Northern Michigan University committee closer to picking new head hockey coach
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Forrest Karr
After the field was narrowed to 15 last week, the list was whittled down to five finalists at a search committee meeting held Wednesday. NMU athletic director Forrest Karr said that those five individuals were to be interviewed this week and that the department is on track to make a hire early next week.
Despite rumors that there is a frontrunner, Karr said that nobody has an inside track for the position.
Northern originally received 69 applicants when the job posting closed on March 29. The committee narrowed that group to 15 applicants to participate in video interviews. Committee members then gave each interview a score before narrowing the field to five.
As previously stated, Karr said that the list of finalists would not be released because some of the candidates wanted to remain confidential.
The committee is made up of former Wildcats head coach Rick Comley; Blue Line Club president Bob Cowell; former NMU hockey players Don Waddell, Dave Mogush, Dallas Drake, Jason Welch and Justin Florek; current Wildcat forward Zach Diamantoni; and faculty athletics representative Julie Rochester.
Northern decided not to renew former head coach Walt Kyle's contract in early March after spending 15 seasons as the Wildcats bench boss. Kyle was only the second head coach in program history after replacing Comley in 2002 and guided NMU to the NCAA tournament in 2010.
Ryan Stieg can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 252. His email address is rstieg@miningjournal.net.