New hockey coaches get ready for season

Thursday, December 8, 2011

Sometimes, the local high school ice hockey off-season consists of a game of musical coaching chairs.

This happens to be one of those years.

Three boys hockey teams will have new coaches when they open their seasons next week – Nashua South, Merrimack and Souhegan.

OK, see if you can follow this: Dan Belliveau, who coached Nashua South the last two years, but won only one game, is now the head man at Souhegan. He replaces Ed Viola, who left to become an assistant men’s hockey coach at Daniel Webster College.

John Vlachos, who some may know as the Milford girls soccer coach, replaced Belliveau at Nashua South.

Finally, Dan Legro, who guided Merrimack to a spot in the Division II finals last March, is now the head coach at Manchester Central, where he teaches. He is replaced at Merrimack by his top assistant from a year ago, Kurt Mithoefer.

First, Vlachos.

The job was vacant after Belliveau stepped down last spring and Vlachos was just recently hired. Although he’s never been a head high school hockey coach, he came highly recommended by University of New Hampshire head men’s coach Dick Umile, a longtime friend whom he coached with at Watertown (Mass.) High School as an assistant in the late 1970s. Vlachos also served as an assistant at Melrose (Mass.) High School, and while in New Hampshire, has coached in the Manchester Youth Hockey system, mainly with travel teams. He last coached the game in 2005, yet beat out a field of only a few candidates that sources say included, at least at one point, former Panthers and Souhegan coach John Coughlin.

“I always said if I wanted to get back into coaching, I’d step into high school coaching first,” Vlachos said. “I talked to Dick Umile about it. I understand the difficulty they’ve had in the past. But I’ve had great support from the administration and the hockey community.”

“He came recommended by Dick Umile, and we loved his passion and enthusiasm,” Nashua athletic director Tom Arria said.

Belliveau knows full well the struggles South has had competing in Division I, going winless last season with several undersized players. Perhaps seeing no ready-made solution, the Panther alum took his philosophy over to Souhegan, which missed the Division III tournament for the first time since dropping down from Division II eight years ago.

“I wanted to go where I had a chance to have a competitive team,” Belliveau said. “I don’t really have any comment about the South job except I wish John and the kids all the best of luck. The kids there were great.”

Belliveau said the Sabers job was just too good not to give it another shot.

“It’s a viable program with plenty of support all the way around,” he said. “That’s what attracted me to the job.”

Meanwhile, Legro’s departure from Merrimack was sudden. He was just recently hired at Central, and the Tomahawks acted fast in promoting Mithoefer, who played at the school from 1998-2002. He also played a year at New England College and three years at Arizona State.

Merrimack went 16-1-1 last year and lost to Dover in the title game, and have a handful of key returnees from that team ready to help Mithoefer be successful in his first year at the helm.

“I had been talking with Dan for awhile on how I wanted to be a head coach someday,” Mithoefer said. “I definitely want to leverage off how he kind of built it. Last year’s team and this year’s team are family focused. I look to keep that mentality.”