The 2012 American Collegiate Hockey Association [ACHA] Men’s Division I Coach-ofthe-Year Award, presented by Harrow Sports, was awared to M.F. Schurman of the University of Delaware, as selected by the Head Coaches of ACHA Men’s Division I. This is the first ACHA Men’s Division I Coach-of-the-Year Award for M.F and the second for the University of Delaware, which also won in 2000-2001 with Josh Brandwene at the helm.
The other finalists for the ACHA Men’s Division 1 Coach-of-the-Year Award were:
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Jeremy Bachusz, Oakland University
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Greg Powers, Arizona State University
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Rick Zombo, Lindenwood University
M.F. was presented with the ACHA Men’s Division I Coach-of-the-Year Award at the American Hockey Coaches Association Coach-of-the-Year Celebration held on April 28, 2012 in Naples, Florida. The 2011-12 season was a crowning achievement for M.F. Schurman and his University of Delaware Blue Hens, including: winning the 2012 ACHA Men’s Division I National Championship for the first time in team history; winning the Regular Season Championship of the Eastern States Collegiate Hockey League (ESCHL) with a 15-1-0 record and being named ESCHL Coach-of-the-Year; a 34-3-1 overall record including 12 and 9-game winning streaks and a 24-1-1 start to the season; posting a 9-1-1 record against the Top 10, including wins over #2 Oakland, #3 Penn State, #4 Lindenwood, #5 Ohio, #9 Arizona State, and #10 Liberty, as well as victories over seven other Top 25 ranked teams (Illinois, Davenport, West Virginia, Rutgers, Stony Brook, Rhode Island, and West Chester); playing 32 of its 38 games against Top 25 teams and claiming a 28-3-1 record in those games; peaking as the #2 ranked team for the final 7 rankings of the season; and a win over Davenport University, the 2010-2011 Men’s Division I National Champions and Davenport’s first loss at a National Tournament since 2007.
“This year at our first team meeting in the fall,” M.F. pronounced, “all we talked about was winning the last game of the year,” clearly a reference to winning a National Championship. M.F. credits his players and assistant coaches for the team’s success in achieving that goal. “We had a motivated group of upperclassmen that showed great leadership, especially our Captains. We also had depth which created peer pressure and competition for playing time. Assistant Coaches Jesse McNulty, Jordan Legath, John O’Connor, and Nick Matarese were instrumental in implementing the system. We are particularly proud of the defensive side of our game which produced a team goals-against-average of 2.17! I really enjoy coaching this level and find a tremendous amount of youthful energy being on a college campus.”
