Coach takes MU hockey to elite status

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Miami head hockey coach Enrico Blasi leads his team during NCAA Frozen Four college hockey practice at the Verizon Center in Washington, Wednesday, April 8, 2009.

AP Photo Miami head hockey coach Enrico Blasi leads his team during NCAA Frozen Four college hockey practice at the Verizon Center in Washington, Wednesday, April 8, 2009.

Enrico Blasi has the RedHawks hockey team in contention for a national title.

By Pete Conrad, Staff Writer Updated 12:06 AM Friday, April 2, 2010

OXFORD — In many ways Enrico “Rico” Blasi, still two years away from his 40th birthday, is the most successful coach in the history of Miami University.

Miami’s hockey team has spent most of the season ranked No. 1 in the nation, the RedHawks are the overall top seed for this week’s NCAA tournament, and at least one ESPN expert has predicted that Blasi’s team will win the NCAA championship in a couple of weeks.

Until Blasi came along, those kind of achievements were absolutely alien to Miami, which was more accustomed to the occasional Top 10 ranking in football or the occasional upset victory in basketball.

Blasi’s rise has been remarkably swift. In his first season at Miami the RedHawks finished 13-20-3. In the following 10 years Miami has reached the NCAA tournament six times.

But it hasn’t been an easy road for Blasi, who has survived and prospered by working harder than the next guy and working with a passion that comes from some flame deep within. And doing it with a focus that is awesome in its inflexibility.

That is his genius.

“I just think it’s part of the way I was taught as a young kid, that whatever you did you did with passion,” Blasi said. “You devoted all your attention to it, to school or hockey or whatever. I think it goes back to me wanting to be the best that I could be at whatever I did.”

In the beginning

Blasi was raised in Weston, Ontario, a suburb of Toronto. “Pretty normal” was the way he described his childhood. But that’s where his work ethic began to evolve.

“Both parents worked,” he said. “Dad was a cabinet maker and mom was a seamstress. They worked extremely hard. My grandmother raised us, but I don’t remember my dad or my mom missing any of our athletic events.”

Blasi was 4 years old when he began playing hockey.

“There was an outdoor rink, nothing formal,” he said. “I would play with the older kids in the neighborhood, things like that.

“I don’t know if I was good,” he said, “but I enjoyed it, took a passion to it. I had a love for it that made me work hard because I wanted to be better.”

As Blasi’s skills developed he began to play on a travel team.

“One of my coaches’ brother was Steve Morris, the all-time leading scorer here,” he noted.

Morris played at Miami from 1979-82 and scored 202 total points.

“So we took a visit to Miami and played Oxford youth hockey,” Blasi said. “We played two games here. I was 8 or 9 years old at the time. We were able to skate in between periods at the varsity game. That was my first-ever visit to Oxford.”

Coming to college

“How I got to Miami? George Gwozdecky was actually recruiting me to Michigan State and when he got the job at Miami he continued to recruit me for Miami,” Blasi said.

Gwozdecky was hired to coach the RedHawks in 1989. Blasi arrived a year later. It was the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

“The decision to come to Miami was (based on) the campus, the education, the small classes, and then ultimately George, his philosophy,” Blasi said. “I believed in him.”

Chris Bergeron, who has been an assistant coach on Blasi’s staff for 10 years, was a teammate of Blasi for three seasons.

Gwozdecky, Bergeron and Blasi became three of the many cogs which made Miami history during the 1993-94 season. The team captains were Bergeron (a senior), Blasi (a junior), the legendary Brian Savage (who scored 37 goals that season), and Trent Eigner.

The RedHawks, who also had standouts like Joe Cook, Kevyn Adams, Bobby Marshall and goalie Richard Shulmistra, compiled a 27-9-5 record, were ranked as high as No. 3, won their first Central Collegiate Hockey Association title and earned their first NCAA berth. Gwozdecky was named national coach of the year.

“He worked hard every day,” Bergeron said of Blasi. “He was a guy who produced points, but it wasn’t just that. He did whatever George asked him to do — killing penalties, the power play. He was the kind of guy who was good in any situation.”

Becoming a coach

Blasi graduated from Miami in 1994 and Gwozdecky left that year to become head coach at Denver.

“I wanted to stay in the game whether it was playing or coaching,” Blasi said. I knew at my height and my size (5-foot-8, 160 pounds) that playing probably wasn’t going to be something of a long-term (goal), or even an option. But the passion for the game was still there.”

Blasi turned to coaching and became an assistant for the Wexford Raiders.

“I coached half a year for the junior team that I played for,” Blasi said. “There were familiar faces, familiar coaches. That was very enjoyable for me.

“And then when George gave me an opportunity to be a volunteer assistant in Denver, “it was really a no brainer, at 22, to continue your education and try to get your master’s and get into coaching with the guy I played for here.”

Thumbs up in Denver

“It was really a win-win situation even though I didn’t have any money, no car or anything like that,” Blasi said. “It was very stressful on my family, obviously, going to Denver with nothing. But I knew George would take care of me.

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Miami hockey coach Enrico Blasi at a glance

Born: Feb. 16, 1972

Hometown: Weston, Ontario

College player: Miami, 1990-94, career totals — 55 goals, 123 points

College coach: Denver, assistant coach, 1996-99; Miami, head coach, 1999-present

Career record at Miami: 237-158-40

National awards: 2006, Spencer Penrose Award (coach of the year); 2010, College Hockey News and CollegeHockey247.com coach of the year

NCAA berths: (6) 2004, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010

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