coach Tremblay joins the UNH coaching staff, who would coach the group of four goalies lead by senior Matt DiGirolamo? With Coach Lassonde's extensive experience recruiting and teaching goalies, both at UNH and USA Hockey Development Camps, UNH had the advantage of a full-time, salaried goalie coach. Sean Tremblay was a two-time All-State goalie when he played at Biddeford (Maine) High School and he played from 1988-1991 at the University of Southern Maine. However, it is not clear how involved Tremblay would be in working with UNH's goalies. With the Jr Monarchs, he utilized goalie coach Rob Day. Day's students have included Brian Foster, Jim Mello (Dartmouth), Brian Billett (BC) and Casey DeSmith (UNH). Perhaps UNH would add Day to the coaching staff as an assistant, "volunteer" coach in charge of goaltending - the model used by most other Hockey East teams.

With the veteran players and incoming freshmen arriving in Durham this week, chances are the new Associate Coach will be named very soon.

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