FALCONS COACHING STAFF
2006-2007 SEASON
Quality
coaching makes a difference. Never has this
been truer than in the sport of ice hockey, where ice time is limited and the options are
getting more complex. We ask that you take a
few moments and read through the short notes on each member of our Coaching Staff. We think that you will find that our emphasis on
character development, educational focus, and hockey as a means to become a better person,
is unique. Our success speaks for itself; there are no gimmicks. Our staff is highly
experienced and our players learn in a progressive system that takes the best of Canadian,
European and American coaching methods, with emphasis on PRACTICE not games. Consider that in a one-hour practice our players
may handle the puck 80% of the time on the ice. In
a typical game that you have just made a one-hour trip to, your child may touch the puck
twice for less than one minute and play approximately 10-12 minutes. As our Gary Dineen said and believed, “There
is more to life than a slap-shot”. All
of our Coaches have played hockey at the High School, Junior, College, Olympic, or
Professional Level.
General
Manager /Head
Coach Juniors
(EJHL) Lincoln Flagg: Now
in his third season as Head Coach of the Falcon’s Junior Team, Coach Flagg has guided
his teams to the final four in each season in the highly touted Eastern Junior Hockey
League, (EJHL). A former player for Coach Dineen and now Senior Director of the Gary
Dineen Hockey School, he is considered one of the best development coaches in the U.S. Lincoln played his college hockey at the University
of Massachusetts Amherst and Minor Pro hockey in the ECHL after graduating from the then
Springfield Pic’s program owned by Coach Dineen.
After his playing career, Lincoln coached at American International College for
four seasons before returning to help Gary Dineen with the junior team. Due to career restraints, Lincoln took a brief
leave of absence, but returned to Coach the Coyotes Junior-Minor Midget team before being
appointed as Head Coach of the Juniors. A tireless worker, Lincoln is also the on ice
director of the Western Massachusetts USA Hockey Satellite Player Development Program and
is often called on to teach young coaches through USA Hockey’s Coaching Education
Program. In addition, Lincoln is responsible for
the evaluation of all Falcon Coaches and as Director of Player Development spends
countless hours at the rink working with our younger players and helping our Junior
Players pick appropriate Colleges to further their education. This past season alone,
11 of Lincoln’s players went on to college receiving just over $1 million in
scholarships. As a highly regarded hockey person, Lincoln’s influence and
opinions are often sought by coaches in the EJHL and other top Leagues around the country.
Laughlin
bio
Junior
(Empire) Head Coach Pat Tabb:
Midget Minor Head Coach Joe
Dubois:
Midget Minor Assistant Coach Tom
Scanlon:
Tom is a USA
Hockey
Level 4 certified coach. Tom brings 14 years hockey coaching experience
including 6 years Holy Name from learn to skate through to Bantam with 4 G.S.L.
league championships Tom also has 8 years at MassConn from Squirt through Midget
levels winning
4 New England
Elite League Championships and
the Northeast
Midget Hockey League last season.
(1993s) Bantam Major Head Coach Lincoln Flagg:
(1994s) Bantam Minor Head Coach Steve Mushenko:
(1995s) Pee-Wee Major Head Coach Vern Smith:
Vern is part of our “Canadian Connection” and has
been the Head Coach of the Falcons highly touted and nationally recognized Junior-Minor
team for the past four seasons, where he guided them t
o one League Championship and two
playoff appearances. Serving as the primary
feeder team for our Junior Squad, Vern’s influence and hockey knowledge have been
critical to the success of our players at the upper level.
Returning to the Junior Team as an assistant coach for the 2004-2005 season, Vern
will also assume the role as Governor of the Junior Minor team providing advice, counsel,
and coaching input to the team staff and players. The native of Winnipeg, Manitoba played
four seasons in the Western Hockey League for Lethbridge, Nanaimo, and New Westminster. A
tough, bruising defenseman, he was drafted by the New York Islanders in the second round
of the 1982 NHL Draft. He spent five seasons
with the AHL Springfield Indians, and also played for New Haven, Binghamton, and Albany in
the AHL before injuries forced his early retirement.
Shortly after retiring, Vern began coaching with Lincoln Flagg and has been on the
Coyotes staff for over six years. The Falcons
are fortunate to have someone of Vern’s experience and knowledge of the game in our
organization.
(1996's) Pee-Wee Minor Head Coach Lincoln Flagg:
(1997's) Squirt Major Head Coach Keith Hillebrecht:
(1998's) Squirt Minor Head Coach Barry Tabb:
99-00 Mite
Head Coach Tom O'Connor Tom O’Connor is another of the Gary Dineen former
players who went on to great success at the College level and later played
professionally in the Pittsburgh Penguins organization.
Tom played for Gary Dineen on the Springfield Pics before a stellar four-year
career at UMass-Amherst. Tom was a
fourth round draft pick of the Penguins in 1994.
Tom played professionally for Wheeling Nailers (ECHL), Syracuse Crunch (AHL),
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton (AHL) and Augusta Lynx (ECHL) before retiring.
Shortly after is playing career ended, Tom was hired as assistant coach of the
Junior team where he spent two seasons with Coach Dineen and Flagg.
Tom then took the reins of our Bantam Major team for one season and this season
worked at the Squirt Minor level.
Again keeping with the Falcon philosophy of our best coaches working at the
younger levels, Tom brings all of his experiences and his remarkable way with
young athletes to the rink and the organization is thrilled that Tom has agreed
to work with our Squirt teams.
Tom also has a long history of playing for his Country. In 1992, Tom was Captain of the US
Select 16 Team that traveled to Switzerland and he again was on the US Select 17
Team in Japan the following year. Tom was a silver medalist in the US Olympic
Festival in St. Louis in 1994 and played in the US Olympic Festival in 1995 at
Denver, CO.
Director of Strength and Conditioning/Athletic Training Paul Cacolice: With a passion and knowledge of hockey specific
strength and conditioning techniques at all levels of development, Paul is one of the best
in the business. He has been a Certified Athletic Trainer (A.T.,C.) since 1986 and also a
Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist (C.S.C.S.) since 1991. Paul has been involved with the New England Coyotes since
1993. He is also the Off-Ice Director for the USA Hockey's
Satellite National Team Development Program in Western New England since 1999. After
completing his undergraduate degree, Paul was an athletic trainer at the UMass-Amherst
while also completing two years of post-graduate work in Exercise Science. Since that time, he has served as the athletic trainer
and / or conditioning coach for men’s and women’s teams at the youth, collegiate
and adult levels (amateur and professional) in several sports. He has authored over 50
articles in national and international coaches’ publications including his own
textbook on fitness programming. He remains a sought-after instructor to coaches,
coach-instructors and elite-level athletes throughout the US and internationally on topics
of injury prevention and performance fitness.
Click HERE
for The Hockey Magazine
article highlighting Coach Dineen and
the Coyotes Organization by Gene O'Donnell
(courtesy
of www.thehockeymagazine.net.)
You will need a free copy Adobe Acrobat Reader to view and print
this article. Click on the button if you need to download Acrobat Reader
Coach Dineen
Inducted into Mass Hockey Hall of Fame
(from Press Releases)
New England
Junior Coyotes General Manager Gary Dineen will be inducted into the Massachusetts Hockey
Hall of Fame during a ceremony Monday, October 27 at the Fleet Center in Boston. This
year's class also includes retired NHL referee Paul Stewart and USA Hockey President Ron
DeGregorio.
Dineen has coached and operated the Enfield,
Connecticut-based Junior Coyotes for 26 years. His program, which was previously known as
the Springfield Pics and the Junior Whalers, has produced 33 NHL draft choices, including
four first round selections. In the 2002-03 season seven of Dineen's graduates played in
the NHL (Chris Clark, Bill Guerin, Ron Hainsey, Doug Janik, Mike Komisarek, Scott Lachance
and Dan LaCouture). Guerin is from Wilbraham, Mass., Janik is from Agawam, Mass., and
LaCouture is from Natick, Mass. and is a graduate of South Hadley High School.
The Coyotes organization has sent hundreds of players
to the collegiate ranks with over $5 million in scholarships. In Massachusetts, Dineen's
graduates have gone on to play for schools such as Amherst College, Babson College, Boston
College, Boston University, Harvard University, Holy Cross, Northeastern University, Tufts
University, UMass-Lowell, UMass-Amherst, Salem State and Williams College. The Coyotes
have won four Eastern Junior Hockey League championships (1996, 1997, 1998, 2000).
In addition to operating the Coyotes, Dineen has run
the Gary Dineen Hockey School for 31 years out of Enfield, Conn. and Bourne, Mass. More
than 20,000 youngsters have attended his school.
Other honors Dineen has received include the
Distinguished Administrator's Award from USA Hockey (June 2001); the John
"Snooks" Kelley Founders Award from the American College Hockey Coaches
Association for contributions to the growth and development of amateur hockey in the
United States (May 2002); and the President's Award from the New York International Hockey
Cup for contributions to and amateur and international hockey (December 2002).
Dineen, a native of Montreal, played for two Memorial
Cup championship teams in the 1960s and played for Canada in the 1964 and 1968 Olympics.
Dineen had a brief playing stint in the NHL and was a member of the 1971 AHL Calder Cup
champion Springfield Kings. He later coached and managed the Kings before moving on to the
Pics.
Dineen lives in West Springfield, Mass. with his wife,
Patti. They have a daughter, Katie, who is a student at Williams College.
The Massachusetts Hockey Hall of Fame was created in
1994 and is under the direction of Massachusetts Hockey, Inc