BOB DANIELS NAMED WEST MICHIGAN SPORTS COACH OF THE YEAR

Ferris State University men’s ice hockey head coach Bob Daniels has been selected the recipient of the 2003 March of Dimes West Michigan Sports Awards Coach of the Year as a result of guiding the Bulldogs to their best season ever in school history and the program’s first league championship title.

Daniels will be presented the award at the sixth annual West Michigan Sports Awards Banquet Tuesday, May 13, at the Amway Grand Plaza Hotel in downtown Grand Rapids, Mich. The public is invited to join the celebration as 15 of the area’s best professional, amateur, college and high school athletes, coaches and teams are honored. Individual tickets ($50) and corporate tables ($1,000) are available by contacting the March of Dimes at (616) 247-6861. The reception and silent auction will begin at 5:30 p.m. (EDT) with dinner to be served at 7 p.m. (EDT) proceeded by the awards program at 8 p.m. (EDT). Legendary Detroit Tigers radio broadcaster Ernie Harwell, recipient of this year’s Warren Reynolds Lifetime Achievement Award, will serve as guest speaker at the event and all proceeds from the silent auction of sports memorabilia will benefit March of Dimes. The mission of the March of Dimes is to improve the health of babies by preventing birth defects and infant mortality. This mission is accomplished through research, education, community service and advocacy.

Bob Daniels has been selected the March of Dimes West Michigan Sports Awards Coach of the Year and will be honored May 13 in Grand Rapids.

Daniels, who completed his 11th year at the FSU helm this season, guided Ferris State to a 31-10-1 overall record, which represents the best mark ever in the program’s 25-year NCAA Division I history. The Bulldogs also earned the distinction of being the nation’s first team to reach the 30-win plateau this season. Furthermore, FSU also claimed its first-ever Central Collegiate Hockey Association (CCHA) Regular-Season title with a first-place 22-5-1 league mark after being picked to finish ninth in both the 2002-03 preseason and media coaches polls as the Bulldogs improved by 20 points in the league standings. Ferris State also reached the championship game of the NCAA Championship Tournament’s West Regional in its first-ever NCAA Tourney appearance and participated in the CCHA Super Six Championship Tournament for the first time since 1993. As a result of his efforts this campaign, Daniels was tabbed the unanimous choice as the CCHA’s Coach of the Year as voted on by the league’s head coaches and is one of the top candidates for the American Hockey Coaches Association’s (AHCA) Spencer Ambrose Award as the national University Division Coach of the Year.

The program’s all-time winningest coach with a current 180-207-33 bench mark (.468 winning percentage), Daniels led FSU to 31 victories which was three more wins than the Bulldogs combined for in the previous two campaigns (28-40-6). He has compiled a 132-154-30 (.465) record in CCHA contests only. Prior to this season’s start, Daniels ranked 29th among active NCAA Division I ice hockey head coaches in overall victories.

A member of the AHCA, Daniels was appointed head coach at FSU on the eve of the 1992-93 season and led the Bulldogs to 21 victories and a CCHA Tournament Semifinal berth. At the time, the accomplishment 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.

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 (March 6) and then the Bulldog mentor reached another milestone March 4, 2000, when he became the program’s all-time winningest coach with a 7-0 victory at Western Michigan in the regular-season finale.