Dominick Dawes is an American ice hockey coach and former player who was the

NCAA Division III NCAA Division III (D-III) is a division of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States. D-III consists of athletic programs at colleges and universities that choose not to offer athletic scholarships to their stu ...

coach of the year Many sports leagues, sportswriting associations, and other organizations confer "Coach of the Year" awards. In some sports — including baseball and association football — the award is called the "Manager of the Year" award. Some of the ...

Career

Dawes played for

Thomas R. Proctor High School Thomas R. Proctor High School is the only high school in the Utica City School District in Utica, New York. The school was built in 1934 with funds from the Works Progress Administration and Thomas R. Proctor. It opened its doors on September 9 ...

Utica, New York Utica () is a Administrative divisions of New York, city in the Mohawk Valley and the county seat of Oneida County, New York, United States. The List of cities in New York, tenth-most-populous city in New York State, its population was 65,283 ...

. Upon graduating, Dawes played four years at

Norwich Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. Norwich is by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. As the seat of the See of Norwich, with ...

for head coach

Mike McShane Michael McShane is an American actor, singer, and improvisational comedian. He appeared on the original British television show '' Whose Line Is It Anyway?'' (1988–97) and went on to appear in films such as '' Tucker: The Man and His Dream ( ...

. In his junior season, Dawes helped the Cadets win the program's second

National Championship A national championship(s) is the top achievement for any sport or competition, contest within a league of a particular nation or nation state. The title is usually awarded by contests, ranking systems, stature, ability, etc. This determines the be ...

. After graduating with a degree in business management, Dawes played two years of professional hockey in the low-level

Southern Professional Hockey League The Southern Professional Hockey League (SPHL) is a professional ice hockey independent minor league based in Huntersville, North Carolina, with teams located primarily in the southeastern United States as well as Illinois and Indiana in the mid ...

where he lost every fight he was in before retiring as a player. In 2006, Dawes began his coaching career, first serving as an assistant at

Hamilton Hamilton may refer to: People * Hamilton (name), a common British surname and occasional given name, usually of Scottish origin, including a list of persons with the surname ** The Duke of Hamilton, the premier peer of Scotland ** Lord Hamilt ...

. After two years, he was named as the head coach for

Neumann Neumann is German language, German and Yiddish language, Yiddish for "new man", and one of the List of the most common surnames in Europe#Germany, 20 most common German surnames. People * Von Neumann family, a Jewish Hungarian noble family A� ...

and looked to help the 10-year-old program continue to improve. In his first season, Dawes led the Knights to a respectable record but the team shone once the postseason began. Neumann won three games to win its first ever conference tournament and earned an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. Neumann received the fifth eastern seed and played its first tournament game against conference rival Elmira. After a narrow win in the first round, they took down #1 overall seed

Plattsburgh State The State University of New York College at Plattsburgh (SUNY Plattsburgh) is a public college in Plattsburgh, New York. The college was founded in 1889 and officially opened in 1890. The college is part of the State University of New York (SUN ...

5–4 in overtime. The Knights continued their magical run with a 2–0 shutout in the national semifinal and then pulled off probably the most surprising championship victory when they downed

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in the final. Dawes was named as the National Division III coach of the year and became just the second person to win a D-III title as both a player and a coach, the first being

Tim Coghlin Tim Coghlin (born March 24, 1964) is a college men's ice hockey coach. He has been the men's ice hockey head coach at St. Norbert College since 1994. Hockey player Coghlin grew up in western Canada and enrolled at the University of Wisconsin&ndas ...

. After the title, Dawes began taking classes at Neumann and earned a

master's A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.

in strategic leadership. Dawes continued to lead his team to winning records in each of the next four seasons, capturing a second conference championship in 2013. Unfortunately, because the

ECAC West ECAC West was a college athletic conference which operated in the northeastern United States until 2017. It participated in the NCAA's Division III as a hockey-only conference. The conference ceased to exist after the end of the 2016–17 season wh ...

had lost its automatic qualifier due to a lack of membership programs, he wasn't able to get Neumann back to the NCAA Tournament. In 2015, Dawes left Neumann to become the first head coach for the program at Stevenson, which would begin play the following year. Despite being a brand new team, the Mustangs played well out of the gate, posting a winning record in just their second year and finishing near the top of the conference more often than not.

Statistics

Regular season and playoffs

Head coaching record

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Dawes, Dominick 1980 births American ice hockey coaches American men's ice hockey players Living people Ice hockey people from New York (state) People from Utica, New York Norwich Cadets men's ice hockey players Norwich University alumni