Gazette Preps 2018-19 Ice Hockey Coach of the Year: Will English, Doherty
In just one year, Doherty’s ice hockey program completed an unprecedented turnaround, flipping a one-win 2017-18 season into an undefeated regular-season campaign in 2018-19.
The biggest question is how. According to the Doherty players, it was all thanks to returning coach Will English — who is The Gazette ice hockey Coach of the Year.
English stepped away from the program for two seasons after five years at the helm, and in those two years English watched the program struggle. The team won just five games in his absence.
“When I was gone for those two years I still kept a close eye on the group and I saw the guys had the talent, and just maybe needed some development,” English said. “When I chose to interview again and came back I wanted to put the program back on the map and be recognized as a top program. I wanted to bring that back.”
He was certainly successful, finishing the regular season unbeaten and earning a No. 8 seed and a first-round bye in the state tournament.
Even though they found vast success in the regular season the Spartans quickly ran into trouble in the postseason, falling to No. 9 Cherry Creek in the second round.
But English saw the team’s early playoff exit as a necessary learning experience.
“Getting into the postseason was a step for the guys to get an understanding of the dynamic difference in Colorado hockey between Colorado Springs and Denver, where the player population is greater,” English said. “It was a step for them to really be able to recognize what that’s about, and the lesson learned was that we have to be that much better.”
Change in conference alignment before the season allowed for area teams to find greater success by playing more evenly matched teams locally, but didn’t offer much opportunity for teams to face the top competition they would expect in the playoffs.
“I think it’s good for the kids in the regular season. Kids play high school sports for a reason because they want to play for their school and be successful, and (the conference alignments) helped us with our success, for sure,” English said. “But one of the things I talked about with the guys is that we went into the postseason blind. We played a couple Denver schools this year, but they weren’t playoff teams, so we just didn’t know what to expect.”
But thankfully for the Spartans, English helped the team discover its own identity as the “hardest-working team on the ice” and is ready to get to work in the offseason. English said he will use the months leading up to next season to continue to improve and get ready for heightened postseason competition.
The team will lose eight seniors, including star goaltender Eric Bucholz, but English said his younger players are ready and eager to fill in bigger roles in the offseason.
“The next step is to be that much better,” English said. “We are going to continue to grow. And now that we have an understanding of what the postseason looks like we are going to feed off the success and be that much better for the postseason, and continue to be that much better based off this year’s outcome.”