NC State Names 2010 Roster!

Congratulations to the following players:

Harry Frykberg

Bryan MacLaren

Alex Okowita

Nick Christopolous

Eric Michelich

Matt Valesko

Mike Reisland

Andy Walsh

Alex Bargebuhr

Shane Long

Jeremy Bost

Robert Ward

Tyler Cloutier

Kurt Clayton

Colton Roberts

Isaac Kichak

Sabih Farooq

Robert Nelson

Matthew Brailsford

Brendan Koslowski

Matt Oakley

Guillaume Therrien

Tom Stoyker

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NC State getting ready for 2010-2011 Season!

North Carolina State Hockey is proud to Announce that Mike Gazzillo is the New Head Coach of the Wolfpack!

Coach Gazzillo moved to North Carolina in 2008 from Long Island New York. He holds a level 5 coaching certification from USA Hockey. He brings 30 years of playing and 18 years of coaching experience to the team. This is his fifth year as a college level coach, first as a head coach. He has been a travel head coach at every age group from Mites through Midgets, and has also served as an assistant and head coach at the Freshman, JV and Varsity levels of the SCHSHL in New York. He has also previously served as an assistant to rival UNC Chapel Hill but is happy he has found a new home with the Wolfpack! He resides in Cary with his wife Linda and children Nick and Angela.

NC State Hockey is confident that Coach Gazzillo will help lead the Pack in the right direction in the coming season as the team prepares to defend their ACC Regular Season Champion bragging rights. The Pack would like to extend a warm welcome to Coach Gazzillo and his family to the NC State program!

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North Carolina State Hockey would also like to Announce the arrival of Paul Strand as the new Associate Coach of the Wolfpack!

Coach Strand brings an immense amount of hockey experience and knowledge with him to NCSU. In recent years he has been vital to the growth and development of youth hockey programs in the triangle area.

Strand began his hockey career in northern Alberta, culminating in a five-year playing career at perennial Canadian collegiate power, the University of Alberta. The Sudbury, Alb., native led the Golden Bears in scoring his final three seasons and was named team Most Valuable Player twice, totaling 241 points (86g, 155a) in 192 games. His success in college earned him a free-agent tryout with the Edmonton Oilers following graduation, where he had the opportunity to play on a line with Oilers star Ryan Smyth during training camp. Strand then embarked on a seven-year professional career that included five seasons in the ECHL, one year in the Central Hockey League (CHL) and one season with the Hamburg Crocodiles of the German Bundesliga. 

Strand’s playing career brought him to North Carolina twice, including the final year of the Raleigh Icecaps in 1997-98, his rookie season in the ECHL. He was voted “Fan Favorite” by the Icecaps Booster Club that season after scoring 51 points (25g, 26a) in 54 games for Raleigh, including an Icecaps-record five goals in a single game. He returned to the Tar Heel State in 2001 when he was traded to the Greensboro Generals. Strand skated in his final professional game in Greensboro in 2004, completing an ECHL career in which he tallied 132 points (59g, 73a) in 197 games. 

It was in Greensboro that Strand became involved with youth and amateur hockey in North Carolina, starting as an assistant coach in the Greensboro Youth Hockey Association in 2002. Strand also volunteered to become a USA Hockey coaching education instructor, assisting in the training and development of youth hockey coaches. He has served on the Carolina Amateur Hockey Association’s Board of Directors since 2003 as the Youth Committee Chairperson and liaison to the Carolina’s Hockey League (CHL). Strand is also involved in the Southeast District U13 Festival held annually in Nashville, a development camp that brings in the top coaches to work with the most talented 13-year-old players in USA Hockey’s Southeast District. For the past 5 years Strand has served as the Carolina Hurricanes' Youth and Amateur Hockey Coordinator and has been  in charge of all of the team’s youth camps and clinics, as well as the Junior Hurricanes, the annual team-sponsored entrant into the Quebec International Hockey Pee Wee Tournament. He has also directed the In-School Initiative, a program in which the team led clinics in gym classes in 17 Wake County schools this past school year. 

NC State Hockey could not be more pleased with the high caliber coach that Strand will be for the team as they move into the 2010-2011 Season! After finishing at the top of the ACCHL Regular Season Rankings in 2009-2010 the team has lofty goals for the new season and Coach Strand is definitely a positive change that will help inspire future successes for the Wolfpack.

NCSU Hockey would Officially like to welcome Coach Strand to the Wolfpack Family!