Introducing: New head coach Dave Shyiak talks about Northern Michigan University hockey at introductory press conference | News, Sports, Jobs

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MARQUETTE – Dave Shyiak has come home, but he’s not quite sure how to view his status as a Yooper.

“I guess I could say I’m half a Yooper, but I hear there’s no such thing, so I’d rather say I’m a full-blown Yooper.” said the new head coach of the Northern Michigan University ice hockey team at his introductory press conference at the Berry Events Center on Friday morning.

He recounted how he was hired by a local property owner during one of his first summers as a student at NMU in the late 1980s. Shyiak finished his Wildcat career on Northern’s national championship team in the spring of 1991.

New Northern Michigan University hockey head coach Dave Shyiak gestures as he shares his vision for the Wildcats’ program and some stories from Marquette’s past during an introductory press conference in the Wildcat Room of the Berry Events Center in Marquette Friday morning. (Journal photo by Caden Sierra)

However, he remembered that when he first started working in the Marquette area, the man had handed him a sledgehammer and told him to get to work.

“What do I do with it?” he remembers, he said, and then he was told he had eight hours to demolish the house he was in.

“This is how my professional life began: I destroyed a house in Ishpeming with a sledgehammer,” he said.

Shyiak, 57, probably won’t have much time to tear down houses or even enjoy a nice summer in the Upper Peninsula while he tries to bring some order back to the Wildcats’ hockey program.

These days, that’s just part of NCAA college sports. While he wouldn’t call it a rush job or an urgent endeavor, Wildcats athletic director Rick Comley — who was also the original coach of the NMU hockey program and Shyiak’s coach at Northern — agreed that time was of the essence in Shyiak’s hiring.

New Northern Michigan University hockey head coach Dave Shyiak gestures as he shares his vision for the Wildcats’ program and some stories from Marquette’s past during an introductory press conference in the Wildcat Room of the Berry Events Center in Marquette Friday morning. (Journal photo by Caden Sierra)

Of the 26 players who could return in the fall, 14 had entered the NCAA’s transfer portal during the regular deadline, during which players in virtually all Division I, II and III sports can declare their intention to transfer, although they are not required to do so.

That period, during which almost all players could register, ended on May 14. However, it was reopened for another 30 days for Wildcats players and new recruits after Northern boss Grant Potulny announced his resignation on June 11. Four more players from last year, as well as two new recruits, registered within a day or two of the announcement.

Comley agreed that “Time is of the essence” when hiring a new coach mainly for this reason.

Currently, only eight players from last year’s team are certain to return, along with five more who signed up for NMU through the transfer portal from other programs and approximately six to eight new additions from Potulny’s original 11 players who are still coming to Marquette.

However, it is still questionable whether a full roster with the 28 players that Shyiak and Comley have named is even available, and that is something Shyiak will have to work on in the remaining three months or so before the season begins on October 11 at Colorado College.

“Today, recruitment takes eleven months, but right now we just need to fill the list with a few good culture kids, with those who want to be here,” said Shyiak.

Both Comley and Shyiak are happy to have each other now, after the latter had already applied for his position several times in the past.

“There is a reason why things happen the way they happen,” Shyiak described his winding coaching path, which took him back to his alma mater twice after his college playing career ended, the second time serving as an assistant and associate head coach for Comley and his successor Walt Kyle for 10 years before resigning in 2005.

He had applied for the job when Kyle took over in 2002, even though Kyle had already been a coach at NMU for some time and had also returned to his alma mater from a position as an assistant coach in an NHL team.

Three years later, Shyiak went to Alaska-Anchorage for eight seasons – “This is one of the toughest jobs in hockey” – and is still the most successful coach in Seawolves history.

“Anchorage has made me a better coach and person,” he said.

He also interviewed at NMU in 2017 when Potulny got the NMU job, but after not getting it, he stayed at Western Michigan as associate head coach for three more years and then moved on to St. Cloud State, where he played under the same heading with the Huskies for four years until this week.

“I learned a lot from this situation (in Alaska),” Shyiak said to a later question. “But the landscape of college hockey has really changed.”

The main focus was on the transfer portal, which essentially makes every player a potential free agent at the end of each season.

Shyiak said it was too early to select a coaching staff after a few days, but “I’ve received a lot of calls. The position has attracted a lot of attention.”

Although he was always interested in returning to NMU, he still did his homework and made sure the university was serious about the program. Last summer, he took part in a tour for hockey alumni where the group toured the renovated facilities at the Berry.

“It’s about keeping up with the neighbours,” Shyiak said: “And we toured the locker room, the weight room, the couches, the shooting room and saw the size of the rink.”

The final point concerned Northern’s reduction in the overall size of the rink last summer to bring it up to normal college size.

The group of about 50 to 75 people who attended the press conference on Friday – most of them were local residents, and there were also about 12 to 15 media representatives present – applauded several times and even asked the new coach several questions.

Steve Brownlee can be reached at 906-228-2500, extension 552. His email address is [email protected].