Since Ben Barr was hired as head coach at the University of Maine last month, his life has been a whirlwind of events and tasks, as he prepares to lead his team into the 2021-22 Hockey East season.
Barr, 39, talked with New England Hockey Journal about his road to Orono and the many great coaching mentors he had, starting with his playing career at Shattuck St. Mary’s in the late 1990s. As an assistant coach, he continued to learn from some of the best with his stops at RPI, Union College, Providence College, Western Michigan and UMass since 2007.
Having covered that ground in the first piece published about Barr, this quick feature focuses on his personal observations and immediate objectives in the weeks since he was named head coach. He also candidly shared some insights into what the initial approach to recruiting will look like for the Black Bears in the wake of Red Gendron's sudden passing.
“I’ve been very aware that Red was beloved by all of his players and by the community,” Barr said. “He was one of those guys in our world that everyone liked. I’m trying to get to understand where everything is and getting to know all the players on the team and all the players coming in.”
Calling the returning veteran players and reaching out to the incoming freshmen was the first step. Barr was then able to look at the situation and formulate an initial strategy to tackle the challenges facing the program.
“As far as how you do it and what our goals are going to be, I don’t think it’s going to change much from the last five years,” said Barr. “There’s no magic wand to make us a top-10 team overnight. We need to make marginal gains every single day and every single year, a little bit better and hopefully in a few years we’re putting ourselves in a spot where we think we can win every night. If you can do that in Hockey East, then you’re in a good spot as a program.”
Barr also shed some light on how Maine’s coaching group and infrastructure is taking shape.
“Building a staff is so important,” he said. “People are everything in what we do. Alfie (Michaud) is staying on, which is huge for the program. From our (pending) assistant, to the volunteer (assistant coach), to hiring a new strength coach … those people who play a role in the development of our student-athletes is probably more important for me than going out and trying to recruit 10 players who are going to come in September and try to help us out this year. We’ll add some new players, but building the infrastructure around the program to me is the most important thing right now.”
Infrastructure in Maine’s case extends beyond the support staff, with Barr revealing that plans are in the works to give iconic Alfond Arena a modern facelift at some point in the future.
“I think with what’s going to happen in the next couple of years, there will be a future rink renovation, I think probably after this upcoming year, which is probably going make a huge difference. We’re not going to lose anything of the Alfond (Arena) environment on the inside, but we’ll upgrade a few things in there. As far as the locker room and the weight room, a new lounge — all the stuff that the players see is going to be top notch.”
Barr’s focus on recruiting has not changed much from what he was used to in his time as an assistant coach.
“In my experience, you really need to have players who want to be in your program,” he said. “You don’t want to spend a lot of time on players who are going to be high NHL draft picks who might come in and have one foot in and one foot out the door.
“Unless you have players who want to be there no matter what, it’s probably not going to work, so instead, we need to focus on those players out there who take pride in who they are and are dedicated to wanting to be part of the tradition at Maine.”
His emphasis and advice to prospective Black Bear recruits is pretty straightforward.
“We’re going to recruit based on grit and determination and hard work. I know those are all cliches that everyone throws around, but at Maine, that’s what got them there in the '90s and early 2000s. You have to be able to convey to these student-athletes where they understand that they are going to go, commit and be a part of something special here. They have to want to be here and be willing to show that every day on the ice and in the classroom.”
