December 28, 2011
For better or worse
For Clarkson’s married co-coaches, matrimony ends where the rink begins
by Mike Zhe/Staff Writer
The Desrosiers behind the Clarkson bench. (photo: Clarkson Athletics)
After a weekend in late October that saw Clarkson earn a tie and a win against Boston University and New Hampshire, the respective present and past powers of Hockey East, co-head coaches Matt and Shannon Desrosiers gathered their team together and left it with this thought:
They were pregnant.
A different kind of coaching dynamic in Potsdam, N.Y.? You could say that.
This is the fourth season that the married Desrosiers, both stars in their playing days down the road at St. Lawrence, have been guiding the Clarkson women. Their tenure includes a trip to the NCAA tournament in 2010 and an 8-4-4 start this season.
In their case, business as usual is anything but usual.
“It’s kind of funny,” said Shannon, an offensively-productive and defensively-sound forward during her playing days with the Saints a decade ago. “We had a recruit here yesterday and her dad was saying how cool it was. After that I said to Matt, ‘We kind of forget that it is a unique situation.’ But when we’re at work, we’re not married. I think our kids see it that way, too.”
At Cheel Arena, use the phrase “family of three” and the person that fills out the trio is assistant coach Matt Kelly. But that definition will change for the Desrosiers come April, when Shannon is due to deliver the couple’s first child, something the team first heard about after the BU-UNH weekend in October – and ran with, literally.
“Our kids were running around yelling, ‘We’re having a baby,’” said Shannon. “I think they were more excited than we were.”
Coaching together for three-plus years – after two seasons together as assistants under Rick Seeley, whose move to Quinnipiac in 2008 opened up the coaching vacancy – the Desrosiers have compiled a record of 61-47-21. They’ve also managed to do something many couples do unintentionally – make their marriage an afterthought, at least when they’re on the job.
“To be honest, it doesn’t faze us,” said senior defenseman Danielle Boudreau, an assistant captain from Whitby, Ont. “We don’t even look at them as married. They’re very professional in that respect.”
The Desrosiers were both student-athletes at St. Lawrence when they began dating a decade ago. Matt, a defenseman, was part of a Frozen Four team as a junior in 2000 – the one that beat Boston University in a record four overtimes in the national quarterfinals on Robin Carruthers’ late, late rebound -- and earned All-America honors as a senior.
Shannon finished her career as the Saints’ fourth all-time leading scorer, while getting named the team’s best defensive player as a senior. She was the first to jump into the coaching ranks, joining the staff at Clarkson for its first Division 1 season in 2003-04.
“My initial thought was to get into something like personal training or fitness, or do Ironman triathlons,” she said, chuckling. “Then the opportunity came open at Clarkson. I started alongside Rick and fell in love with it.”
Matt played five seasons of minor pro hockey, twice making the ECHL All-Star game, before joining his wife – they were married in 2006 – on Clarkson’s staff.
The Desrosiers’ biggest influences also fit into the family-of-three mold. Both played under current Syracuse women’s coach Paul Flanagan at St. Lawrence, where Flanagan was an assistant to Joe Marsh for Matt’s first two years and then took over the women’s program and coached Shannon.
“She was his first recruit,” said Matt.
Marsh was the coach Matt looked up to as a player, and Seeley was the one who first brought Shannon aboard as an assistant at Clarkson, and then later her husband.
“He was initially the one who took the chance, hiring us as assistants,” said Shannon.
These days, coaching duties are split, but overlapped. Shannon, the player who put up 44-79-123 scoring totals as a player, works with the forwards. Kelly primarily handles the defense. Matt hovers over everything, and also pays particular attention to upcoming opponents.
All three recruit. And all three yell. There is no designated talker, no pre-selected motivational speaker.
“We’re a pretty passionate coaching staff,” said Matt. “All three of us get pretty fired up for games and practices. If you were to come to a practice you’d see all three of us jumping in and, during games, we’re probably the most animated coaching staff you’ll see.”
The Golden Knights are young, with 14 of their 21 players freshmen or sophomores. But they’re paying the same traditional tribute to defense that they have in recent years, with 28 goals allowed in their first 16 games. In the league, only Cornell is allowing fewer.
“We’ve always been a very sound defensive team, but we’ve really been excelling at keeping (the puck) to the outside,” said Boudreau. “And we’ve been getting great games out of our goalie.”
Aside from preseason favorite Cornell, which took a 9-1 overall record and No. 2 national ranking into December, there’s no clear pecking order this year in ECAC Hockey.
The Golden Knights, who entered December with a 4-3-1 mark in league games, are in a group of teams, with Harvard, Quinnipiac, Dartmouth, St. Lawrence and Princeton, that may be good enough to entertain a second-place finish if things break right.
And while the Knights rely heavily on their five seniors, their star powers rests with their sophomores. Forwards Jamie Lee Rattray (6-11-17) and Carly Mercer (6-9-15) lead the team in scoring, and Erica Howe (1.72 goals-against average, .930) is one of the league’s best goalies. All three have spent time with Canada’s Under-22 program.
The co-coaches think they’ve made strides, too.
“Oh, yeah, definitely,” said Matt. “When we got here as head coaches, we were fairly new to the coaching profession, at least I was. Over the years you learn more situational stuff during games. We’re still learning. Every weekend during the games, every week during the practices, it’s an ongoing process.”
Figure the learning to kick into an even higher gear starting in April, with another program Matt and Shannon will be working on together.
A baby.
“It will,” said Matt, “be interesting.”
Mike Zhe can be reached at mzhe@nyhockeyjournal.com.
