The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
A program, a coach blazing a hockey trail
Kyle Wallack wanted to build something from nothing. He chose the path that on Friday morning would find him on a fourhour bus ride north to the first regular season game in Albertus Magnus hockey history.
Mackenzie Bruch did not plan to be a piece of college hockey history. She answered the phone. In a year when Brianne McLaughlinBittle of Robert Morris has become the first female assistant coach in the history of NCAA men’s hockey, Division I or otherwise, Wallack brought in Bruch as his goalie coach.
A new Division III program that opens this weekend with a pair of games against Division II St. Michael’s College in South Burlington, Vermont.
And the only woman to serve as an assistant coach in Division II or III.
Yes, it is time to blaze new paths at Albertus Magnus.
“I talked Jared Waimon, the former Quinnipiac goalie coach who just took the job as (goalie scout) with Tampa Bay Lightning and I asked him if he had anyone who would be a great fit,” said Wallack, whose team opened with a 21 loss at St. Michael’s Friday night. “He said, ‘How cutting edge are you? I’ve got a great person.’ ”
Waimon, the founder and owner of Pro Crease Goaltending, the largest goalieonly instructional organization in the region, recommended one of his employees.
“Kyle asked me if I was interested,” said Bruch, 25, who also continues to serve as the goalie coach for the Wesleyan women’s program. “It was an opportunity you don’t get often, a chance to be part of an inaugural program and as a woman for the chance to coach a men’s college team right in the area. It was a nobrainer.” Wallack used the same words. “This was a nobrainer for me,” said Wallack, himself a former goalie who played on the 1993 HallWest Hartford
state championship team and was a fouryear starter at Springfield College. “Getting to know Mackenzie over the last few months, she’s a great person and a great coach. She has built a strong relationship early on with our three goalies. We’ve got three different personalities, a serious one, a loose one, and a joker. All three are different types of goalies, too.
“I’ve allowed her to have space to build that relationship while trusting her that she’ll able to do her job. I trust Jared. We’re thrilled to have her, I think she’s going to be a really good coach whatever ever level she gets to in the future.”
Wallack’s immediate future after a morning bus ride from New Haven, was a 7 p.m. opener against St. Michael’s at Cairns Arena, a night at a hotel, and a second game at 4 p.m. Saturday before a bus ride home. The Falcons, starting out as an independent, worked to put together the most competitive schedule possible. Wallack, who had risen to associate coach during at decade at University of Vermont before taking the Albertus job in June 2018, is friends with St. Michael’s coach Damian DiGiulian.
“For our opening weekend, to get away and get on the road as a group will be great for out team building,” Wallack said.
There are only 60 Division I hockey schools and a small enough number in Division II where the NCAA does not have a national championship and the Northeast10 is the lone conference.
“So I always say there are Division I players in Division III and we want to recruit those kids who are on the bubble,” Wallack said. “I think there a portion of them who are on our roster right now. They may not have all the full pieces of a Division I player, but they have a lot of the attributes.”
Looking for a diverse area to build recruiting, Wallack has attracted players from Australia to Connecticut. Albertus, in the GNAC in other sports, has a scheduling agreement with the NEHC and, pending a conference vote, a future there.
“My goal initially was to get a player from every province in Canada and we did that,” Wallack said. “So when a kid from Quebec or Alberta looks at our roster, he can go, ‘You got a player from here.’ We wanted Alevel competitors who wanted to be with something from the start.”
Before Vermont, Wallack spent three seasons as assistant at Quinnipiac, time at Holy Cross and UConn and five seasons at Yale before one season as head coach in the USHL. That’s 18 years of DI hockey and the recruitment of 15 NHL draft picks. Why Albertus?
“To start something from scratch was truly important,” Wallack said. “I saw a lot of Quinnipiac in this. I saw a lot of the same vision with our president and athletic director. It’s new and exciting. We can kind of design and develop how we want to do it. Put my stamp on it, not take over somebody’s else problems and join a school that’s already on the rise.
“Coming back to Connecticut was a huge piece of it as well. I guess you make decisions differently when you’re 44 than when you’re 24.”
Wallack’s wife Lauren is from the New Haven area and the family has settled in New Haven. Without a team to ice last year, Wallack did some coaching with the Yale youth program and ended up going to the national tournament.
“So that was fun,” he said. “And my wife would say we had a Friday or Saturday night to go out to dinner or stay home. You’re also on the road (recruiting) a ton more when everybody else is playing. It’s tough to watch, but you know the rewards will come down the road.”
Bruch coaches Thomas Walker, Pierce Diamond, and Hunter Virostek — a Jersey guy and two Albertans.
“It has been fun and a challenge,” Bruch said. “At the end of the day goalies are goalies, but the games do read and flow a little bit different. The men’s game is a little quicker, the shots are a little harder and it’s more physical. The goalies have to be ready situationally.”
As a fulltime employee of Pro Crease, Bruch works with boys and girls from the beginners’ level up to prep school, and is involved with college and pro lessons in the summer. Working with guys is not new.
Born in Barrie, Ontario, Mackenzie’s family moved to the Atlanta area in middle school with her dad’s job. In the process of becoming an American citizen, she played for the new program at Stevenson University in Maryland before transferring to Division I Bemidji State in northern Minnesota. There she got her bachelor’s and master’s in business administration.
“When I finished playing, the coaching staff knew I was interested in coaching and asked if I’d be interested in sticking around to do hockey ops and video ops, basically being a grad assistant to get my feet wet,” Bruch said. “I got my master’s and found out I really, really liked it. It was also an unpaid position.”
Pro Crease was looking to hire. Welcome to Connecticut.
“It’s super rare where you can make a living coaching goalies, mastering that craft and not have to work a bunch of other jobs,” said Bruch, who did not make the trip to Vermont. “And I’ve had a wonderful experience working with the goalies at Wesleyan.”
One, Allegra Grant, was named a DIII AllAmerican last season.
Bruch’s timetable revolves around her fulltime job with Pro Crease. A given week will find her teaching at various rinks around Connecticut, Rhode Island and New York. Albertus practices earlier. She gets there three times a week, a 30minute goalie skate that flows into practice. She’s at Wesleyan three times a week and tries to be at home games for both teams. She engages in video review of game performances.
Her energy is high. So are her goals.
“To be honest, I didn’t set out to do this with the men, but it was an opportunity that I happened to be at the right time and place for,” Bruch said. “I’m super proud to be doing this. But there are so many capable and talented female coaches that they shouldn’t be handcuffed into only women’s sports. There’s a lot to learn on both sides from each other’s games.”