Fresh off of a national championship last Saturday, the UW men's hockey coaching staff continues to garner awards. USA Hockey named Mike Eaves the head coach of the U.S. men's national team Wednesday and UW assistant coach Mark Osiecki was named video coordinator for the team.
Mike is one of the outstanding young coaches in our game today,\ said Paul Holmgren, general manager of Team USA and assistant general manager of the National Hockey League's Philadelphia Flyers. ""He's an excellent teacher of the game and has worked successfully with players at all levels of hockey.""
The committee was obviously impressed with the turnaround Eaves made with the Badgers. But this is not the first time Eaves has worked with USA Hockey, although it is the first time he's been head coach of the men's national team. Eaves was the first coach to lead the United States to the 2002 IIHF World Under-18 Championship and the 2004 IIHF World Junior Championship.
The titles earned Eaves the 2004 USOC Ice Hockey National Coach of the Year as well as the 2002 USA Hockey National Junior Coach of the Year. Going back even further, Eaves was an assistant coach for the U.S. national team for the 1990 competitions and the 1991 Canada Cup.
""It's truly a thrill to be asked to coach the U.S. Men's National Team,"" Eaves said. ""I'm looking forward to the challenge.""
As a player, Eaves competed on the 1976 and 1978 U.S. national teams and in 1981 and 1984 for the Canada Cup.
Osiecki has some experience with USA Hockey as well. He coached the U.S. team at the 1999 World Under-18 Championships and assisted for the 2000 World Under-18 Championships, leading the team to silver each time. He got the gold when the U.S. junior select team at the 1999 Freedom Championship. The Wisconsin win on Saturday was actually his second title, as he played for the 1990 UW national championship team.
Eaves and Osiecki will see action first at the 2006 International Ice Hockey Federation World Championship, which runs May 5 to 21 in Riga, Latvia.
-uwbadgers.com contributed to this report.\
