Merrimack coach happy to be back home

Friday, January 13, 2012

When it comes to his hockey coaching career at Merrimack High School, first-year Tomahawks head coach Kurt Mithoefer may have his mother to thank.

Everyone usually does, but this is different. Mithoefer’s mom, Kathy, spearheaded the move to help start the hockey program two decades ago.

“It was because I played, and I didn’t have a place to play high school,” Mithoefer said. “Back then, the prep school scene wasn’t real big, and if I was going anywhere, I would have had to go out of state. My Mom wanted me to stay in-state, so she helped get the high school going. She comes to the games now and gets more excited than I do I think sometimes.”

That was back in late 1990s, and Mithoefer actually went on to play highly competitive non-varsity hockey as a steady 20-goal scorer at Arizona State University, of all places, and even had a minor league tryout. But here he is, back at his high school alma mater, running the show behind the bench for the first time after a year as an assistant. Indeed, he was the logical – and popular – choice to succeed the successful Dan Legro as the ’Hawks head man, and the team hasn’t appeared to miss a beat.

“Absolutely,” Merrimack athletic director Andy Krahling said. “The kids really like him. He was the perfect fit.”

Mithoefer brings a lot of hockey credibility with him. After a solid high school career at Merrimack, he played a year at New England College on the frozen tundra of Henniker. For a college kid, even a hockey kid, that territory was too frigid.

“Me and a couple of Swedish guys that were at New England decided let’s go somewhere where it’s sunny, we can be at the pool and then play hockey in the afternoon,” Mithoefer said. “So we went out to Arizona State. It was amazing.”

Basically, it was high level club hockey, a higher level than perhaps NCAA-affiliated Division III hockey would have been had he opted for that.

“It was a Division I style team. We flew everywhere. We had regionals and nationals,” he said. “It wasn’t NCAA, but it was a West Coast version of that. The Division I teams out there probably would have been top Division III here. We flew anywhere from Washington, to Denver, to Pennsylvania. It was awesome.”

And impressive.

“I think playing at a higher level shows more of a commitment to the game,” Krahling said. “Even though it was a club team, it was a high level of hockey, very good hockey, and the kids respect that.”

Mithoefer learned a lot about the game playing in college, as he admits he’s lived and breathed the sport – even though he dislikes the cold. The odd thing is, when he had the chance to continue things professionally, he passed it up. Mithoefer was invited to a minor league tryout camp in Detroit early in his senior year with the Memphis RiverKings, then of the Central Hockey League (they’re now the Mississippi RiverKings of the Southern Hockey League, loosely affiliated with the Toronto Maple Leafs).

In fact, he was offered a contract – a sometime dream that was coming true. But he passed it up and went back to ASU.

Why?

“I was always told ‘finish school,’” Mithoefer said. “You can always play. But looking back on it now, I wish I had taken up that opportunity. I went knowing it was a good possibility (that a contract would be offered). Once they offered it, it was back and forth, talking with friends and family, and it was finish school first and see what was down the line.”

Well, what was down the line was a degree from ASU in communications. Mithoefer, despite his GQ appearance, actually worked behind the camera at a television station in South Carolina. Then he came home, where he now works full time as a project manager for BAE Systems.

But he knew he wanted to stay in hockey, and gave Krahling a call last year. He ended up as the top assistant on a Tomahawk team that reached the Division II title game.

“When I came back in Merrimack, I knew I wanted to coach in Merrimack,” Mithoefer said. “I knew they had been through a string of tough times. Coming back here I knew I wanted to coach here and help get them back on the right track.”

And now his goal is to keep them on that track. The ’Hawks won their first eight games, four of them in the prestigious Bauer Tournament over the holidays. An offensive player, Mithoefer is more down to earth in his approach than the philosophical Legro, but he learned a lot under the former ’Hawks coach, who left to take the job at Manchester Central.

“Coaching with Dan last year was good,” he said. “I had a good working relationship with the kids last year. They respected my knowledge of the game and what I could bring to them.

“I love the game. When I had the opportunity to keep teaching it to others now, and pass on my knowledge, it’s awesome.”