It took 10 months of observation and evaluation for Syracuse Director of Athletics Daryl Gross to decide who would lead the school’s women’s ice hockey program in its first season.

On Monday, 185 days before the program is set to play its first game, Gross’ choice was finally revealed.

Former St. Lawrence head coach Paul Flanagan was hired as the program’s first head coach, the Syracuse athletic department announced late Monday night.

In Flanagan, Gross and Syracuse have a coach whose credentials rank among the best in collegiate women’s hockey. Flanagan led St. Lawrence to five Frozen Four appearances – tied for tops among Division I coaches – in his nine seasons with the Saints. He ranks sixth among Division I coaches in career victories (230) and third in career winning percentage (.718).

‘He’s just one of the best in the country in all of NCAA hockey,’ Gross said in a telephone interview Monday night. ‘Talking to his colleagues, everybody points to Paul Flanagan to being arguably the best women’s hockey coach in the business. … He’s just got such a great record of credentials that it was really a no-brainer for us.’

The hire comes 10 months to the day of Gross’ announcement last June 1 that Syracuse would add a women’s hockey team and cut the school’s swimming and diving teams. The first women’s ice hockey game is scheduled for October 3, against an opponent yet to be decided. Syracuse will play in the five-team College Hockey America conference.

Flanagan is the ninth head coach Gross has hired during his three-and-a-half-year tenure as athletic director.

Besides his sterling career record, Flanagan was named the 2001 American Hockey Coaches Association Coach of the Year, after leading St. Lawrence to the national championship game before losing, 4-2, to Minnesota-Duluth.

That was the highest finish in school history. Despite his five trips to the Frozen Four, including three straight from 2004-07, Flanagan’s teams have only made one championship game.

This past season, Flanagan led the Saints to a 28-10-1 record and their fifth straight NCAA Tournament.

Flanagan’s resume is not limited to the college ranks. He is currently serving as an assistant coach for the U.S. women’s national team.

Flanagan was with the squad, which is competing at the World Championships in Harbin, China, and was not available for comment Monday night.

‘This is an opportunity to build a program the right way,’ Flanagan said in a statement released by the Syracuse athletic department. ‘You do that by bringing in quality people with character. I think it will be a lot of fun and hopefully something that the university and the Syracuse area can be proud of.’

Despite Flanagan’s ties to St. Lawrence (his alma mater), and his molding of the Saints women into a perennial national contender, Gross maintained it wasn’t hard to lure Flanagan away.

‘He knows that we’ve got the best of every world here,’ Gross said. ‘We’re going to give him everything he needs to build this into a championship program. He’s really excited.’

Still, Flanagan has quite the challenge in front of him. He has just over six months to assemble a team before the curtain goes up on Syracuse’s inaugural season.

Flanagan has experience recruiting the area from his time with the Saints. Also, should any of his players from St. Lawrence opt to transfer to SU, they will not lose a year of eligibility.

‘I anticipate everything getting going in hurry. We may be young but we’re going to have 18 scholarships, the full allotment of scholarships available for Paul,’ Gross said. ‘… We get e-mails every day from international players, some of the best players in hockey that have expressed interest in here.’

Also unclear is where the team will play next fall. Gross said an announcement should be expected shortly, and the venues under consideration are Tennity Ice Pavilion on South Campus and War Memorial Coliseum downtown.

But those are matters for another day. For now, 10 months of searching were enough to convince Gross he’s found the right man to lead SU’s hockey program.

‘We feel so comfortable when we finally made our decision because we’ve done it for so long now,’ Gross said. ‘We’ve looked at everybody in the country and we feel like we got the best coach out of everyone we could have gotten.’

jsclayto@syr.edu

Published on March 31, 2008 at 12:00 pm