BOB DANIELS NAMED AHCA DIVISION I HOCKEY COACH OF THE YEAR

Bob Daniels, the head coach of the Ferris State University men’s ice hockey team, has been selected the winner of the 2003 Spencer Penrose Award as the American Hockey Coaches Association's (AHCA) Division I Hockey Coach of the Year.

Daniels, who guided the Bulldogs to a school-best 31-10-1 overall record along with the program’s first Central Collegiate Hockey Association (CCHA) Regular-Season Championship title and initial NCAA Championship Tournament appearance, will be presented the prestigious award at the annual AHCA Coach of the Year Banquet Saturday, April 26, in Naples, Fla. The banquet is held in conjunction with the AHCA Convention.

Bob Daniels is this season's recipient of the prestigious Spencer Penrose Award as the American Hockey Coaches Association's (AHCA) Division I Hockey Coach of the Year.

The recipients for college hockey’s Coach of the Year are chosen by members of the AHCA. The runners-up for this year’s Spencer Penrose Award were Don Lucia of the University of Minnesota and Mike Schafer of Cornell University. The Spencer Penrose Award is named after the Colorado Springs benefactor who built the Broadmoor Hotel Complex, site of the first 10 NCAA Ice Hockey Championships.

Following this historic season, Daniels has also been honored as the 2002-03 Coach of the Year by both Inside College Hockey (INCH) and the March of Dimes West Michigan Sports Awards. Prior to receiving the accolades, Daniels was the unanimous choice as the CCHA’s Coach of the Year as voted on by the league’s head coaches.

Daniels, who completed his 11th year at the FSU helm this season, guided Ferris State to its best performance 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. In the process, FSU claimed its first-ever CCHA Regular-Season title with a first-place 22-5-1 league mark after being chosen to finish ninth in both the 2002-03 preseason and media coaches polls as the Bulldogs improved by 20 points in the league standings. Moreover, Ferris State advanced to the NCAA Championship Tournament’s West Regional title game in its first-ever NCAA Tourney appearance and also competed in the CCHA Super Six Championship Tourney for the first time since 1993.

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, Daniels ranked 29th among active NCAA Division I ice hockey head coaches in overall victories.

An AHCA member, 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 the Bulldog mentor attained another milestone March 4, 2000, when he became the program’s all-time winningest coach in a 7-0 victory at Western Michigan in the regular-season finale.

Having the longest tenure of any FSU hockey coach, Daniels has coached eight All-Americans during his Bulldog coaching career including 2002-03 Hobey Baker Hat Trick Award finalist and CCHA Player of the Year Chris Kunitz.

A 1982 graduate of Michigan State University, Daniels was a three-time (1983-86) North American Junior Hockey League (NAJHL) Coach of the Year selection for the Hennessey Engineers before taking an assistant coaching position with the University of Illinois-Chicago (1987-89). He served an as assistant coach at Ferris State for three seasons (1989-92) prior to being named the sixth head coach in the program’s history on Sept. 29, 1992.