From The Athens Messenger
By Allan Brown
To the casual observer, Lionel Mauron is merely the head coach of a nationally ranked collegiate hockey team.
Those not well-versed in the sport probably wouldn’t pick up on things that those who play, coach or simply just love the game would immediately realize by either just watching or talking to the head coach of the Ohio University Bobcats men’s hockey team.
Mauron readily admits that his mind works overtime when thinking about the sport that has consumed his brain since he was a young boy living in a continent more than 4,000 miles away from Athens.
Whether watching Mauron talk to a player at practice, coach from the bench during a Bobcats hockey game or walk back to the locker room after a particularly difficult period of play for his team, it’s evident to the trained eye that Lio, as he is known by his players, has a keen knowledge of the sport he loves.
It’s almost as if you can see the wheels turning in his brain on how to perfect a play, right a wrong on the ice or change the course of a contest that isn’t tilting the home squad’s way.
As any good coach should, he is always looking for a better way to handle any given situation that might alter the course of a game.
Those who understand hockey, they get it, they see those same traits in Mauron.
That’s because they see it on a daily basis.
To those in the know, it’s evident that his hockey IQ is simply off the charts.
“Lio’s coaching style places a large focus on building relationships with his players. He always wants to make sure he is putting his players in the best position to succeed whether that is on the ice or off the ice. I think in the modern age of sports it is important to be relationship focused and that’s why he has been so effective with Ohio Hockey,” said Trent Johnson, an assistant Bobcats Hockey coach.
“Lio is also the type of coach that believes in playing to his players strengths. He doesn’t have one set of style of play that he firmly believes is the ‘best.’ Instead, he accesses his team’s strengths and weaknesses and then uses his high hockey IQ to choose what’s best for his team,” Johnson added.
And that is a major reason Mauron is so well-liked — almost revered — by his team and Bobcats Hockey Nation.
Just ask some more people who interact with him on a daily basis and you’ll get the same answer, the exact same perception on how Mauron leads and how he inspires.
“What Lio brings to the team is that he pushes us to be our best,” said senior star defenseman Blake Rossi.
“I like his attitude. He’s very intelligent. He’s very prepared for everything,” Rossi said, adding that “There are teams we probably wouldn’t have beat(en) without him here. He cares about the players.”
And the Captain, Sam Turner, echoes Rossi’s comments and adds that he has learned so much from the second-year head coach.
“The most important leadership skills that Lio possesses include emotional intelligence and consistency. Lio excels at managing his emotions and the emotions of the team to generate the best performance possible. Without this talent in a head coach, a team can implode through the various heated emotions experienced during a hockey game,” Turner said.
“Lio is also a consistent voice in the locker room. His expectations are clear and known by the team, and this allows the team to know exactly what we need to do to win.”
Turner went on to explain how he has personally benefitted from Mauron’s leadership skills both on and off the ice.
“Those two skills that Lio possesses as a leader have helped me shape my own life as well, both on and off the ice. Through following his example, I am able to set aside my emotions when experiencing difficulty, and can instead find the best way to overcome that obstacle. I think that by having Lio as a coach, I am now better able to take on any challenge I’ll experience as I transition into my career,” Turner, a star senior defenseman for OU, added.
And it’s not only how the man coaches, it’s also how he conducts himself off the ice that has contributed to his success at OU.
Playing for Mauron — or simply just observing or talking to him — is like taking a master class in coaching hockey and conducting yourself off the ice, as well.
Talk to anyone and they will say that he’s a people person, he’d rather get to know you, rather than talk about himself.
“Lio does a really good job. He wants to get to know us both on and off the ice,” said OU alternate captain Ryan Higgins.
Jamieson McVicar, another OU assistant hockey coach, has his own take on Lio — and it doesn’t differ much from what everyone has said.
“Lio is a players’ coach. There are not a lot of players’ coaches in today’s game, coaches get on their players immediately after mistakes, they tear down their players and ruin their confidence. Not Lio, he allows them to be creative, he lets them make mistakes and work themselves out, he understands that not every day is going to be perfect and you cannot expect that,” McVicar said.
The assistant coach added: “The youth on our coaching staff is another thing that sets us apart from other staff, we are young and see the game in a different light than some of the older coaches who are very structured and demanding of discipline. We still are tough on the players, but we also understand that they have outside factors going on in their everyday life that might be holding them back on particular days. We also understand the importance of letting them be creative and just letting them play their game. That is important to us.”
Christmas is a time for feel-good stories.
Mauron and his Bobcats Hockey team’s saga provides all that and then some.
Despite his own modesty, Mauron is happy to talk about the trajectory that led him to OU, not so much because he wants it to be about him, but, rather because it might benefit the program he leads and it might attract more boosters, additional supporters and more fans to the game that has been a part of his life for more than two decades.
And, that’s where the coach’s own story begins.
At 16-4 and ranked #6 in the American Collegiate Hockey Association’s Men’s D1 standings, this season could truly be one for the ages.
That story is yet to unfold.
Mauron’s story, like all of ours, is still a work in progress.
It definitely has a starting and middle point, though.
* * *
Growing up in the small village of, Valeyres-sous-Montagny, Switzerland, population about 300, it would have been more likely that Mauron was either playing or coaching in the World Cup of Soccer than leading an American hockey team because that’s how popular soccer was in his hometown.
Instead, Mauron was watching the recent soccer finals on television, just like the rest of the world, while mentally preparing his latest line moves for the Bobcats hockey club.
So, while soccer was the sport his fellow villagers followed, Mauron ended up loving — and eventually playing and coaching — hockey all because of some friends he made in his hometown.
“There were 300 people there, it was all about soccer growing up. It was funny because I got into hockey just because I had a couple of friends who followed hockey,” Mauron said.
Because of that friendship, Mauron traveled to the closest city, Yverdon, to start skating. That eventually led to playing organized hockey.
The rest is history.
“I played organized hockey until I was about 12. I was then recruited by Lausanne and went to live in the academy. I stayed there from the ages of 12 to 20 and I ended up playing with the professional team,” he said.
An injury cut short his playing for the top-tiered Swiss Lausanne team, but led to Mauron coming to the United States in 2012.
He never left.
“I had gotten an ankle injury and would get an extra year of eligibility (in Switzerland) if I came over here. The plan was to go back (home.)”
Having parents who were “really supportive” not only helped Mauron in his early years, it eased the pain of not being in his native land during those formative years that he started playing in the States.
The opportunity to attend Curry College in Milton, Massachusetts, led to a playing career in both Jacksonville of the ECHL and Knoxville of the SPHL.
“In Knoxville, I had a head injury and was out for a couple of months,” Mauron said.
While he could probably have continued to play in the ECHL, the head injury got Mauron to thinking about what he wanted his trajectory to be.
That would eventually lead him to Ohio University.
“I knew that I wanted to stay in hockey so I started looking at coaching opportunities.’
Admitting that it is “easier to stay in this country on VISA as a student,” he discovered there was a graduate assistant coaching position at OU and he applied for the spot.
“My dream was always to play in the NHL, but I was always told that I would be a good coach,” Mauron said. “I was always working and talking to the coaches so I thought that I would be pretty good at it.”
During his first year as head coach, Mauron was completing his master’s in coaching education, which he admits provided him a difficult balance, but he brought the same strong work ethic he brings to leading the Bobcats to his studies and he completed his degree in December of last year.
Now fully acclimated in his current role, Mauron constantly thinks of how he can better the team and serve the players to the best of his ability at the same time.
As he leaves his office to go to the rink there hangs a small Swiss flag that is proudly sandwiched between the dominantly larger flags of the United States and Canada to remind the team and its fans of where their coach is from. It, also, perhaps, serves to inspire Mauron to make his homeland proud.
If that’s the case, it is, indeed, working.
“The Swiss flag is a nice touch, I know one of our boosters put it up last year. It’s great to feel accepted by the local community and it gives me a sense of belonging,” the coach confessed.
Having played hockey in two countries, Mauron said there were noticeable differences in both the playing styles of the game in this country and also the size of the rinks he played on here.
“The rinks are smaller here and they are more skilled and speed-based over there,” Mauron said, noting, though, “The players are much better in the tight spaces over here. It’s more intense and physical here.”
Fluent in three languages (English, French and German), Mauron said he started learning English when he first started going to the local rinks and, of course, it served him well once he moved to the States.
The pandemic kept Mauron from returning to his homeland much during the past three years, but he just recently returned with his wife of two years, Sophie, from an early Christmas visit to Switzerland. It provided him with not only a chance to celebrate the season with his family, but also to see the mountains that are much beloved to him in that European country.
Just as moving halfway across the world almost a decade ago didn’t come without some adjustments on Mauron’s part, switching gears from being a player to becoming a coach didn’t come without some minor pitfalls, too.
Perhaps it is because he is only 28 and close to the same age of his players, or maybe it’s that Mauron has a personality and love for the game that naturally comes through, but either way the players respond to him and preach the same mantra that he does.
All that has taken this team to new heights.
An above-.500 record in his first year as head coach, coupled with the team’s current 16-4 campaign proves that Mauron is doing something right.
Not bad results for a head coach in only his second year at the helm and one who had to compete against other older, more experienced men just to get the job at OU.
As an assistant coach at OU for a year before taking the reins as head coach, Mauron thinks he got the top job, in part, because of the relationships he had established with the Bobcats’ players.
“I think the players really wanted me,” he said, adding that he thinks it helped that he already knew the players and the operations here in Athens. “I do think we were in a situation here where a lot of things needed to happen.”
Seemingly mild-mannered both on and off the ice, Mauron’s style of coaching has resonated with this particular group of players.
Although he’s not above yelling at the team to reinforce what needs to be done, Mauron said there are better ways to turn a team around.
“You have to earn their trust and gain their respect,” he said.
As for yelling at his players, Mauron said coaches need to “pick their battles.”
And what else has Mauron learned during his two years as head coach?
“I think I’ve learned how quickly things happen and how quickly you have to make decisions. When you’re a player, you think the coach knows it all. There are so many other things (the job entails), only about 20 percent of it is coaching.”
Other aspects of the position that take up a majority of his time include scheduling during the summer, marketing and recruiting.
“It all keeps me pretty busy.”
When he isn’t at the rink or watching clips of potential future Bobcats, Mauron does take the time to pursue other interests.
Asked what his hobbies are, Mauron immediately laughed and said, “I like to eat.”
And according to the coach he is a pretty good cook, too, something that certainly would qualify as a hobby.
“I try to bring a little of Europe into my house, we cook a lot of Italian and French dishes. I’d say I am an eight out of ten cook, but I keep improving,” Mauron said.
Admittedly, the complexities of his position are a “six-and-a-half day work week” during the season, followed by many managerial duties in the off months, which leaves Mauron very little time to concentrate on anything but hockey.
Upon leaving his village to start playing organized hockey early in his life, Mauron said he had come to realize that “hockey really became my whole life.”
And for the most part, it pretty much still is to this day.
Having successfully balanced his studies with both his playing and coaching career, Mauron now finds himself attempting to do the same with his personal life.
“I try when I’m home to be 100 percent at home,” Mauron said, adding that he is, indeed, fortunate to have a wife who is extremely supportive of his career and future aspirations within the sport.
That support includes understanding that Mauron’s work ethic is all consuming and that even while he attempts to leave his work at the rink, his best-laid intentions don’t always go as planned.
“My mind is always working. I think it is a great strength, but my wife does complain sometimes about that,” Mauron jokes, explaining that occasionally his brain is functioning on overload and that spills over to his home life.”
While at Curry, Mauron was named to the All-Academic All-American team, for athletes who maintain a GPA over 3.6 and play over 40 percent of the games, so it makes sense that he, first and foremost, strives to see his players achieve similar accolades in the classroom while they’re at OU.
“They’re here, number one, to get the degree,” he said, noting, that performing at a high level in the classroom “translates well for them into being excellent at hockey.”
Upon moving to Boston, Mauron became a big Bruins fan; however, it’s Jon Cooper, the Stanley Cup-winning coach from Tampa Bay who the coach looks up to — and maybe even tries to pattern himself after.
With a concentration on always striving to be the best, Mauron and Cooper are not only both students of the game, but also stress the importance of bonding with their players and seeing them achieve both personal and professional success.
Not that he is intending to go anywhere in the foreseeable future, but Mauron noted that he does someday hope to follow Cooper’s path to coaching in the NHL.
“My goal is to be a head coach in the NHL,” Mauron said, noting that he fully understands that being at OU is just a launching pad and he sees it as being “four or five spots on the ladder until I get there.”
With a similar style of coaching, a similar demeanor — though with vastly different accents — it’s not a huge stretch to think that Mauron may one day see his dream of joining the ranks of NHL coaches alongside his role model come to fruition.
Come to think of it, Lio might actually have one skate ahead of Coop when it comes to that goal.
An attorney by trade, Cooper only played one year of hockey at the collegiate level, as opposed to Mauron’s several years of playing experience.
Mauron hopes that drive and determination, will eventually pave the way for him to follow in Cooper’s footsteps.
In the meantime, Mauron continues to watch, learn and grow as he charts his own career path and guides his team to what the players and Bobcat faithful alike hope will be a D1 championship for the team.
(Originally published at https://www.athensmessenger.com/sports/leader-of-nationally-ranked-ou-hockey-team-stresses-more-than-just-the-game/article_8dd21de4-813c-11ed-875b-67f13330afe8.html)
