Angelo Rosena moves to General Manager role.
There will be a fresh face leading behind the bench this fall for the Ole Miss Ice Rebs. Thirty-three year old Dan Armstrong from New Jersey will take over as the team’s new head coach.
“My goal, if you really want me to be honest, is to get back to nationals and win the SEC,” said Armstrong “Is that realistic? Maybe not. But I tell you what I want to get a good recruiting class. We have a good group of guys and I want to make some noise.”
This will be Armstrong’s second year coaching at Ole Miss after moving from Wilmington, North Carolina with his fiance.
“What really surprises me and continues to surprise me is the quality of the hockey in the player,” said Armstrong “We have some guys on our team that could be playing NCAA hockey or D-1 club hockey. But would rather be at Ole Miss.”
Dan Warneke is one of those guys who could be playing college hockey at a higher level. The junior forward led the team in scoring this past year, with 21 goals and 28 assists.
“I’m very excited. He is very knowledgeable about the game and in only one season with us as the assistant coach last year. He definitely showed his dedication to the game and to the entire organization.” said forward Dan Warneke.
One of the things Armstrong brings to the program is a strong initiative and a hands on approach with recruiting.
“He’s a very vocal guy which I think as the head coach will be beneficial to the guys on the team already, and the guys coming to tryout for the team next season, and for recruiting in the future.”
Armstrong is very different from his predecessor Angelo Rosena who led the Rebels to three NCAA tournament appearances. Angelo Rosena is now the general manager of the team.
“It’ll be interesting next year,” said senior forward Quinten Humphrey “He has a total different approach when compared to Angelo. I know some of the returners are a big fan of him so it’ll be interesting to see how he deals with them but he did manage to get ahold of some good recruits who plan on coming here next year.”
Helping the Ice Rebs rebuild the program after a hard season isn’t the biggest challenge Armstrong has ever faced. For Armstrong just returning to the game was an obstacle itself. Armstrong’s college hockey career was short cut short at Babson University.
“I had a kid take a run at me. Dirty hit. Hit me from behind.”
Armstrong was hospitalized for two weeks and had a collapsed lung. He decided to focus on school and later met his fiance. Armstrong didn’t lace up his ice skates again, till a few locals in Wilmington convinced him to give hockey another chance just for fun.
“I ran into a bunch of guys who played in the local hockey league. I told them I played and they asked ‘Man you use to play?’ and I was like ‘yeah’ and told them about my experience. They said ‘Wow you played in some really high levels. Why don’t you play anymore?’ I said ‘I haven’t put on ice skates in twelve years.’ and told them the story of what happened in college.”
Dan’s new friends were able to convince him to get back out on the ice and the rest was history.
“I missed it. But you don’t realize how much you miss it until you go back to it again. When I got back on the ice I was like ‘Gosh darn I missed this so much.’ So I joined the men’s league after not skating for twelve years.”
After moving to Oxford seven months ago with his fiancee studying to get her P.h.d, Dan got connected with Angelo Rosena through his real estate agent and was offered the assistant coaching job, along with full control over recruiting.
“When I do something I go all out. Im not going to be like ‘Oh yeah I’ll just be the assistant coach. I’ll do what I can.’ No. If I’m going to do this I’m going to freaking do this. My fiancé is in the P.h.d program and she’s got so much of her time wrapped up in that. Which for me turns this from the best hobby ever to a side semi-profession of sorts.”
Dan has his work cut out for him after the team failed to make nationals for the first time in three years. Is Dan Armstrong what the Ice Rebs need to get back to national prominence? Only time will tell.
