Angers Resigns As Nichols Women's Ice Hockey Coach; Daly Promoted to Head Coach
(Courtesy of Nichols Athletics)
Dudley, Mass. - Nichols College Director of Athletics Charlie Robert has announced the resignation of Head Women's Ice Hockey Coach Guy Angers, effective immediately. Assistant Coach Kyle Daly has been promoted to Head Coach.
Robert made the announcement Thursday, saying, “Coach Daly comes from a great family of teachers and coaches. I cherish the opportunity to have a member of the Daly family on staff and was very excited when Kyle said yes to being our assistant women's hockey coach last November. He is a bright, young talent with tremendous potential. His dedication and passion for coaching is exemplified in the many hours he has been involved as a volunteer at all levels. Kyle will do a great job with continuing to lead our women's hockey program on this successful journey.”
The head coaching job marks the first for Daly, 24, who joined the Bison program last season and worked primarily with the defense.
“I'm very excited for the future of the Nichols College women's ice hockey program,” said Daly. “Coach Angers has been my mentor for a long time; he has been my coach since I was six years old,” said Daly. “He gave me my first collegiate coaching opportunity last year and I'm looking forward to continuing to build upon the tradition he started here.”
“We are a very young team with a lot of talent and motivation to turn this into a winning program. With the continued support from the entire campus - starting with Charlie Robert and the Athletics Department – I think we will develop into one of the leading teams in the ECAC East.”
A native of Auburn, Mass., Daly comes from a long tradition of talented coaches. His mother, Virginia “Ginger”, coached field hockey at Becker for 17 years, earning NJCAA Coach of the Year honors four times while bringing the Hawks to four national titles. Her career record of 255-41-17 and .841 winning percentage still tops all coaches in all sports at Becker. His sister, Meghan, took over the helm of the Framingham State field hockey team in 2010, also at the age of 24, and guided the Rams to a school record 15 wins and a share of their first Little East Conference Regular Season Championship. Their father, Tim, is an assistant with the Rams' program.
“I always knew I was going to be a coach,” said Daly. “It's in my family. I was born in July and was on the field hockey field under a coach's wing that August.”
Daly skated for the Western New England Golden Bears from 2007-2009 and collected 11 points on five goals and six assists in 20 games at forward. Prior to collegiate hockey, he played one season in the Empire Junior Hockey League for the Tynsgboro Huskies, totaling 40 points on 20 goals and 20 assists with three game-winning goals.
Angers, who informed the team of his decision in a meeting Wednesday afternoon in the Athletics Center, departs a revamped Bison program with an overall record of 7-26-1, and an ECAC Women's East ledger of 4-19-1. He guided the Bison to their second consecutive ECAC Women's East playoff appearance in his first year with the program last season where they fell to national champion Norwich.
In its fourth year as a varsity program this season, Nichols is off to its best start with a 3-5-1 record and is only 11 points shy of last season's point total just nine games into the season. Nichols travels to Williams Saturday for a 5 p.m. game to close out the semester.
