Recruiting and fundraising have occupied a lot of University of Maine hockey coach Red Gendron’s summer.
“Recruiting is ongoing. It’s a year-round process,” 54-year-old Gendron, who will begin his third season behind the bench this fall, said.
Now that he has coached two seasons, his imprint on the team will be more defined as more players recruited by Gendron and assistants Jay Leach and Ben Guite will dot the roster.
“We are constantly evaluating the talent pool,” Gendron said. “It’s always pretty good. It’s just a matter of finding them. You want to find what you need.
“Things have gone very well,” he added.
Recruiting has taken the UMaine coaches all across North America.
At the top of Gendron’s list of qualities is character.
“We’re looking for great character. That encompasses a million things, including work habits and competitive spirit,” he said.
In putting together a roster, he stated the importance of having balance.
“You don’t need every player to be a monster. Not every player has to have the same resume. You need to have speed, and you need to have grit. If you have a team full of small players, it isn’t ideal. If you have a team full of big players, as long as they can all move, that’s fine. Bigger is better,” Gendron said.
Gendron inherited a team from former head coach Tim Whitehead, which was the third smallest among the nation’s 59 Division I teams.
Gendron and his staff have addressed the size issue, and this year’s roster will have 15 players who stand at least 6-foot-1 and 12 who will weigh in at 190 pounds or more.
Nine freshmen will dot the roster in forwards Dane Gibson, Danny Perez, Justin Rai and Brendan Robbins and defensemen Sam Becker, Robert Michel, Keith Muehlbauer and Stephen Cochrane and goalie Robert McGovern.
The freshmen all are on campus to take classes and get accustomed to the school, the area and each other.
Whitehead began the practice of having freshmen spend a late-summer month on campus.
The freshmen will be an integral part of the team, but “all of our players will be important,” he said.
“Every player on the team is valuable. He has to do his job [if we’re going to be successful],” Gendron said.
“The most important thing we do in the summer and most time we spend on something is on preparing for next season,” said Gendron, whose Black Bears are coming off a disappointing 14-22-3 season, ( 8-12-2 in Hockey East).
“We work on that on a daily basis. We watch videos of our team and of other teams. We decide how we can do a better job of teaching. We’ll decide if we need to tweak certain things,” he added. “We’ll take a look at how we run practices. We’ll address some of the weaknesses we had a year ago.”
Gendron said they already have had “four big meetings” among the coaches since the end of the season to formulate a blueprint for the season.
“The bottom line is you give yourself a much better chance to succeed if you’re prepared,” he said.
He also has been busy fundraising, which includes meeting with groups and individuals. The most recent fundraiser was the 13th annual Shawn Walsh Memorial Golf Classic at the Martindale Country Club in Auburn on July 30.
“It went great,” Gendron said. “Frank Jordan, the Friends of Maine Hockey and the whole committee did a lot of work.”
Gendron said he was involved in a “supporting role.”
The UMaine coaches also have spent some time running their University of Maine hockey schools.
Maine will play Michigan State in the opener. MSU senior defenseman Travis Walsh is the son of the late UMaine hockey coach.
Walsh had his junior season shortened by a fractured jaw he suffered while blocking a shot in a 5-3 loss to Minnesota on Feb. 26.
The Black Bears will face perennial power North Dakota on the second day.
Brad Berry will be making his head coaching debut for North Dakota after replacing Dave Hakstol, who left to coach the NHL’s Philadelphia Flyers.
Gendron said he doesn’t feel any additional pressure coming off last year’s campaign.
Maine went 16-15-4 in Gendron’s first year, 9-8-3 in Hockey East.
“I’m excited for the season,” Gendron said.