Over the last three years, Cory Borys has charted NCHA teams. He has studied videos of NCHA teams. He has paid attention to the nuances of NCHA teams.
This season, he’ll run his own.
Borys, an assistant coach for St. Norbert, was hired Friday as the eighth head coach in St. Scholastica history. He replaces Mark Workman, who resigned in May after six seasons.
Borys, who served under Tim Coghlin for three years after playing for him for four, got the Saints job in large part because of his familiarity with the NCHA, St. Scholastica athletics director Dana Moore said.
“What I did at St. Norbert and what Tim put me in charge of — making sure that I do all the video, do our tendency sheets and lineups — helped me familiarize myself in the last three years with the [NCHA] teams and the players,” Borys said. “That’s going to help me greatly.”
Borys doesn’t have to wait long to return to the Green Bay, Wis., area. In his second regular-season game, he’ll be in charge of the bench next to the one occupied by his mentor.
The Green Knights host the Saints at the Cornerstone Community Ice Center in Green Bay on Nov. 3.
“”That’s going to be entertaining, I know that,” Borys said. “You look forward to coming back, coaching against the guy you worked under for three years and played for for four. The old teacher-vs.-student game, you always look forward to that.
“Granted, I didn’t think it would be the second game of the season.”
Said Coghlin: “I think everybody will probably have mixed emotions that night. As much as we will be wishing he does well, not on Nov. 3.”
Coghlin compiled what he called a “short list” of candidates to replace Borys, but declined to elaborate or identify anyone on the list. He did say, however, that he has received calls of interest from program alumni and others.
Borys, a Yorkton, Saskatchewan, native, scored 19 goals and 21 assists in four years as a player at St. Norbert. In 1998, he was named the top male athlete among the school’s graduating seniors and was one of three nominees from Division III for the Hockey Humanitarian Award, presented to college hockey’s finest citizen.
Moore declined to comment on the agreement with Borys, except to say he would not be under contract and he would be subject to the same yearly performance appraisal as the rest of the Duluth, Minn., school’s faculty and staff.
When Workman resigned in May after a 9-17-1 season, the school announced that assistant athletics director Dave Reyelts would take over the program on an interim basis for the 2001-02 season. That plan, Moore said, met with some resistance from the public and a national search for a permanent coach was launched.
At that point, Borys was interviewing for the opening at Milwaukee School of Engineering, a position he said he was offered but turned down. When he decided MSOE wasn’t right for him, Borys decided to throw his hat in the ring at St. Scholastica.
He was one of about 45 applicants, Moore said. Ten candidates went through phone interviews and four were scheduled for on-campus meetings.
Borys said one of his challenges will be to instill a winning attitude in a team that hasn’t done much in the way of winning in a while. He’s scheduled to have 12 seniors and seven juniors on the roster, but faces another challenge out of the gate: The Saints’ first eight games are on the road.
