RinkWise podcast: St. George’s Allie Skelley on fall hockey, unique coaching perspective

Allie Skelley led St. George's to the Elite 8 last season. (Ian Vescera/St. George's)

Allie Skelley knows the boys prep hockey landscape well.

The Wolfeboro, NH, native is coming off his first season as head coach at St. George’s, leading the Dragons to a 23-3-1 record and an Elite 8 berth. They took eventual champion Kimball Union to overtime of the quarterfinals, a 5-4 loss.

Skelley arrived to St. George’s last season with 10 years of head coaching experience in prep under his belt, spending the previous seven seasons at Portsmouth Abbey. Before that, he coached Holderness for three seasons.

As a player, the former defenseman played prep at Phillips Exeter before playing Division 1 hockey at St. Lawrence. His playing career ended when he was hit from behind in a game against Lake Superior State during his redshirt junior season, fracturing and dislocating vertebrae in his neck.

Skelley joined New England Hockey Journal editor Evan Marinofsky to discuss a range of topics, including how his injury shaped his mindset and coaching philosophy. They also got into the challenges of fall hockey, player development paths and more.

RinkWise podcast: St. George’s coach Allie Skelley

Challenges and changes in fall hockey

Skelley: “From a pure hockey perspective, I wish the kids played a little bit more like they do in the winter during our prep season. What I mean by that is, in the first chunk of our season, you have to wash the fall and summer hockey out of the kids. Now it’s time to back check. Now it’s time to talk about our defensive zone responsibilities, things like that. There’s not a lot of that in the summer and certainly not a lot of that in the fall. It is what it is. It’s a showcase, and kids are trying to showcase their talent. So, I get it. I’ve been doing this for 20 years now, and fall hockey is probably my least favorite part of being a prep school hockey coach. There’s so many variables.”

How a life-altering injury shaped his philosophy

Skelley: “It’s played a huge role in who I am today. It’s kind of like COVID with pre-COVID and post-COVID. We’ll be talking about that as long as we live. I was going one direction, then this traumatic injury happens, totally shakes my personal world and shoots me off in a different direction. At the time, for a couple years, I struggled. … I was very selfish in the way I thought about my injury. But through my relationship with Travis Roy, he whipped me into shape. He made me realize how tremendously lucky I was. … My involvement with the Travis Roy Foundation and now SCI Boston completely changed who I am as a person and how I coach, honestly. … Think about everything that has gone into you being able to be where you’re at today. That’s a big leap for a lot of kids mentally to kind of sit and reflect. We’ll do that a lot. We’ll go around the stretching circle at practice and talk about what we’re grateful for today.”

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