Gary Wright
Head Coach
Phone: 205-3522
Email:
gary.wright@aic.edu
Gary Wright is entering his 27th season at the helm of the men’s ice hockey program at American International College. He is Yellow Jackets’ all-time winningest coach, compiling a 264-466-55 record. Only Boston University’s Jack Parker has a longer tenure at his current school than Wright in the Division I ranks.
The Yellow Jackets posted a record of 8-22-5 during the 2007-08 campaign, which included a 1-1 tie with 16th-ranked Rensselaer at the 56th Annual Rensselaer Holiday Tournament and a 3-3 tie Dartmouth, which finished third in the ECAC Hockey League the year before. The tie with the Engineers marked the first time in the Division I era of the program that AIC recorded a win or tie against a nationally-ranked opponent.
After the season, senior Jereme Tendler was named an Atlantic Hockey third-team all-star for the second straight season and the Yellow Jackets placed a conference-record 20 student athletes on the Atlantic Hockey all-Academic team. Mike Field received the league’s Top Student-Athlete Award after earning a 4.0 GPA for the 2007-08 academic year and was joined by Dean Yakura on the Academic All-Star team, which consists of the highest-achieving individuals at each starting position on the ice - one goaltender, two defensemen and three forwards.
In 2003-04, the Yellow Jackets claimed their first postseason victory since the 1989-90 campaign, when they defeated host Army 4-3 in the first round of the inaugural Atlantic Hockey tournament. Guillaume Caron was named a First Team Atlantic Hockey All-Star. AIC has had nine all-conference selections since elevating to Division I.
Wright was instrumental in the Yellow Jackets becoming a charter member of the Division I Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) Hockey League. Wright became the first coach to earn MAAC Hockey League Coach of the Year honors after leading AIC to a fifth-place finish with an 11-14-4 conference record in their first season of Division I hockey.
Prior to elevating to the Division I level, Wright guided the Yellow Jackets to the ECAC playoffs in six of the last eleven seasons the program competed at the Division II level, capturing the ECAC East Championship during the 1989-90 campaign.
Before becoming the eighth head hockey coach at American International College in 1984, Wright spent five years as an assistant at the University of Maine. His coaching career started at the high school level as he directed the Rice Memorial ice hockey program in Burlington, Vt. Wright spent three seasons at Rice and his 1977-78 squad was state runner-up.
Wright has authored a book for youth hockey coaches titled, Pass the Biscuit. He also served as a member of the NCAA Division II-III Men’s Ice Hockey Committee for six years.
During the summer months, Wright works as an instructor at several noted hockey camps across New England and is the director of the Individual Skills Hockey Clinic. In the summers of 1992-95, he served on the USA Hockey, Select-16 Camp Staff held in Lake Placid, N.Y., and St. Cloud, Minn.
Wright has given presentations at the American Hockey Coaches’ Association (AHCA) Convention on three occasions, and each fall he directs the USA Hockey Associate level certification for area youth hockey coaches on the AIC campus. He is presently serving a term on the Hobey Baker Memorial Award Committee.
A 1976 graduate of the University of Vermont, Wright was a member of the Catamounts hockey team and recipient of the Coaches Award during his senior year.
A native of Vermont, Wright currently resides in Springfield.
Last Update: (05/12/10)
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