Mark Dennehy, associate head hockey coach at Massachusetts, has been named the head coach of Merrimack. He replaces Chris Serino, who resigned in the spring after seven years at Merrimack. Dennehy is the seventh head coach in Merrimack program history, which will enter its 50th season varsity program in the 2005-06 season.
— Merrimack President Richard J. Santagati
Dennehy has been the associate head coach at Massachusetts since 2000 and was named Hockey East Coach of the Year staff member in 2002-2003. He has been involved in all aspects of coaching the team, including recruiting, video analysis, fund-raising, marketing, and on ice instruction. From 1999-2000, he was head coach at Fairfield and prior to that had served as assistant coach at Princeton. Dennehy was a member of the Hockey East All-Academic Team while playing for Boston College in late 1980s and the early 1990s.
Dennehy has been a member of the American Hockey Coaches Association since 1994. He was an assistant coach with bronze medal winning Team Massachusetts at the USA Hockey Select 16 Festival.
“Mark’s energy and enthusiasm was evident throughout the interview process,” said Merrimack President Richard J. Santagati. “We are very excited that our new head coach has such a strong connection with students, outstanding experience and knowledge of Hockey East, and a demonstrated commitment to excellence.”
Merrimack’s search started a few months ago when Serino resigned and reportedly was down to five candidates two weeks ago. The finalists were Dennehy, Paul Pearl, Chris Kiene, Greg Drechel and Bruce Crowder. Merrimack comes off of a season in which it went 8-26-2 with only one win in Hockey East.
