Shortly after Tony Amonte (Hingham, Mass.) resigned from his post as the boys’ hockey coach at Thayer Academy, a job he held for 12 years, assistant coach Matt Collins (Quincy, Mass.) called an old friend from his Thayer playing days: David Hymovitz (Needham, Mass.).
It wasn’t a call to inquire about Hymovitz potentially taking over the job. The two ex-Thayer teammates discussed the program and its future. The director of hockey operations for the Boston Junior Eagles always kept tabs on his alma mater. Collins wanted to pick his brain.
Shortly after the call ended, Hymovitz asked himself a question: “Would I ever want to do that?”
Then came the answer: “Wow, that’d be kind of cool.”
Hymovitz went through the whole process and through the trips to campus and talks with Thayer’s administrators, he realized more and more that he was very interested. The “wow, that’d be kind of cool” turned to interest. From there, it turned into a job offer. He accepted it.
Despite helping out with the Needham High School girls’ team for the past four years, being a high school head coach was never on his radar. There was one exception.
“If there was one high school job I would want,” Hymovitz said, “It’s Thayer.”
Balancing the Jr. Eagles with Thayer
Hymovitz will remain in his full-time position as director of hockey operations for the Boston Junior Eagles. He runs the program with all of its 37 teams and roughly 600 players. It’s his ninth season in the position.
“I absolutely love it,” Hymovitz said.
It will take some balancing, but Hymovitz doesn’t think either job will be hurt by the other.
“I don’t expect it to change,” Hymovitz said. “I’m obviously going to be busier in the sense of I’ll be down at Thayer at the rink. Practice is different every day. It’s not just getting down there and jumping on the ice, running practice and leaving. There’s so much more to it. Getting down there early, whether it’s getting ready for practice or a game or just being around so the kids can come talk to you about hockey, life, school, whatever it is.
“I look at it like — I’m now dealing with freshmen to seniors. It’s an impressionable age.”
It’s not the first time Hymovitz has dealt with kids in this age group. With the Jr. Eagles, he coaches his son Ty’s U14 team. In the past, he’s jumped behind the bench for U16 and U18 teams.
And, of course, there’s running the entire program.
“I think just the variety of players and families and people that I deal with can only help me,” Hymovitz said.
Setting a culture
In 1992, Hymovitz was selected by the Chicago Blackhawks in the ninth round of the NHL Draft. After leaving Boston College in 1996, his 10-year career included stops in the IHL, ECHL, AHL and UHL. From the Columbus Chill to the infamous Danbury Trashers, Hymovitz played everywhere.
Ultimately, it was his time at BC that left the most impactful impression.
When Hymovitz was a junior, the Eagles hired Jerry York (Watertown, Mass.) as their new head coach. The bedrock of the BC program was forever shifted.
“Literally when he walked through that door and we had our first meeting, you just felt it,” Hymovitz said. “You knew things were going to be different and I don’t mean, ‘Oh this guy is going to be negative.’ It was just the presence he had when he walked in. He was so positive. Everything was upbeat.”
York’s culture hasn’t left Hymovitz. Neither has his desire to win.
“In the end, you want to win,” Hymovitz said. “Our goal from Day 1 is going to be to win a [New England Prep School Athletic Conference] championship. That’s every single prep school’s goal when they start. Just because I’m a new coach and I don’t know the team like these other coaches that were here long term, that doesn’t matter.”
That culture is essential to Thayer’s ability to compete, and Hymovitz knows that. That could take a month or it could take three years — Hymovitz also knows that.
While at BC, he regularly went back to hop on the ice at his alma mater during Christmas time. He wants that sense of family to be the culture at Thayer.
“I want them to come back to games,” Hymovitz said. “I want them to reach out to myself or Matt [Collins] or whoever is coaching…I just want everybody to know that all these players that leave here that, ‘Hey I was a part of something great there.’ And I’m not talking about wins or losses. That’ll come. It’s just part of that program, part of that culture. Be proud of it.
“In the end, it’s what these kids built. Yes, we’ll guide them that way but in the end, it’s about whoever pulled over a jersey. It’s what they built.”
What a Hymovitz-coached Thayer will look like
Hymovitz doesn’t like hockey cliches. So when he began to call himself a players’ coach, he stopped himself. Still, Hymovitz coaches with his players’ on-ice tendencies first.
He gives all players he coaches a message: don’t be a robot.
“Hockey’s not football,” Hymovitz said. “You can’t say this is the set play you’re going to run. It’s a game of reaction. It’s a game of mistakes and how you react to those mistakes. I want my forwards to be creative. It’s not come in over the blue line and here’s your set play, this is what I want you to do. I don’t know what the defense is doing. I want them to play their game.”
Thayer lost its top two scorers from last season. Defenseman CJ Foley (Hanover, Mass.), who posted 31 points in 22 games last season, left for the BCHL’s Salmon Arm Silverbacks. Forward Gavin Cornforth (Milton, Mass.), who burst onto the scene last year with 12 goals and 30 points in 22 games, is playing for the Dubuque Fighting Saints in the USHL.
That doesn’t mean Hymovitz won’t have weapons at his disposal. Up front, there are seniors Shane Taddia (Medford, Mass.) and Colin Richard (Foxboro, Mass.), as well as sophomores Tommy Anderson (Braintree, Mass.), Tyler Kelly (Quincy, Mass.), Brady Kudrick (Norwell, Mass.) and Kevin Delay (Hingham, Mass.).
Hymovitz will have a young group on defense led by juniors Vinny Sica (Canton, Mass.) and Brady Erickson (Marshfield, Mass.). Senior Beau Lane will be a huge bright spot in net.
The new head coach knows that along with developing these players on the ice, he also wants to ensure he’s giving them the best support off of it.
“I’m not just a hockey coach,” Hymovitz said. “If you have a problem in math or English, I’m not going to be a tutor, but I can point you in the right direction. That’s what we’re here for whether it’s reaching out to somebody at the school and saying, ‘Hey this kid is really struggling, he’s coming to meet.’
“As a hockey coach, I just want these kids to play hard and have a lot of fun and know that I’m in their corner both on and off the ice.”
Hymovitz got the job two weeks ago. The season begins this month. Fortunately for him, at his direction, Collins and Bob Kelley (Duxbury, Mass.) will stay on as assistant coaches. Robert McGovern (Weymouth, Mass.) is the goalie coach. Both Collins and Kelley have deep relationships with the current roster and are helping Hymovitz get up to speed in a very short amount of time.
“It’s good,” Hymovitz said. “You don’t have much time to think about it.”
The new Thayer bench boss has already begun watching video of the team from last year. He met with the older players last Wednesday. Next week he has a meeting scheduled with the entire group of players trying out.
“I don’t want the first time they see my face to be on the ice,” he said.
Hymovitz hopes that for the players, that first meeting is the start of a relationship with Thayer that never ends.
“I want [the kids] to know it’s always an open door back with our program whether it’s me or just coming back to the program for anything,” he said. “I want them to know they can call me for anything too.”
