Patrick states his case for Nanooks’ hockey job
Published Friday, May 9, 2008
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The application process for the Alaska Nanooks head hockey coach position probably made Kevin Patrick — if he wasn’t already — a believer in second chances.
The University of Wisconsin assistant coach was among four finalist last year for the vacancy after Tavis MacMillan resigned following three seasons as Alaska’s head coach.
Patrick is a finalist again for this year’s vacancy, which occurred April 10, when Doc DelCastillo resigned after just one season with the Central Collegiate Hockey Association program.
“When I was up here a year ago, I wanted this job,” Patrick, who was accompanied by his wife Julie on this trip to Fairbanks, said Thursday morning. “I’m back up here to show my passion and desire to be the next leader of the University of Alaska hockey program. I’m excited to have this opportunity again; you don’t often get a second chance.”
The other finalist is Dallas Ferguson, the Alaska interim head coach.
Patrick, 39, is aware that a transition period awaits if he is named the eighth head coach in Alaska’s 28-year history as an NCAA program.
The team’s six seniors-to-be will be working with their third head coach in as many seasons. Transition was a topic during a meeting between Patrick and several Nanooks players who are scheduled to return for 2008-09.
“He’s obviously a very fair guy and he said everybody will get a shot, everybody will get their chance,” center Trevor Hyatt, one of the seniors-to-be, said after a public forum for Patrick on Thursday night at the Carlson Center. “He said that if he does get the job, he would do his best to try to make the transition easy for us.”
Patrick would be stepping into a rarity for a new head coach, as he would inherit players who were coached and/or recruited by two former bench bosses.
Building relationships, he said, will be the first step in the players adjusting to him and vice versa.
“It is about building relationships. It’s about building trust. It’s about building respect,” he said. “I think most college hockey players are going to work hard. They’re going to come to the rink every day and work hard, and if they feel like they have an opportunity to be in the lineup and contribute, that’s what they want.”
The former Notre Dame defenseman knows, too, that each player will be different.
“What motivates one player might be very different from what motivates another player,” Patrick said. “How does one player learn? Is he a visual learner? Is he an auditory learner? Does he need both?
“All of those are things I’d have to get on a quick learning curve, to get a sense of for the first couple of weeks of practice.”
To Wisconsin head coach Mike Eaves, Patrick is ready to start building relationships as a head coach.
“He’s one of the finest men I’ve worked with in terms of character, integrity and trust,” Eaves said in a telephone interview Thursday. “He’s as ready as anybody I’ve seen to take over a program. With the level of programs he’s been at, he’s seen a lot of things.”
In the three seasons he’s been an Wisconsin assistant coach, Patrick saw the Badgers play twice in the NCAA Division I Tournament and he helped the Western Collegiate Hockey Association program win the national championship in 2006.
“You do need bounces and a little bit of luck, but I think you also have to have a plan — a plan for success, and you have to stick with that plan,” Patrick said of a few ingredients for winning a national title.
In this year’s tournament, Wisconsin played host to the Midwest Regional in Madison, Wis., and the Badgers encountered two WCHA rivals — they defeated Denver 6-2 in the first round and lost 3-2 in overtime to North Dakota in the regional final.
“We had an opportunity to go to the national championship this year because we stuck with our plan,” Patrick said. “We had a young team, but we stuck with our plan and we didn’t panic and make a lot of changes.
“The foundation, the road map allowed us to play our best hockey in the national tournament and we were a goal away from going back to the Frozen Four for the second time in three years.”
One of the first things that the 70 people at Thursday’s forum — and the Nanooks players he met with earlier — noticed about Patrick was the national championship ring on his right hand.
Winning a ring at the Frozen Four in April comes from having a plan in practice in September, said Patrick, who was an assistant coach for Union College (N.Y.) of the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference and Bowling Green State University (Ohio) of the CCHA before he went to Wisconsin.
“It’s a daily process,” said Patrick, whose responsibilities for Wisconsin include coaching forwards and the power play. “What we do in September and October are all part of the building process to where we want to be come late February, when we want to be playing our best hockey going into the playoffs.”
He wants to bring a championship to UAF.
“I want to compete for championships,” he said. “I want student-athletes to have a great experience, to enjoy coming to the rink every day because of their passion for the game. I want to nurture their passion for the game.”
If he is named the Alaska head coach, one of the first things Patrick wants to do is form a coaching staff, and the first person he wants to offer a position is Ferguson.
“Dallas Ferguson would be my first call,” Patrick said. “I had a great talk with Dallas when I was up here last year. I’d love to have the opportunity to work with Dallas Ferguson.”
But probably not as an assistant coach.
“I don’t know if I would move up here to be an assistant coach only because of the opportunity I have at the University of Wisconsin; working with Mike Eaves is a great opportunity,” he said. “Would I love to work with Dallas Ferguson? Yes. But I don’t know if moving up here at this juncture to be an assistant coach is the right step for me professionally.”
The new Nanooks head coach is expected to be named by Friday, May 16.
Community Discussion
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I wrote the following Letter to the Editor over two weeks ago, but the News Miner has refused to publish it because I'm from Anchorage. They told me they only publish letters from those that live in Fairbanks or the surrounding area.
For what it's worth here are my thoughts from my perspective.
Also it appears that either of the two finalists for the coaching position would be the right choice.
Sincerely,
Cliff Hyatt
Anchorage
April 22, 2007
Letter to the Editor,
I would like to take this opportunity and applaud the decision of the Athletic Department to quickly tender the resignation of the hockey coach. It took a lot of courage to do so, but it was by far the best move for Nanook Hockey. It takes honesty and a true caring for the greater good of the University, the players, and the community to recognize that this was not the person they thought they were hiring and to cut their losses.
The players are Student Athletes as well as adults. They are given a lot as student athletes but they also give up a lot to be student athletes. They deserve to be treated by their coach with some degree of respect and dignity. Respect begets respect.
I was listening to an interview with Chris Chelios, last month. He commented that he was still having fun playing and as long as he was he would continue to play. I reflected on one of the first lessons taught to beginning mite hockey coaches, “Make sure the kids are having fun!” Playing hockey at the college and pro levels is a lot of work, but the bottom line is that it has to be fun too, or it simply isn’t worth it. We lost some players and would’ve lost many more simply because it wasn’t fun anymore.
We know the coach really isn’t gone because of this, but whatever the reason it is best for Nanook Hockey. Hopefully we’ll find someone who makes hockey fun again, respects the players, staff, and doesn’t publicly disparage the team and their talent.
I imagine the Athletic Departments hands are tied as to what they can reveal about the transgressions that led to the resignation. For better or worse this is probably to protect the individuals involved. We can only assume the reasons precipitating the resignation were justified, or else he wouldn’t have resigned.
For all the reasons above I commend the Athletic Department and support their quest to find the right head coach.
Nothing against Dallas, but I think Kevin Patrick is our guy. I hope if he is selected that Dallas will stick around as the defensive coach.
Nothing against Kevin, but I think Dallas is our guy. I hope if he is selected that Kevin will come up and be his defensive coach. Oops, that's probably not an option because he is career tracking for a D-1 head coaching job.
Maybe Dallas can do all the work for a 3rd coach who can attempt to become the leader he has always dreamed of being.
If you were at the public forums it's clear who wants to be here and has passion versus who is saying what needs to be said to put a D-1 coaching notch in the proverbial belt.
So it's only these two? No other finalists?
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