Prier returns as Princeton coach
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Mary Ann Tarr
SPECIAL TO THE TIMES
Bob Prier, who spent the past nine seasons on the staff at St. Lawrence University, has been named the head men's hockey coach at Princeton University.
Prier will be introduced at a press conference today at 11 a.m. in Princeton. The press conference will be video-streamed live on GoPrincetonTigers.tv.
Prier served first as an assistant and more recently as an associate head coach at St. Lawrence. Since joining the St. Lawrence coaching staff for the 2002-03 season, Prier has helped St. Lawrence to three 21-plus win seasons, including an ECAC regular-season championship and NCAA tournament appearance in the 2006-07 season. He was an assistant at Princeton for the 2001-2002 season.
Previous head coach Guy Gadowsky, who two weeks ago took the head coaching job at Penn State, had Princeton in its best five-year run in program history. Princeton has hosted an ECAC hockey playoff series in each of the last five years and has finished in the top half of the ECAC standings in four of the five seasons. Princeton's last three graduating classes have each completed their college careers as the winningest class in program history.
"The Princeton hockey program is in a terrific state," Prier said. "As a coach in the league, I have witnessed first hand the quality of player on the Princeton roster. They work hard and are fun to watch. Guy Gadowsky and his staff have done a fabulous job building the program. I appreciate it very much and look forward to continued success."
"I am thrilled to hear of the hiring of Bob at Princeton," Gadowsky said. "He's a great all-around guy and he is a man of great substance. I have really enjoyed watching his teams compete and play over my past seven seasons in the ECAC. They play an exciting brand of hockey, which will fit in perfectly with what Princeton fans and alumni have come to expect in the past few years."
Prier graduated from St. Lawrence with a degree in economics in 1999. He earned his master's degree in education in 2004. The captain of St. Lawrence's 1999 ECAC runner-up and NCAA tournament team, Prier was the recipient of the Brian P. Doyle Memorial Trophy for leadership abilities on and off the ice. Prier led that team in scoring and was a second-team All-ECAC selection. Prier played in 133 games in his college career and collected 60 goals and 56 assists for 116 points.
A 1996 draftee of the Boston Bruins, Prier signed with the Ottawa Senators after graduation, but his playing career was cut short after just three games in the minor leagues because of injury. Prier then went to work as a players' agent for a year before getting into the coaching ranks as a volunteer assistant at the University of Denver. Prier spent one year at Denver and then moved east to Princeton, where he served as an assistant coach for the 2001-02 season before returning to St. Lawrence as an assistant.
Prier and his wife, Lorenda, a former goaltending coach for the women's program at Princeton and a former Saint assistant, are the parents of a daughter, Bryn, and two sons, Camden and Watson.
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