BOB DANIELS RECEIVES CCHA COACH OF THE YEAR ACCOLADES

Bulldog Head Coach Wins League's Top Coaching Honor

*2002-03 CCHA Award Winners* PDF

Ferris State University men's ice hockey head coach Bob Daniels was named the Central Collegiate Hockey Association's Coach of the Year at the annual Bauer Nike Hockey/CCHA Awards Presented by Galyan's Wednesday (March 19). The league's coaches voted on the season's eight individual awards, which were presented at Detroit's historic Fox Theatre.

Daniels, who is presently in his 11th season, received the honor after guiding Ferris to its most successful campaign in school history. Claiming its first-ever Central Collegiate Hockey Association (CCHA) Regular-Season title this season with a first-place 22-5-1 league mark, Ferris State’s 29-8-1 overall record is its best ever in the program’s 25-year NCAA Division I history. The Bulldogs, who were picked to finish ninth in the preseason media and coaches polls, established a new school mark for victories in a season and improved by 20 points in the conference standings.

Prior to the start of the 2002-03 season, Daniels ranked 29th among active NCAA Division I ice hockey head coaches in overall victories. Daniels' 11 seasons at the helm represents the longest tenure of any coach in the program’s history.

Daniels became Ferris State’s all-time winningest coach on March 4, 2000, when the Bulldogs posted a 7-0 victory at Western Michigan in the regular-season finale. In the 1998-99 season, Daniels notched his 100th career coaching win as the Bulldogs skated to a 2-1 regular-season finale victory at Michigan State, snapping both the Spartans’ 23-game unbeaten streak and 27-game home unbeaten string.

Daniels was appointed head coach at FSU on the eve of the 1992-93 season and in his first campaign, the Bulldogs registered 21 victories and earned a CCHA semifinal berth. It signified only the fourth time a Ferris team had won 20 games in a season and the second time in which a rookie coach won more than 16 games at FSU.

A member of the American Hockey Coaches Association (AHCA), Daniels served a four-year term on the AHCA’s Board of Governors and currently is a representative of the NCAA Tournament West Regional Selection Advisory Committee.

The Bulldogs, who earned the number one seed in the 2002-03 CCHA Tournament, have advanced to this Friday’s (March 21) semifinal round contest of the CCHA Super 6 Championships at Joe Louis Arena in Detroit, Mich. FSU will take to the ice for a 4:05 p.m. (EST) opening faceoff versus the lowest remaining seed from Thursday’s (March 20) quarterfinal-round action. That contest will be televised live on Fox Sports Net-Detroit. The champion of this weekend’s CCHA Super 6 Championships receives an automatic bid to the NCAA Championship Tournament.