Jerry Reilly/Fredonia SID
Fredonia State head coach Jeff Meredith, left, and former assistant coach T.J. Manastersky, now the head coach of the Curry Colonels.
FREDONIA, N.Y. --
Jeff Meredith's former assistant coaches dot the college hockey head coaching map.
Nick Carrierre at Buffalo State and Brian Dickinson at Brockport both tutored under Meredith, who's in his 26th season as the Fredonia State bench boss. So did Greg Heffernan at Western New England and Erik Noack at Johnson & Wales.
Meredith's latest assistant-turned-head coach is TJ Manastersky at Curry College in Milton, Mass. Manastersky will bring his Colonels to Western New York this weekend for games against Carriere's Bengals tonight and the Blue Devils on Saturday afternoon.
Game time Saturday is 3 p.m. at the Steele Hall Ice Arena.
"I am very proud of TJ and where his career has taken him," Meredith said. "He is a first class person and even better hockey coach, not to mention a very good friend."
Friendships take a back seat when the puck is dropped, and Meredith expects Saturday to be no different. It's been a posture he's assumed many times before as he coaches at least twice a year against Carriere and Dickinson, and schedules Noack's team from time to time.
"I am sure that TJ, like all of my former assistants who we play, want to beat Fredonia," Meredith said. "Over the years our Blue Devil team has had some classic battles with other former assistants. ... I know there are a lot of people from the community that will be happy to see TJ again, I just hope that they don't wish him too much luck!"
Both teams could use some luck. Curry arrives in Western New York with a 3-8-2 record (1-4 in their conference, ECAC Northeast). The Blue Devils are 3-8-3 overall, including 1-0-1 in their eastern swing to New England College and Franklin Pierce earlier this week.
"From a hockey standpoint, we are excited to play again after a successful trip to the east," Meredith said. "We have spent a lot of time this year in talking about 'the process' and not the end result. In other words, doing things a certain way, time after time, and at some point they pay dividends for you. I think we have started to see some of that."
NOTES: In addition to the four former Blue Devil assistants now serving as head coaches, one other former assistant (Jim Fowler, Buffalo State) was a head coach and four recent graduates are current college hockey graduate assistants -- former players Kody Van Rentergem (Robert Morris),
Mat Hehr (SUNY Canton), and
Brett Mueller (Franklin Pierce) and former team manager Jeff Marquardt (Canisius) ... The Blue Devils are the sixth least penalized team in NCAA Division III, with an average of 10.4 minutes per games ... Today marks Day 15 in the countdown to Pink The Rink 2014. A new twist this year: All four officials will wear pink and black striped shirts, donated by area supervisor of officials Jeff Fulton. Meredith said the shirts will either be sold or auctioned off and proceeds will benefit the pink game. Details will be announced within the next few days.
