#USPHLAdvancement Coaches Edition: Former P.A.L. Player, Coach Vandervere Now Assistant Coach With NCAA’s Hiram College
By Joshua Boyd / USPHL.com
It wasn’t a very long transition between playing and coaching for Joseph Vandervere. In fact, it was while he was still a player with the P.A.L. Jr. Islanders when an injury sidelined him for an extended period. During the interim time off the ice, he began to learn about video editing for the purposes of coaching.
Fast forward five years and he is now looking forward to his first season as an NCAA coach, working the bench as well as video coaching for the first-year Division III team at Hiram College in Hiram, Ohio. At the same time, Vandervere will be studying at Hiram as a graduate student towards a Master’s degree in sports management.
“I was looking for a Graduate Assistant position, which would give me the opportunity to get a master’s degree without worrying about student loans afterwards,” said Vandervere. “I saw the job post in January and had an interview shortly thereafter. I got the job offer in February, and then went through the process of getting accepted into the school and working out the classes.”
He certainly is excited for his future, as he hopes this will put him on a track to become a career hockey coach. He still feels indebted to current P.A.L. Jr. Islanders Head Coach Mike Marcou for introducing him to the coaching realm.
“I got really into video coaching under Mike Marcou, after I originally learned video coaching from Alexis Demolina when I was a player,” added Vandervere. “I was actually studying abroad in 2022-23 in England, when I saw a post that P.A.L. needed a coach. I didn’t have coaching experience, so I asked if I could come on as a third coach and use that as an internship. I thought I’d be more of an equipment manager, but I was right there on the bench for our first Premier game of the regular season when our regular assistant coach was sick.
“[P.A.L. Premier Head Coach] Frank DiChiara was very instrumental in helping me grow and become more accustomed to what it takes to be a coach. Last year, with our ups and downs, having to come back in every single game of the playoffs, you have to tame your emotions, have a game plan and stick to it,” he said.
It worked out well for the P.A.L. team last year, as they made it all the way to the USPHL Premier Nationals as the Atlantic Division playoff champion.
It is a whole new realm, however, for Vandervere. He has to study up quickly on all of the NCAA regulations before practices begin this fall.
“It’s awesome, I didn’t think I’d be getting to this level. When I was playing, I was thinking maybe college isn’t the right path. Getting back to the Jr. Islanders and being in that environment, with the culture that Ron Kinnear, Mike Marcou and Frank DiChiara created, that’s huge in getting me to where I want to go,” he added.
Hiram is, as aforementioned, a brand new NCAA team and is also a team with a sizeable USPHL imprint. There will be seven former Premier and three former NCDC players joining the Terriers to form a large bulk of the team.
“It’s nice, because I’ve already gotten to coach against some of the incoming kids from the USPHL, so I know what we’re getting right from the start,” said Vandervere. “We also have a lot of kids from other leagues where there is a lot of familiarity with that style of play, so that will help in terms of the locker room dynamic. We are getting a lot of players who were teammates in their prior leagues, so that helps develop the chemistry from the outset.”
In addition to forging a solid team identity in Year 1, Vandervere also knows he has to create a lot of time balance between his hockey work and his school work. He will be living on-campus in the graduate student housing, essentially living amongst the same players he will be sending out for ice shifts.
“Obviously, time management will be important. The travel is about the same as, if not more than, juniors. Luckily, I can maximize my opportunities between education and what my professional life may be, since I am pursuing coaching as a career,” he added.
The USPHL congratulates Joseph Vandervere for his new position as Assistant Coach with Hiram University.