Craig Barnett is a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice hock ...

former player and

head coach A head coach, senior coach or manager is a professional at training and developing athletes. They typically hold a more public profile and are paid more than other coaches. In some sports, the head coach is instead called the "manager", as in assoc ...

and current

Commissioner A commissioner (commonly abbreviated as Comm'r) is, in principle, a member of a commission or an individual who has been given a commission (official charge or authority to do something). In practice, the title of commissioner has evolved to in ...

of both the

Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association The Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association (MIVA) is a college athletic conference whose member schools compete in men's volleyball. The conference footprint is centered in the Midwestern United States, stretching from Missouri in the ...

and Pennsylvania Interscholastic Hockey League as well as the director of player personnel for the

North American Hockey League The North American Hockey League (NAHL) is one of the top junior hockey leagues in the United States and is in its 48th season of operation in 2022–23. It is the only Tier II junior league sanctioned by USA Hockey, and acts as an alternati ...

Career

Craig Barnett began his college career at SUNY-Plattsburgh in 1984 after spending three seasons with the

Oakville Blades The Oakville Blades are a Junior "A" ice hockey team from Oakville, Ontario, Canada. They are a part of the Ontario Junior Hockey League. History The Blades started as a Junior C team, and made it to the Clarence Schmalz Cup Final once to compet ...

. After redshirting his first year he joined the Cardinals and helped them to their first title game in 1986 as well as a national title the following year. Though the championship was later vacated Barnett had already embarked on his professional career. After two years as a minor-leaguer (mostly for the

ECHL The ECHL (formerly the East Coast Hockey League) is a mid-level professional ice hockey league based in Shrewsbury, New Jersey, with teams scattered across the United States and Canada. It is a tier below the American Hockey League (AHL). The E ...

Erie Panthers The Erie Panthers were a professional ice hockey team, and one of the founding members in the ECHL, East Coast Hockey League (ECHL). Based in Erie, Pennsylvania, from 1988 to 1996, they were one of the most prolific teams in the ECHL. The Panther ...

) Barnett retired as a player and began his coaching career. Barnett's first gig came with Mercyhurst as both an assistant coach and director of the

Mercyhurst Ice Center Mercyhurst Ice Center is a 35,280 square foot, 1,500-seat hockey rink in Erie, Pennsylvania, United States. It is home to the Mercyhurst University Lakers Men's and Women's ice hockey teams. The center was the first privately funded ice rink in ...

. After two years he transitioned to Division I

Kent State Kent State University (KSU) is a public research university in Kent, Ohio. The university also includes seven regional campuses in Northeast Ohio and additional facilities in the region and internationally. Regional campuses are located in Ash ...

, again as an assistant, before being hired by Findlay as the program's first head coach. The Oilers started as a Division II program in 1996, playing as an independent squad for two years before joining the MCHA as a founding member and winning the first conference title in 1998–99 with a 23–5 record. After their first successful season Findlay was a surprise addition to the premier lineup of

College Hockey America College Hockey America (CHA) is a college ice hockey conference in the United States. It participates in the NCAA's Division I as a hockey-only conference. The conference is made up of five women’s teams, with two in Pennsylvania; two in New Y ...

when it began play in

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shootin ...

not the least due to the fact that the

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...

mandates a 9-year waiting period for teams playing in divisions above their level. Regardless of the trouble Barnett soldiered on behind the Findlay bench, finishing with poor but respectable results each year. While the Oilers were automatic qualifiers for the conference tournament each year (as all member teams were) he failed in each of his four attempts to win a single game, losing in the quarterfinal round each time. In the summer of 2003 the

University of Findlay The University of Findlay (UF) is a private university, private Christianity, Christian university in Findlay, Ohio. It was established in 1882 through a joint partnership between the Churches of God General Conference (Winebrenner), Churches ...

administration changed and consequently, after eight years in Findlay, Craig Barnett resigned as coach to take over at

Lake Forest Academy Lake Forest Academy (also known as LFA) is a co-educational college preparatory school for boarding and day students in grades 9 through 12. The school is located on the North Shore in Lake Forest, Illinois, United States, about 30 miles north o ...

. Anyone left wondering why he resigned had their answer the following January when the school announced the program would revert to club status. Barnett spent only one year in Lake Forest before returning to the college ranks, this time as the

Athletic Director An athletic director (commonly "athletics director" or "AD") is an administrator at many American clubs or institutions, such as colleges and universities, as well as in larger high schools and middle schools, who oversees the work of coaches and ...

for

Becker College Becker College was a private college in Worcester, Massachusetts, Worcester and Leicester, Massachusetts. Becker College traced its history from the union of two Massachusetts educational institutions—one founded in 1784 and the other in 1887 ...

. Two years later he returned to his old stomping grounds in

Erie, Pennsylvania Erie (; ) is a city on the south shore of Lake Erie and the county seat of Erie County, Pennsylvania, United States. Erie is the fifth largest city in Pennsylvania and the largest city in Northwestern Pennsylvania with a population of 94,831 a ...

as the AD for Mercyhurst. in 2011 he assumed the role as commissioner of the

American Lacrosse Conference The American Lacrosse Conference (ALC) was a women's lacrosse-only college athletic conference whose members competed at the Division I level of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). All of the ALC's members throughout its histor ...

, remaining with the league until it was absorbed by the

Big Ten The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference) is the oldest Division I collegiate athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representati ...

in 2014. During his time with the ALC Barnett was tabbed by the

as coordinator of player personnel for both the NA3HL and NAPHL eventually working up to become director of player personnel for the NAHL. Barnett also returned to coaching in 2013, accepting the job at Cathedral Prep (with whom he won a state title in 2015) and three years later became the commissioner of the entire state ice hockey league. Barnett has also served as commissioner of the

since 2014. (as of 2016)

Head coaching record

College

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Barnett, Craig Living people 1965 births Ice hockey people from Oakville, Ontario Canadian ice hockey coaches Findlay Oilers men's ice hockey coaches