Dennis Williams is preparing for his first season as the head coach of the Bowling Green Falcon hockey
team.
Williams returned to his alma mater last season as an assistant coach for the Falcons after serving as an
assistant the previous season at Alabama-Huntsville under former BG assistant coach Danton Cole.
Prior to his time at UAH, Williams was the head coach at Neumann College, an NCAA Division III school in
Ashton, Pa. from 2004-07.
Under Williams the Knights were 35-32-8 overall, including the two best seasons in school history.
Neumann was just 3-21-1 in its last season before Williams took over, but eventually went 17-15-5 and
was ranked third nationally in his final season there.
During the 2006-07 season, Neumann had the nation’s best power play at 14 percent and also had a success
rate of 80 percent on the penalty-kill. The Knights also had three players in the top five nationally in
points.
Williams played at BG from 1997-2001, totaling 12 goals and eight assists in 117 games. He received the
Howard Brown Coaches Award as a senior as the person who best exemplified professional qualities both on
and off the ice en route to leading the Falcons to a CCHA semifinal appearance that season.
A hard-working wing, the 5-foot-8, 175-pound Williams also had a tough side with 198 career penalty
minutes.
Following his graduation in 2001, Williams served as Paluch’s first graduate assistant at BG in 2002,
before moving on to serve as an assistant coach for one season at Utica College during the 2003-04
season.
A native of Stratford, Ontario, Williams earned his master’s degree in marketing education from BGSU in
2003 after earning his bachelors degree in sport management in the summer of 2001, graduating cum laude.

Williams, his wife, Hollie, and their 6-month-year-old daughter, Emerson Rhys, reside in BG.
Williams recently sat down for an interview with Sentinel assistant sports editor Kevin Gordon. Here is
what they talked about:
Q: How did it feel to be named the head coach at BG, your alma mater and where you were an assistant
coach last season?
A: It’s very exciting. It was a goal of mine when I got into coaching. When I met my wife and I was
coaching at Utica, she asked what my ultimate goal was I told her one day I would love to be coaching at
Bowling Green and be the head coach there some day. My path has taken me back here and I’m very
fortunate that I was given this opportunity to lead the program and coach the team. I was excited when
they offered me the job. I try to be modest about everything, but there was a real glimmer from both of
us because we were really excited about the job and we really love Bowling Green and the community. We
like it here. It was like all of our hard work had paid off when we got this opportunity. Now, it’s even
more important to work harder to justify my hiring and that I can do the job here.
Q: How do you feel about being an interim coach and having only a one-year contract (BGSU athletics
director Greg Christopher has said a national search for a head coach for the 2010-11 season and beyond
will be held after the season)?
A: I take it one day at a time. I knew that coming in, that it was interim and I accepted that challenge.
For Bowling Green hockey, I’m going to do everything I can with the knowledge I’ve got, to instill a
work ethic and a competitive environment and good students, good community kids, where we provide a
positive image. That’s the nature of coaching. Now, we go out there just like the players and perform.

Q: So you aren’t worried about the future and returning next season?
A: I can’t think that way. I don’t think that would be fair. I just have to worry about the players and
the coaching staff we have right now, and come Oct. 3 (an exhibition Saturday against Wilfred Laurier),
that we’re ready to play hockey. We’re worried about this season and what we can do as a group.
Q: Have you been told what you have to do to keep the job for the 2010-11 season?
A: We haven’t gone into a lot of detail for that. I’m just focused on these players and making an
environment where Bowling Green hockey is competitive again and concentrating on guys graduating again,
and staying positive with our involvement in the community and its events.
Q: So you haven’t been told if making significant improvement (BG was 11-24-3 overall and 8-19-1 in the
Central Collegiate Hockey Association for last place) or getting home ice for the playoffs (top eight)
would be enough for you to be rehired?
A: No.
Q: How did you get interested in coaching?
A: When I got done playing, I came back as a graduate assistant under coach Paluch. I knew I always
wanted to stay in hockey and do something in the sport. I always thought college hockey was a lot of fun
and a great atmosphere to be in. When I came back to Bowling Green, after that year working with coach
Paluch, and coach Fogarty and coach Patrick (former BG assistant coaches Ron and Kevin, respectively),
this was something I really wanted to pursue and then I went to a Division III school (Neumann College).
I had no clue what D-III hockey was. My first game of watching (Division III) was when I was my behind
the bench, my first game as a head coach. From that point on, I never looked back and I really enjoyed
working with the student-athletes, making them better as players and as people, and being such a big
part of their life in a time when you can be a mentor.
Q: How much you describe yourself as a coach?
A: I’ve changed from my earlier years. My earlier years, I was probably a little bit more aggressive and
probably more immature how knowing how to handle issues. Now, I’ve had the opportunity to be a head
coach for three years and I’ve learned from coach Paluch and coach Cole, and they were great mentors.
I’ve taken different parts from the way they’ve coached and blended it into who I want to be as a head
coach. I expect nothing but hard work and a competitive environment. I’ve been able to sit back and look
at it differently and see who I liked as coaches and take things differently and have an open line of
communication with the players to why we’re doing things, so they’re away from my end it’s just not a
dictatorship. We’re in this together. This is how we’re going to do it, why we’re going to do it and
we’re just going to get it done. When I was a first-year coach, I was always on the officials, getting
on them every call. Now, you pick and choose the ones that have more validity to them. And now I don’t
think I overreact to every little thing and stressing out about them. Looking back, I probably didn’t
need to do that and put that on a kid. My approach is lot different now. I still demand a ton and I’m
very energetic, and I live off emotion myself, and I expect our players to follow that.
Q: Do you relate to players better now?
A: Definitely. I have an open door. If someone on our team has a problem, whether it be on ice off ice,
come on in. Probably five years ago, no. This is how it was and how we’re doing things. As a player, I
probably wouldn’t have liked me as a coach early on. It was just a lack of knowledge I had, a lack of
experience. Now, having been in coaching for seven years, I’ve learned to deal with a lot of different
issues and I know when to get excited and to stay on an even keel.
Q: Are you organized and detailed?
A: Yes, right down to the crossing the t’s and dotting the i’s. I want to make sure everything is set
from our on-ice systems to their academics. I want them to have structure. I want them to know where
they should be but they’re the ones playing the game and they have to play it. We don’t want them to be
robots, but we want them to know where they should be. But when the puck drops, I’m not the one out
there making the decisions. From a coaching standpoint, we’re so detail oriented but we don’t beat them
to death on it. But they know where to be and our office is the same way. I like to have things done in
a timely fashion. I want to know where everything is, what every guy’s class schedule is, in case i ever
to get a hold them. I’m obsessive that way, that everything is in order. I don’t micromanage my
assistant coaches. Those guys do it and they know the expectations, so I don’t want to sit there over
their shoulder watching everything they do. They’re very capable of doing everything I ask and I don’t
need to go in there every two minutes and ask them what they’re doing.
Q: What do you want people to say when they think of a Dennis Williams-coached team?
A: It’s a cliche, but we want to be the hardest-working team. We want to be tenacious. We’re going to be
disciplined, we’re going to come out every team where every team is going to be scared to play us in a
sense of we’re going to play with passion … 50-50 pucks have to be Bowling Green’s pucks 100 percent
of the time. That’s our mentality. We’re going to be ready when we lace up the skates, whatever rink we
play in, home or away, teams aren’t going to want to play us because they know we’re going to hit them,
we’re going to wear them down and they’ll be sore. On top of that, puck pursuit. Team speed and being
smart hockey players. Being able to identify what’s going on in a game and switching things up and
making adjustments. If we have to switch systems in the middle of a game, we’re going to change that on
the fly. Our grit and determination is going to be evident every game and it’s going to be evident with
the coaching staff. I’ve said to our players, I’m not expecting you to do anything the coaching staff
won’t do. We have to out-work the coaches in our league, out-recruit them, out-work them on the road,
out-video them, out-prepare them and prepare our team. We’re asking our players to go out and battle, so
we as coaches have to be prepared to battle. We’d better be the hardest-working coaching staff in
college hockey.
Q: How do you feel about being the youngest coach in Division I hockey?
A: It doesn’t matter to me. We’re all coaches out there. I was one of the youngest in Division III. I was
24 when I started at Neumann and I had players older than me there. That’s never affected me. I’m a
young coach, but I’m not going to get pushed around out there in the recruiting wars. We’re Bowling
Green hockey and that’s how I look at it. I’ll make sure I’m the best leader I can be for this program.
Our players won’t be pushed around on the ice and we won’t be as a coaching staff either.
Q: How does it feel now to know that the program’s future has been saved?
A: It’s a great. As a team, we’ve never discussed it. The players have been focused, but now we can
really focus on playing hockey and going to school. That’s exciting to them. When they found out, you
could see the weight fall off their shoulders. Now, we can just get after it. That’s what we’re here to
do this year. We’re here to surprise a lot of teams, a lot of people. We have a great hockey team and
we’re excited to get going.
Q: What is the goal for the team in the Central Collegiate Hockey Association this season?
A: I’ve told the team our goal is to get home ice for the playoffs (the top eight), that’s a realistic
goal and we weren’t too far off of that last year. The league is really close, and it’s a bounce here, a
goal here, a save here … that’s what we’re going to look for. With our work ethic, our preparation,
and our aggressiveness, the approach, we’re going to take, that should catapult us into home ice for the
playoffs.
Q: What the strengths of the team going to be this year?
A: Right now, I really like the team camaraderie. They’re all getting along. I’ve been on teams where
there have been little cliques and I don’t see that with this team. It’s great to see guys hanging out
and just talking to everybody, not just their roommates. They’re excited to come to the rink, they’re
excited to work and they’re excited to learn. Their off-ice workouts, they’re working hard. Everything
has been very positive. There’s been no negatives, no complaining. It’s exciting to see them every day.
It’s important to our staff to maintain relationships with them. We want to know every player inside and
outside. If they’re having a bad day, a bad exam, a bad test, whatever issues they’re having, we can
help them get through it and move on. We don’t want to be a staff where we walk right through the locker
room after practice and go away to the office. I want to mingle with them and get to know to know them.
We’re here for them and they know we’re here for them. Every player is important to me. I’ve got their
back 110 percent. I want to know what guys are doing, how they’re doing, whatever it is. I want to be
familiar with them. I also want to know how each player responds, what can I do to bring out the best in
them. Some players need a kick in the butt and they respond to be being yelled at. Other players, you
have to talk to them, you need to stay positive with them. Every player is motivated differently.
Q: How do feel about the relationship you have your players?
A: Like I said before, I want to know every player inside and out. And it’s also going to be a bit
different than in the past, guys need to be told when they’re doing well. In the past, I might not have
said that enough. But if a guy is busting hard, he needs a pat on the rear end or a pat on the head,
saying great work. And if they’re not doing the job, they’ll hear that, too. I’m very proud of the work
ethic so far and that’s what excites me. The biggest thing as a coaching staff is we have to believe in
what we’re doing and they’ve bought into it so far. We had great returnees and a great leader in Kyle
Page, and we have 10 freshmen, and they bring a lot of youth and excitement. There’s been no negativity.
A lot of credit goes to Kyle Page and the seniors. I’ve told them, this is your team. You mandate the
locker room and if I need to get involved, I will. I gave the ownership to our seniors collectively.
What do you want to do your last year here and it all depends on them. If someone does something wrong,
it’s just not getting on them and yelling at them, it’s about mentoring them and teaching team. Taking a
freshman and putting your arm around him, and explain things to him, bring him along, pick him up, not
just telling him he has to go quicker. Those are the values and expectations I gave to the senior class.
They’ve bought into that and we’re going to meet with all of our classes before the season starts. Our
seniors want to go out with a bang.
Q: What are the key areas for the team this season, areas that will determine how well the team does?
A: We need to score more goals. Goal scoring was a struggle for us last season. We out-played teams last
year, but we couldn’t score. We need to work on more skill sets on guys having the confidence to score
goals and put them in a position where I’ve been here and done it 100 times in practice, and I know I
can do it in a game and having them believe they can put the puck in the net. We need goaltending. We
need our goalies to step up this year and it’s been positive with (Nick Eno and Andrew Hammond). They’re
having a healthy competition and pushing each other. Goaltenders can win games and instill a lot of
confidence in a team.
On the flip side, we need to score more to give our goalies a chance. It would be great to give our
goalies a two- or three-goal lead, instead of our saying I wish our goalies would make more saves. We
want our forwards to score more. It’s a two-way street. You hope that balancing comes out where if you
don’t score four goals, you hope your goalie plays well. In a game your goalie struggles, you want to
score four goals. You want them to complement each other.
Q: You’ve talked about your love of teaching through the use of increased video?
A: It’s more in the sense of scouting reports on our opponents. With 10 freshmen, they don’t know what
it’s like to play Ohio State, Notre Dame, Michigan, Miami. Our pre-game scouting reports will be done on
paper as well as video for them, more in-depth detail what to expect as well as meeting more one-on-one
with individuals throughout the year about their own individual games, to help them get better. It’s
easy to tell a kid what they’re doing wrong, but it’s easier for them to see it. The film doesn’t lie
and it’s not going to be a tool to be negative. It’s a tool to help them get better. We want to give
them as much teaching and learning as we can. A lot of our film will be positive. We don’t want to
single anybody out, but there will be points we have to bring to the attention of the team and
individuals. We’ll show them things they’re doing right and things they’re doing wrong. There has to be
a balance. It’s a great feel as a coach knowing that when a player leaves the room after watching video,
knowing he’s got it and understands everything because that will make him a better player.
Q: What did you try to accomplish during the team’s month of off-ice conditioning and captains practices,
as well as the limited team and individual practices (official practices start Saturday under NCAA
rules)?
A: They’re in great shape, the attitude is great and they’re excited to get going. Most of the players
exceeded or bettered what we expected. Overall, the guys are in great shape. We’re a lot stronger and
we’re faster, quicker. We control our conditioning. We can control our stamina and our strength in the
third period. We can control whether we’re tired or not. Throughout the month, our conditioning has been
strenuous but they’ve met and exceeded our goals. As the year goes on, the better the shape you’re in,
the more successful you’re going to be. We want to out-skate and out-hit our opponents.
Q: What will the team’s style of play be?
A: We want to be as aggressive as possible and be a puck possession, puck control team. We have a good
team speed and we want to attack. That being said, we’re still evaluating that and we’ll have a better
idea once practice begins and we play some games.”
Q: What did you mean when you said you want hockey to be the best 2 1/2 hours of the each player’s day?

A: Coming to the rink has to be fun. I’ve said that for the last couple years. If you’re not having fun,
playing hockey, there’s no sense playing it and that has to be my best time of the day as a coach. I’m
just like a kid again when I go out there and I want them to be excited, too. I can put away my
schoolwork for the day and I can put aside any issues I might be having, and I can lace up my skates and
get away from that real-world mentality, play the game and get on the ice. The players and staff can
come out together and have a common interest and a common goal.
Q: What will you look for in the players you recruit?
There are three things we look for in a player — 1) character on and off the ice … we’re going to talk
to their past and present coaches, 2) their ability to compete and 3) their hockey IQ, hockey knowledge,
can they think the game? It’s not two out of three. They have to have all three characteristics. If they
can bring all three of those, we’ll follow them. I can’t have two of the three. We need guys who can
skate, compete, and think the game and they’re good citizens. We need smart players. We want to be able
to adapt what is going on in a game and if we want to adjust or make changes, and if you can’t do that,
you’re not going to be helping us.
Q: Are you going to continue to make older players, and players from the United States (Junior) Hockey
League the main focus of BG’s recruiting?
A: We’re going to expand throughout all of the leagues. The older student-athlete comes with a lot of
perks. They tend to be physically mature, off-ice mature. They know they’re here for school and hockey
and you know you’re not dealing with the first time the kid’s moved away from home. But again, we’re
going to find the best athlete, no matter where they are from or how old they are. If we think they can
step in and make an impact as a freshman, we want them. We’re not looking for guys who will develop in
two years. We want them to make an initial impact as a freshman.