After the stepping down of the head coach along with 2 other assistant coaches, Athletic director Andy Ewald stepped up for the challenge as head hockey coach.

“I just empowered the kids and challenged them to be supportive of each other from a hockey standpoint, and that their communication on the ice and on the bench needed to go higher to make up for the fact that my hockey knowledge is slim to none,” Ewald said. 

Although he has no experience in hockey, Ewald was able to step up due to his long history of coaching many highschool sports. Senior Robert Perelman believes that Ewald stepping up as interim head coach was a great experience and that Ewald was supportive and filled the role to the best of his ability.

“It was interesting that the athletic director is personally going to help out and I thought it was pretty nice to see that he didn’t let us be and have one coach. He didn’t know a lot about hockey but he was there and still supported us,” Perelman said.

According to Ewald, he had no intention of going into the position pretending that he knew everything, but rather used his previous skills to help the team cope with this sudden situation. 

“I didn’t go in pretending I had knowledge that I didn’t have. I was really upfront with them and I think they appreciated my honesty and genuineness,” Ewald said. “I would like to believe that I did a good job at what they needed me to do.”

Perelman said although Ewald was not a hockey coach, he was a really good motivational coach that helped the team persevere. 

“His knowledge of being a coach from previous experience was really nice and he had good pregame speeches,” Perelman said. “It made us feel like our problems were heard and wanted, it was a really great experience.”

Ewald finished his time as interim head coach with a record of 2-3.