Former UMass associate head coach Ben Barr was named as Red Gendron’s replacement as the University of Maine head coach early last month after the latter’s sudden passing.
Everything happened quickly for Barr after UMass' national championship run this spring. In just five years, UMass went from a program that won as many games in his first season, to the school’s first NCAA title after reaching the Frozen Four final in 2019, but losing to the University of Minnesota-Duluth. In 2021, the Minutemen defeated St. Cloud State to secure the big prize.
Barr is putting the pieces into place and enacting his vision and strategy for the 2021-22 Black Bears season in Hockey East. Assistant coach Alfie Michaud will stay on with the team and assume the responsibilities of departed associate head coach Ben Guite. Another assistant coaching hire is in the works, and an official announcement is expected in the next couple of weeks.
The biggest takeaway from talking to Maine’s newest coach is that he has apprenticed as a player and assistant under some of the finest hockey minds in the sport. From them, he learned intricate systems and details at an early age, helping him to his first head coaching opportunity at age 39.
Learning the value of coaching
Barr witnessed the rise of his home state’s storied Shattuck St. Mary’s School in the late 1990s as a player and was part of the Sabres’ first national championship team in 1999. While there, he was coached by J.P. Parise, Andy Murray and Tom Ward, taking advantage of that experience to play at RPI from 2000-04.
“I really understood the value of coaching at that young age,” said Barr of his four years in Faribault, Minn. “I think I realized that I wouldn’t have had the opportunities I ended up having at RPI if it wasn’t for the phenomenal coaches we had at Shattuck.”
Barr noted that as graduate of Shattuck, he’s been able to watch from afar since he left and see that SSM has stayed true to the values and vision that built the former military academy into the national hockey power it has been for more than two decades.
“Shattuck is still the same today. (Tom) Ward is still coaching there, and they haven’t sacrificed their principles in what they believed in from 25 years ago when they started things. They still attract the right kind of student-athlete. It’s not for everyone, they aren’t going to make sacrifices or compromises for so-and-so player who’s supposed to be a first-round pick someday. They’re still going to expect the same behavior, they’ll still expect for every player to play the right way no matter who they are.
“I owe so much to any opportunity that I’ve had to that, honestly. I’ll always be indebted to that school.”
Getting on the coaching train
Barr spent all four years at RPI, serving as captain his senior season in 2003-04. The NHL lockout led to Barr not turning pro and getting a job with HSBC Bank in the Albany area. He volunteered locally as a minor hockey coach. That connection ignited his desire to coach at the highest levels and opened the door for Barr to become a volunteer assistant under Seth Appert at his alma mater in the 2007-08 season.
The year he spent at RPI was a fateful one, as he worked with Jim Montgomery, who was on the staff. The two formed a bond that has endured over the years as Montgomery won championships in the USHL with Dubuque, the NCAA at Denver University and reached the NHL as head coach of the Dallas Stars. Montgomery, Barr said, had a positive impact in his hiring as a member of Maine's search committee.
After one year at RPI, Barr continued to learn from some of college hockey’s brightest minds. He served as an assistant under Nate Leaman both at Union and Providence College from 2009-14. He joined his Shattuck coach and former NHL bench boss Murray at Western Michigan from 2014-16. From there he was associate head coach under Greg Carvel at UMass.
The final steps to becoming head coach
“I owe a lot to Nate,” Barr said. “I was doing a lot of recruiting and was good at it, but you get to a place where you realize that if you want to move on and build your reputation as a coach, you had to change the perception. I knew I had to learn more about the game and coaching; Andy gave me the opportunity (at Western) to do a little more — the power play and penalty kill — and that’s what led to me to UMass for the last five years.”
Even though Barr had no direct ties to Maine, he learned from some of the best. He is ready to put those lessons into practice.
“I’ve been super fortunate to be around some of the best coaches in the world for a large portion of my life,” he said. “I think that’s a big reason why I’ve been able to have some success as an assistant, and hopefully we can do the same here at Maine.”
