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A finalist from last year and several other NCAA Division I assistant coaches are among the 16 applicants for the Alaska Nanooks head coaching position, according to Forrest Karr, University of Alaska Fairbanks athletic director.

The applicants are seeking to replace Doc DelCastillo, who resigned after one season as the head coach for the Central Collegiate Hockey Association program. They applied online at the University of Alaska employment Web site (www.uakjobs.com) by the deadline of 5 p.m. Wednesday.

Karr, in an interview on Wednesday night from Naples, Fla., where he’s attending the NCAA Hockey Rules Committee and CCHA annual meetings, said the group is fewer than the 18 who applied last year to replace DelCastillo’s predecessor, Tavis MacMillan.

Karr didn’t disclose any names of this year’s group.

“I’d rather not discuss specific names at this time to avoid unintended consequences,” he said. “I’d rather have to talk to these people first and make sure it’s (application) OK with their employers.”

One applicant was among last year’s group of finalists that consisted of DelCastillo, former Nanooks assistant coach and wing Wade Klippenstein, Wisconsin assistant coach Kevin Patrick and St. Cloud State (Minn.) assistant Eric Rud.

Though Karr didn’t disclose the name of the 2007 finalist who’s applying this year, it’s not Klippenstein, who left a voice message Wednesday with the News-Miner to say that he didn’t apply.

“The timing isn’t just what it needs to be, and I’m very happy with my current employment,” Klippenstein, now an assistant coach and assistant general manager with the Prince George (British Columbia) Cougars of the major junior-level Western Hockey League, said from his cottage in eastern Saskatchewan.

“As an alumni and a former employee there, I hope they make a great decision in hiring someone that can get the program back on track,” Klippenstein said. “Obviously, it’s a very important hire there, and I trust the guy making the decision to make the right decision this time to get that program back on track.”

That leaves either Rud or Patrick. There were attempts to contact them before Wednesday’s application deadline but neither returned calls. Patrick, in a telephone interview last Thursday, said this year’s opening did interest him.

This year’s applicants include nine associate head coaches and assistant coaches at the Division I level; three Division III head coaches; one person who was recently a junior head coach and was a former D-I assistant; one Canadian university head coach; a youth amateur coach and a head coach of a provincial youth team in Canada.

Karr said this year’s group has similar backgrounds to last year’s applicants but there seems to be more experience among the hopefuls to replace DelCastillo and become the eighth head coach in the program’s 28-year history at the NCAA level.

“I think what stands out, at first glance, is the number of years, especially these (Division I) assistants, have been involved in coaching college hockey,” he said.

The nine-member search committee, which includes Nanooks junior center Dion Knelsen and UAF head strength coach and trainer Mike Curtin, will be grading the applications today and Friday. The committee is scheduled to narrow their choices to six to eight hopefuls with which to conduct telephone interviews, beginning at 6 a.m. on Wednesday, April 30.

Two to three finalists are scheduled to be announced by the end of next week and the finalists are scheduled to make campus visits during the week of May 5-9. The new head coach is set to be announced during the following week.

Karr said the search committee and he have discussed having a public forum for each of the finalists, similar to what University of Alaska President Mark Hamilton did recently for John Davies and Brian Rogers.

“We’re looking at an off-campus venue, an auditorium-type setting,” Karr said. “I’d like to not only have the search committee there, but people in the public and (returning) players on the team.”

Teppan, Korthauer tabbed

Vehur Teppan, who recently completed his Nordic skiing career for the Alaska Nanooks, was invited to join his native Estonia’s national B team, according to a UAF release.

Teppan will travel and train with the Estonian national squad and race in various events around the world, where he will be scouted by coaches choosing the country’s World Cup racers.

Teppan represented his country at the Alberta World Cup races in January, placing 19th in the classic sprint race. It was Estonia’s best finish there.

Two months later, he earned All-America at the NCAA Championships with a fifth-place finish in the 20K classic and eighth place in the 10K skating race.

Also Wednesday, fellow Alaska senior Marius Korthauer was named the men’s Collegiate Skier of the Year by FasterSkier.com. Korthauer captured the NCAA individual title in 20K classic and took the silver in the 10K skate.