Brett Riley will be the first head coach of the Long Island University hockey program, the school is expected to announce. The news was first reported on Twitter by ESPN’s John Buccigross and has been confirmed to New England Hockey Journal by multiple sources.
On April 30, LIU announced it would be forming a Division 1 hockey program that would start play this fall. The timing isn’t great with just over four months to recruit a roster of players to be on campus when classes start.
Prior to the announcement of the new program, the school had reached out to several coaches in the New England area. Many were concerned with the budget and the seemingly haphazard approach by the school’s administration.
Riley, 29, will be the youngest head coach in Division 1 hockey. What he lacks in experience, he makes up for in pedigree. The Needham, Mass., native just finished his first season in Division 1 as an assistant coach on Don Vaughan’s staff at Colgate.
Interestingly enough, this won’t be the first time Riley gets to build a program from scratch. The 2014 Hobart alum was the first head coach in program history at Division 3 Wilkes University. He spent the 2017-18 season recruiting and the team had a successful first campaign in 2018-19. The team went 16-8-2 under Riley’s watch.
A forward in his playing days, Riley appeared in 32 collegiate games for the Statesmen. He scored two goals and added four assists. Prior to matriculating at Hobart, Riley played prep hockey at Governor’s Academy.
Riley’s family is synonymous with college hockey coaching. Starting with his grandfather, Jack Riley, a member of Brett’s family has been the head coach at Army since 1950. Jack was the head coach at West Point from 1950 until 1986. Brett’s father, Rob Riley, took over in 1986 and held the reins until 2004. Brett’s uncle, Brian Riley, has been the head coach at Army since then.
Coaching isn’t the only thing the Riley family is good at. Jack played three seasons at Dartmouth, including wearing the captain’s ‘C’ in the 1946-47 season. After that, the Medford, Mass., native wore the red, white and blue for Team USA at the 1948 Olympics. Rob Riley played four seasons at Boston College from 1974-78. He’s currently an amateur scout with the Buffalo Sabres. Brett also has a couple of cousins and great uncles who played Division 1 hockey.
LIU still has to prove it is committed to doing things the right way and giving the program the arsenal to achieve success. The school wasn’t going to get an experienced coach with the salary it was offering. However, Riley is a great hire. I think he’ll do a great job, as he’s well-respected by his peers and by prospective players. He’ll have a built-in network to help him through the tough times.
There will be some growing pains at LIU, given the budget and questions surrounding the program, where it will play, and who the team will play. It might take a while to get the cream of the crop players from Long Island to stay at home, but the area is a budding hockey hotbed. Players such as Charlie McAvoy have started to make Long Island more of a household name in the sport.
