June 1, 2011
June 1, 2011 Introductory Press Conference for Penn State Head Women's Ice Hockey Coach Josh Brandwene
Athletic Director Tim Curley
Opening Statement:
Good afternoon everyone. Let me just add my thank you for all of you joining us for this very special announcement today. This is a very exciting day for us in the department and the university and I'm glad all of you can join us. Before we introduce our new head coach for our women's ice hockey program, let me first recognize a few people and say a few thank-yous for getting us to this point today. I first really want to express my appreciation on behalf of the department to Mo Stroemel, the current coach of the club program, for all of his hard work and service that got us to this point today. Mo and his staff and the volunteers and people around the program really put us in a position to be able to elevate the program to varsity status. They have been big members of the community, both the Icers' family and the women's ice hockey program. They've been a big, big part of the Greenberg Indoor Sports Complex and the Ice Facility. To Mo, just thank you so much for all of your efforts and getting us to this spot.
Also, they unfortunately cannot be here but maybe some of them are watching on the Internet, I do want to thank Mo's current team and thank our past women's ice hockey student-athletes for all that they've done. They put a lot into this program and built it up to the point where we've had great success across the board and the student-athletes should be recognized and very much appreciated for all of their hard work as well.
I wanted to recognize the search committee. We had an outstanding pool of candidates for this position- a lot of interest. The search committee spent a lot of time looking at the credentials of all the different candidates. We were very pleased with the quality of the pool of candidates, particularly the final group that was interviewed for this position. I want to thank Joe Battista, who oversaw the search as the chair. I want to thank Linda Caldwell, our NCAA faculty representative. She could not be with us today, she's in D.C. on business. She certainly had a great role in this and Erikka Runkle, Dayna Wenger, Mark Sherburne and Matt Stolberg, our compliance officer- I really want to thank all of them for this outstanding result that I'm about to announce.
We're very proud today to welcome back to Penn State Josh Brandwene as the first head coach of the women's varsity hockey team. Josh will lead the Nittany Lions transition into NCAA Division I competition, which starts in 2012-13. His wealth of experience and unique hockey background has prepared him to build our program and we are excited to have him on board. Josh is joined today by his wife Leona seated here in the front, who also happens to be a Penn State graduate- a 1991 graduate- and their lovely daughter Sophie. Sophie, it's nice to have you back in Happy Valley. Also joining him today is his father Steve, who is a 1964 Penn State graduate. I think we have a little blue and white running in the veins here up front. We welcome all of you back to Happy Valley! (applause)
Josh is a former Icer team captain and Most Valuable Player. He's a member of the 1990 ACHA National Championship team and an ICHL All-Star and MVP player. Josh broke the Icers' career record for points by a defenseman. I'm not sure this a great record, because it was previously held by our former Icers head coach and current Associate Athletic Director for Ice Hockey Operations, Joe Battista. So, we're not counting that one as a great accomplishment. It would be an average accomplishment. (laughter)
Josh brings 20 years of coaching and administrative experience at the international, collegiate and prep school levels to Penn State. Most recently, he was the head coach of the girl's ice hockey team from 2008-10 at Kingswood Oxford School in West Hartford, Connecticut. Josh's previous coaching experience included stints as the assistant coach of the Team USA men's ice hockey team at the 2003 World University Games as well as the head coach of the men's hockey teams at the ACHA power Delaware and top New England prep program Northfield Mount Hermon. His accomplishments reach well beyond any one team or institution as evidenced by his impact on the national level as the being only four-term president of the ACHA and a member of the American Hockey Coaches Association Board of Governors. In 2009, Josh was inducted into the ACHA Hall of Fame. We are very, very proud to welcome back to Happy Valley Josh Brandwene.
Coach Josh Brandwene
Opening Statement:
I think the best word to sum up the experience for me so far is gratitude. I'd like to thank President (Graham) Spanier, Mr. (Tim) Curley and Joe Battista for entrusting me with the process of continuing to build this program. I would also like to thank the many people that I've had the opportunity to meet and interact with so far on this campus in my brief time here already. It truly is the people that make this place special and to have the opportunity to call them colleagues and be a part of this special institution is really incredible. I'd like to thank my dad Steve for being here today- a lot of miles on the Pennsylvania Turnpike growing up back in the day playing hockey, so I'm glad he's here today. My wife Leona of over 19 years, we met in the Intramural Building. We were actually engaged at center ice at Greenberg a long time ago. I have no bigger champion or supporter than she. So, I'm glad that she's her today as well. To my beautiful daughter Sophie, I am just amazed at how brave you are and how special you are. You are my hero, and sweetie, no matter how busy dad gets- and he's going to be a busy guy- you're always number one. I love you. I am just thrilled beyond words to be back. It's a great day in Happy Valley, it really is.
Questions
Q: Were you looking to get into college coaching or was it the Penn State ties that brought you back?
A: Probably a little bit of both. A lot of it was right place, right time. This is just a special time with the gift from the Pegula family. It was such a wonderful, wonderful sort of transformative opportunity for me as a coach to coach the girl's program at the Kingswood Oxford School and had a chance from there to spend some considerable time being at some women's college games. I remember coming back from one and picking up the phone and called Leona and I said, "Wow, if I ever had that kind of opportunity that is absolutely the right place for me and the right place for my skill set." Between that and the timing of everything here at this wonderful place, it all just sort of came together.
Q: When will you begin with the recruiting process and where will you like to recruit?
A: I am going to be very busy and traveling right away- a lot of travel to be had and miles will be under the belt literally in the next 24 hours or so. The women's game has grown so much, especially over the last decade or so that there will absolutely be a national and international focus to what we're doing, because it really is all about the inside-out and attracting the right people, the right motivated students and the right athletes to really represent this university in the manner which it needs to be represented. That's very much going to be a national and international effort.
Q: How challenging will the transition to Division I be and can you equate it to anything in your previous coaching experience?
A: I think in exact apples to apples, probably not, but over my 20 years as a head coach I've prided myself on the challenge of building a program in every way, shape and form. From its culture to how it needs to represent the university, to being as competitive as humanly possible as quickly as possible. It's something that I've been proud I've been able to do at so many different places. I'm really looking forward to the challenge here.
Q: How do you foresee the interaction with the men's program?
A: It is something that I've given a lot of thought to and had experience with both as a men's coach and as a women's coach in previous places that I've been. The culture that exists between those two entities is incredibly important. A contentious relationship is not acceptable. A neutral relationship is not acceptable. There needs to be just an incredible synergy and harmony between everything that we do, because really at the end of the day that's what makes coming to the rink special for all of the student-athletes involved in the program. I had the opportunity yesterday to meet Coach (Guy) Gadowsky for the first time and I can tell you as an alum of the men's program, I am thrilled that he is here with the energy and the passion that he brings. I am just so looking forward to the interactions that we're going to have as staff members and our student-athletes being at the rink on a day-to-day basis. It's that passion, that synergy and that harmony that just makes the experience an incredible one. That's something that I'm very much looking forward to being a part of.