AHCA Launches 'Coaches for Coaches: Navigating Through Covid-19'

Webinar series to assist NCAA and ACHA ice hockey coaches launches July 7

The American Hockey Coaches Association is reaching out to its member coaches during this Covid-19 pandemic with a webinar series of instructional presentations and group discussions. Titled "Coaches for Coaches: Navigating Through Covid-19," the series launches on Tuesday, July 7, with presentations by Penn State University assistant coach Allison Coomey (10:00 a.m. - "Building Your Brand as an Assistant Coach") and Western Michigan Associate head coach Pat Ferschweiler (10:50 a.m. - "Offensive Strategies").

The AHCA, founded in 1947, brings coaches together each year at an annual convention in Naples, FL, where topics of mutual interest are discussed to benefit amateur coaches at all levels. With the cancellation of the 2020 AHCA Convention, the AHCA Board mobliized to fill the void. Leading the way were AHCA President Casey Jones, head coach at Clarkson University and Mare MacDougall Bari, assistant coach at St. Lawrence University. Upon announcing this initiative, they commented, "Our committee has been hard at work to keep our coaching body connected and we hope you will be excited about the programming that the AHCA has set up for July. We reached out to our coaching body and asked what we could do to help during these trying times and in this series of topics and discussions, we tried to cover the scope of everyone's needs."

The webinars will run Tuesdays and Thursdays throughout the month of July and are open to all AHCA members. A full schedule of all sessions is below or available here in a PDF. NCAA member-coaches will be emailed information on how to access the sessions. This will also be available prior to July 7 in the "Members" section of the AHCA web site (ahcahockey.com).

Week	Date/Time (All times ET)	Format	Presenter	Topic	Moderator
1	Tuesday, July 7 at 10:00 a.m.	Webinar	Allison Coomey, Penn State	Building Your Brand as an Assistant Coach	Lee J Mirasolo, Harvard University
1	Tuesday, July 7 at 10:50 a.m.	Webinar	Dan Bylsma, Detroit Red Wings	Offensive Strategies	Casey Jones, Clarkson University
2	Tuesday, July 14 at 10:00 a.m.	Webinar	Tara Connelly, RPI	Goalies: The 6th Player	Allison Coomey, Penn State
2	Tuesday, July 14 at 10:50 a.m.	Webinar	Dr. Wally Bzdell, Psychologist	Clarifying Your Vision as a Coach	Rick Bennett, Union College
2	Thu. July 16: 10:00 a.m.	Open Discussion	Jill Kochanek, Coach-Scholar, Psychology Practitioner	Breaking the Ice: Coaching through Difficult Conversations about Race to Promote Diversity and Inclusion in Hockey	Mare MacDougall Bari, St. Lawrence
2	Thursday, July 16 at 10:50 a.m.	Webinar	Pat Ferschweiler, Western Michigan	Offensive Strategies	Rick Bennett, Union College
3	Tuesday, July 21 at 10:00 a.m.	Webinar	Lindsay Berman, Northeastern	It's all about the "D-Tails"	Lee J Mirasolo, Harvard University
3	Tuesday, July 21 at 10:50 a.m.	Webinar	Jim Montgomery	Face-offs In All Three Zones	Casey Jones, Clarkson University
3	Thu. July 23: Women @ 10 & Men @ 11	Open Discussion	TBD	TBD	TBD
4	Tuesday, July 28 at 10:00 a.m.	Webinar	Ann Ninneman, UW-Stevens Point	The Crisis Couch: Helping Student-Athletes through Personal Adversity from a Coaching Perspective	Allison Coomey, Penn State
4	Tue., July 28 at 10:50 a.m.	Webinar	Topher Scott	Building Relationships Within Your Program	Rick Bennett, Union College
4	Thu. July 30: Women at 10:00 a.m. and Men at 11:00 a.m.	Open Discussion	Representatives from the NCAA	NCAA Insight into impact of Covid-19 on Recruiting, Championships, etc.	Mare MacDougall Bari, St. Lawrence or Liz Keady Norton, BU