The American Hockey Coaches Association (AHCA) is pleased to announce the individuals who will receive the 2008 AHCA Major Awards in April in Naples, FL, at the 2008 AHCA Annual Convention:

THE JOHN MACINNES AWARD: Established by the AHCA in 1982 to honor former Michigan Tech coach, John MacInnes, this award recognizes those people who have shown a great concern for amateur hockey and youth programs. The recipients have had high winning percentages, as well as outstanding graduating percentages among their former players. The winners of this award have helped young men grow not only as hockey players, but more importantly, as men.

2008 Recipient: Doug Woog, Minnesota

As a player, coach and administrator, Doug Woog has achieved success in all three of these areas of hockey. The former University of Minnesota men’s hockey coach guided the Gophers to an average of nearly 28 wins per season and seven league championships during his 14-year tenure (1985-1999). During this time, the Gophers made 12 NCAA appearances in 14 seasons, six NCAA Final Four appearances, and Woog became Minnesota’s all-time winningest coach with a 389-187-40 record (.664).

Woog is a 1962 graduate of South St. Paul High School, where he garnered all-state hockey honors for three consecutive years and played in four Minnesota State High School Hockey Tournaments. Upon completion of his prep career, he attended the University of Minnesota and played under the legendary coach, John Mariucci. Woog led the Gophers in scoring and earned All-American honors his junior year (1965). He captained the Gophers his senior season and was named team Most Valuable Player.

After graduating from Minnesota, Woog played for the 1967 U.S. National Team at the International Ice Hockey Federation Men’s World Championships in Vienna, Austria and was a candidate of the 1968 Olympic Team.

In 1971, Woog joined the coaching ranks and directed the St. Paul Vulcans to two Junior National titles. Woog returned to South St. Paul High School in 1977 as head coach of the boys’ hockey team. Over the next six years, his Packer teams won two conference titles and advanced to the state tournament four times.

Woog served as assistant coach for the 1984 Olympic Team that competed in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia. Additionally, throughout his career, Woog served in various coaching positions on many U.S. National Teams from 1978-1989 and he took on numerous administrative duties for USA Hockey.

In 2000, Woog was inducted into the University of Minnesota’s Athletic Hall of Fame and in 2002 was Inducted into the United States Hockey Hall of Fame. In 1999, Woog resigned as the University of Minnesota’s head hockey coach to take an assistant athletic director position at Minnesota. In addition to his work at Minnesota, Woog is a television analyst and runs his own youth hockey camps.

TERRY FLANAGAN AWARD: Named in honor of the former UNH player and Bowling Green Assistant, this award honors an assistant coach’s career body of work.

2008 Recipient: Dave Peters, Providence and Dartmouth

Dave Peters is in his ninth season at Dartmouth College. He is one of the most accomplished assistant coaches and recruiters in the country. Peters has a proven record for improving programs and helping to develop players. His responsibilities at Dartmouth include recruiting, coaching the forwards and the power play.

Dartmouth has had an All-America forward in each of the last four seasons and in 2007 David Jones became Dartmouth’s first Hobey Baker finalist. In 2004 Dartmouth had three players selected among the top 100 picks of the NHL draft, and in 2002-03 the Big Green had the highest scoring freshman class in the country.

From 1993-98, Peters was the top assistant and recruiting coordinator at Providence College. In his third season, Peters helped lead the Friars to the 1996 Hockey East Championship and a trip to the NCAA tournament. It marked the first and only time that Providence made back-to-back trips to the Hockey East finals.

In May of 1998, Peters was named head coach and general manager of the Danville Wings junior hockey team, where he assembled a team that went on to win the 2000 North American Hockey League Championship and finish third in the nation. From 1990-93, as the top assistant and recruiting coordinator, Peters was a driving force in building the Kent State University hockey program into a competitive CCHA member.

Peters spends part of the off -season working for USA Hockey, coaching and helping to develop elite players in New England. Peters is a 1982 graduate of Boston College with a bachelors degree in marketing.

THE JOHN MARIUCCI AWARD: Presented annually to a secondary school coach coach in memory of the “Godfather of Minnesota hockey,” John Mariucci.

2008 Recipient: Ray Pratt, Lake Placid H.S. (NY)

Ray Pratt was born and raised in Lake Placid NY, where he was a standout hockey player. He attended St. Lawrence University and played hockey there for four years. In three of those years his team was an NCAA Final Four participant.

He returned to Lake Placid High School where he taught history and was head varsity hockey coach from 1964-76. His Coaching record at Lake Placid High School was 167-64-3 with 27 of those losses in his first two years. Prior to 1980 New York State did not have a State Championship. Coach Pratt’s teams won numerous sectional Championships during his twelve year career. After retirement from Lake Placid H.S. in 1976, Ray was appointed Sports Director of the 1980 Winter Olympic Committee. He was elected to the Lake Placid Hall of Fame in 1997.

In 2005 Ray was inducted into the New York State High School Ice Hockey Coaches Association Hall of Fame.

Some of Coach Pratt’s former players include: Bill Beaney, Head Coach, Middlebury College; Ed Seney, Head Coach, Saint Anselm College; Jeff Beaney, Head Coach, Southern Maine; Tom Pratt, former Head Coach, New England College; Pete Sears, Oswego State Hall of Fame, 1972 US Olympic Hockey Team.

THE JIM FULLERTON AWARD: Named in honor of the former Brown University hockey coach and AHCA spiritual leader, this award recognizes an individual who loves the purity of our sport. Whether a coach, administrator, trainer, official, journalist or simply a fan, the recipient exemplifies Jim.

2008 Recipient: Charley Holden, NIHOA and NCAA

A native of Melrose, MA, Charley Holden was an outstanding player at Melrose High School, the Kent’s Hill School and Norwich University, graduating from the latter in 1967. Following graduation, Holden was a Captain in the United States Army, seeing two years of active duty in Vietnam.

For better than three decades, Charley balanced a life developing a variety of businesses and serving amateur hockey at the same time. He had sucess in the fields of sporting goods, real estate, nursing homes, and recreational vehicles, to name a few enterprises. For the past 23 years, he has been Owner and President of Cap World, Inc., a truck cap accessory stores with 14 locations throughout New England, Virginia, Maryland and Florida.

But his true love has been ice hockey and he remained in the game as a referee, a supervisor, and the NCAA’s first Coordinator of Officials. He officiated at the high school and college ranks, working some of the most prestigious events along the way. As an administrator, he was president of the Eastern Massachusetts Chapter of NIHOA rising to supervisor work with Hockey East and eventually becoming the first person to hold the NCAA Coordinator position.

His other passion remains Norwich University, where he has served on the University Board of Trustees and received the Distinguished Alumni Award.

THE JOHN “SNOOKS” KELLEY FOUNDERS AWARD: Named after the famed Boston College coach, this award honors those people in the coaching profession who have contributed to the overall growth and development of the sport of ice hockey in the United States.

2008 Recipient: John Russo, Minnesota Hockey

John Russo founded the nation’s best and most scouted midget league, the Upper Midwest High School Elite League. He also founded Russo Hockey Training Programs, which became the premier skill clinics in Minnesota, by utilizing innovative teaching techniques and emphasizing a coaching process rather than relying on any specific coach. And John Russo has essentially used diverse ways to freely distribute his considerable expertise and experience, writing a famed column for “Let’s Play Hockey” newspaper and dispensing advice to coaches, parents and players who simply call on any given day.

Russo learned to play on outdoor rinks in Ste. St. Marie, Michigan. He played at the University of Wisconsin from 1962-66, captaining both the 1965 and 1966 squads. The 1962 Badger club and John Russo were recently inducted into the University of Wisconsin Athletic Hall of Fame. While Russo tried out for the 1963 Detroit Red Wings, his future lay in coaching.

Throughout the next four decades John Russo coached minor hockey teams throughout Iowa and Minnesota, from squirts to high school to major college club teams. From the 1970’s to the 2000’s, John Russo was a head or assistant coach for: Iowa State University (1972-82/1983-85); Ames, Iowa Minor YHA, founder (1974–86); Prior Lake, MN HS (1983); St. Louis Park, MN HS (1987-89); Breck, MN HS (1986-87/1989-90); Minneapolis South, MN HS (1991-92); Farmington, MN HS (1993-94); The Blake School, MN (1995-2002).

THE JOE BURKE AWARD: Presented annually to the person who has given outstanding contribution, support, and dedication to women’s ice hockey.

2008 Recipient: Maurice FitzMaurice, CT Polar Bears

“Fitz” has been instrumental in the development of Women’s Hockey at the youth level nationally. He has had numerous players graduate from his program and go on to have tremendous careers in college hockey at the DI and DIII levels.

In 1985, Maurice FitzMaurice’s daughter Marnie wanted the opportunity to play ice hockey along with a couple of other young girls. “Fitz” and a few other fathers decided to organize a Pee Wee Girls program; this created the Connecticut Polar Bears. Since 1985 the only all girl’s ice hockey program in Connecticut has grown to nine teams.

For 20 years FitzMaurice has maintained the program’s budget, coached the Midget program and organized one of the largest Christmas tournaments in North America. This year the tournament hosted about 275 teams, playing across Connecticut.

Fitz’s success is more in the philosophy of the program which is “excellence in education and athletics for women”. In the 20 years Fitz has been at the helm he has pushed the young women of the program to succeed in the classroom at many prestigious collegiate institutions. In addition, the program has produced four Olympians; Sue Merz, A.J. Mleczko, Julie Chu and Angela Ruggiero.

NOTE: All of the awards will be presented at the AHCA Coach of the Year Banquet on the evening of April 26, except the Joe Burke Award, which will be presented at a special women’s coaches reception on April 23. Both events will take place at the Naples Beach Hotel and Golf Club in Naples, FL.

Click here to view all past winners of these awards