COACH WALSH NAMED
EMPIRE LEAGUE
COACH OF THE MONTH

 

 

Syracuse Stars Jr. B coach John "Walshy" Walsh was voted the Empire League "Coach of the Month" for January. Walsh earned the award after guiding the team to an 8-1 record for the month.

This is coach Walsh’s 26th season behind the bench. He has been coaching in the Stars organization for Don Kirnan since 1985 where he was an assistant coach for the Jr. B team of the New York Penn Jr hockey league. Coach Walsh or Walshy as his friends and players call him, went back to coach the Bantam 14 and under team in 2000. The team won the New York State championship and was a finalist in the Nationals that year. After the 2000 season he returned to the Jr A team of the Ontario Provincial Tier II Jr A hockey league, as an assistant coach. The following season he became the head coach, and since then has coached the Jr A team and the Jr B team on and off. This past season (07/08 ) he was the assistant coach of the Jr A team. Coach Walsh also worked with the Syracuse Crunch team from 1995 – 1999 serving under Jack McIlhargey and then Stan Smyl. Coach Walsh has had several of his former players go on to play in the NHL, AHL, ECHL, SPHL, division I & division III college hockey, as well as the USA program. “My passion is to teach young hockey player’s how to develop their skills, and get them to the next level”.