June
16, 2003; Updated
June 17, 2003
Candidates
Interviewing at Vermont
By
Nate Ewell
Inside
College Hockey has learned that four candidates for the vacant
head coaching position at Vermont – including a pair of
current ECAC head coaches – will make the trip to Burlington
to interview for the job in person this week.
Tim Bothwell,
Roger Grillo, David Quinn and Kevin Sneddon are all among the
finalists for the position. Current Catamounts assistant coach
Damian DiGiulian may also be a candidate, but that could not be
confirmed. Vermont athletic director Bob Corran told the Burlington
Free Press that there were five finalists for the position.
Some of the
coaches did not return phone calls Monday while others would not
comment. Sneddon did speak with Ken Schott of the Schenectady
Daily Gazette about becoming a candidate after stating
two weeks ago that he had not applied for the job.
"In all
honesty, there wasn't anything sneaky about this at all,"
Sneddon told Schott on Monday. "I know it seems that way,
but when I first talked about it, I [said] it was an unbelievable
coaching position. Obviously, the new athletic director and the
vision of where they want to go is very impressive. I just felt
like there was going to be a ton of interest from head coaches
and other qualified assistant coaches. I hadn't put too much thought
into it.
"When
I was contacted by them and asked to meet with them," he
added, "anytime that happens, you have to consider it. It's
too good of an opportunity not to at least explore."
Grillo (Brown)
and Sneddon (Union) are both currently head coaches in the ECAC.
Bothwell was most recently an assistant coach for the NHL’s
Atlanta Thrashers, and Quinn is the head coach of the Under-17
Team with USA Hockey’s National Team Development Program.
Corran, the
former A.D. at Minnesota-Duluth, was hired May 7 and officially
began his duties in Burlington on June 16, but he’s already
been busy. Corran hired a new women’s basketball coach last
week, and has conducted phone interviews for the hockey position,
which became open with Mike Gilligan’s retirement on May
16. Gilligan remains at Vermont as an assistant athletic director
and will play a role in the search.
Grillo was
Gilligan’s top assistant during the program’s best
years in the 1990s before taking over the head coaching position
at Brown. A Maine graduate, Grillo has posted a 62-101-22 record
in six years with the Bears, including his first winning season
this past year (16-14-5 and fifth place in the ECAC).
Bothwell has
worked closely with Corran in the past – he was the head
coach at the University of Calgary while Corran was the school’s
athletic director – and was a finalist for the Minnesota-Duluth
head coaching job before Corran hired Scott Sandelin. Bothwell
spent a year and a half as an assistant coach with the Atlanta
Thrashers before being dismissed from the position, along with
head coach Curt Fraser, in December 2002. A Brown graduate, Bothwell
turned down the head coaching job at his alma mater before it
was offered to Grillo.
Sneddon is
50-99-18 in five years at Union, where he took over for former
coach Stan Moore in 1998. Sneddon led the Skating Dutchmen to
a 14-18-4 record this season and a sixth-place finish in the ECAC
(10-10-2), earning INCH’s ECAC Coach of the Year honors.
Sneddon graduated from Harvard in 1992 and has been a candidate
for recent openings at Northern Michigan, Princeton and Harvard.
"Union
has a bright future, and I am proud to say that I have been a
part of the recent growth of the program," Sneddon told Schott.
"We have a lot of exciting things happening with respect
to the athletic facilities on campus."
Quinn is a
1989 graduate of Boston University who has been an assistant coach
on the collegiate level at Northeastern and Nebraska-Omaha. A
former first-round NHL draft pick, he joined the NTDP last summer
and was the head coach of the Under-17 Team, the younger of the
two USA Hockey teams based in Ann Arbor, Mich. He has extensive
experience with USA Hockey, both as a coach and a player.
Corran hasn’t
revealed a timeline for hiring the position, but told the Free
Press that after interviewing the finalists, "it'll just
be a short time before we reach a decision." His quick work
on the women’s basketball job and in conducting phone interviews
for hockey also suggests that a decision could come soon. These
candidates have risen to the top of a crowded field of applicants,
believed to have included current or former college head coaches
Jeff Jackson, Mark Morris, Bob Mancini, Mike McShane and Bill
Beaney.
With reporting
from Ken Schott of the Schenectady Daily Gazette.
