From Niagara Gazette
By Max O’Neill
When Larry Brzeczkowski took over the Niagara University American Collegiate Hockey Association program in 1996 he could have never predicted a day like this would arrive.
It was impossible for him to predict when he was fielding a team of 12 players that one day almost 30 years later, he’d be inducted into the ACHA Hall of Fame. But that is what is happening, the former Niagara head coach is heading into the ACHA Hall of Fame on Friday in a ceremony in Nashville, Tennessee.
“It’s a great honor,” Brzeczkowski said. “It’s just not for me though, it’s for the players, all the assistant coaches, my wife for me being gone, all those things, all those games on the road all the time. But yeah it’s a great honor. Anytime you accomplish something like that it’s just wow, kind of blows your mind.”
During his time coaching on Monteagle Ridge, Brzeczkowski won 387 games while winning six Northeast Collegiate Hockey League titles and making the ACHA tournament five times. When he thinks about what he is most proud of it is the time building the program to being a national contender.
One of the things that he is incredibly proud of from his coaching career is being there for his players. He always had an open door for his players as he served as not only a coach but a dad away from home for many of them.
“They would come to me with girlfriend problems, school problems, parent problems,” Brzeczkowski said. “… You form that bond with them. … We get invited to three or four weddings every summer still. … That makes me feel good because I still talk to a lot of the guys so I meant something to them. That means more to me than anything.”
Brzeczkowski decided to retire in June of 2020 because he was tired of the road trips and because he felt that current head coach Tom Mooradian was ready to take over the mantle and succeed his former head coach.
In the ensuing five years since he retired, Brzeczkowski misses part of coaching but not all of it. He misses coaching on gamedays and scouting the opponents and putting together his lines but he does not miss the bus rides and the logistical part of the job.
Since he retired from coaching, Brzeczkowski has been managing golf courses and working as a consultant at hockey rinks before now being a stay at home dog dad.
(Originally published at https://www.niagara-gazette.com/sports/former-niagara-head-coach-larry-brzeczkowski-being-inducted-into-acha-hall-of-fame/article_7053c908-80a3-4bb3-a42a-9f6fb45f8999.html)
