By Ben Shanahan

Special to the Sentinel-Tribune

Dennis Williams was named Bowling Green State University ninth head coach in program history on March 28, 2024, and he’s not so unfamiliar with his surroundings.

Williams’ journey with the Falcons started all the way back in 1997, when he played for BGSU under then-head coach and now volunteer assistant coach Buddy Powers.

“It is unbelievable to see Buddy Powers, who coached me when I was here,” Williams said at his press conference. “I am forever indebted for giving me this opportunity.

“My coaches taught me values and who I am today. I did not realize at that point what they were trying to get through. It is not till later, when you mature, that you understand that.”

Williams bounced around as an assistant coach after his playing career, most notably at now-defunct Alabama Huntsville, before returning to the Slater Family Ice Arena as an assistant coach in 2008 and taking over the program as an interim head coach in 2010.

“In 2010, Dennis received a call from the athletic director at the time, ‘Dennis, you will not be receiving this opportunity to be our head coach of Bowling Green’ so we started a road to redemption,” said current BGSU athletic director Derek Van Der Merwe.

Williams began that road to redemption in a non-traditional market in Amarillo, Texas, coaching the Bulls of the North American Hockey League.

“When I left Bowling Green at that time, that was the first time I had never been cut from a team or let go of a coaching position, so I did not know how to handle that, which is something I had to go through, which helped me get to this position today,” Williams said.

“And it was humbling to go down to Amarillo, Texas, to find the job. I am outside of Toronto, and I was thinking the only place where I can find a job is in Texas right now, but low and behold, it was an unbelievable experience that I would never trade for the world.”

After Amarillo, he headed north to Bloomington, Illinois, and coached the Bloomington Thunder of the United States Hockey League for three seasons before leaving to coach major junior hockey in the Western Hockey League for the Everett Silvertips, where he would win three conference regular season titles and one Western Conference championship.

They are still in the playoffs, and Williams will remain coaching them until the end.

“I encouraged him to finish this season with Everett,” said Van Der Merwe. “I valued the fact that he wasn’t going to leave his team. I thought that was awesome. We’ll make that work.

“And the reason why is that I value a person who has integrity and values the experience of the people that he’s with, and truly, if I demanded that he leave that team, I don’t think we’d have Dennis Williams today.

“That’s the character of the person he is. That’s the character I want. A person who is loyal and committed to the student experience and the student-athlete experience. And that’s something he represented through the process, and his coaching is a fundamental value decision. That I support.”

In a seven-year tenure, Wilson also got the nod to be the coach of Team Canada’s World Junior team, where he would win gold and learned even more lessons as a head coach.

“We had a big hiccup with the world junior team, where we lost a Czechia game one, not a really good thing for all of Canada at that time,” Williams said.

“And I had to answer all those questions up there. But like anything, we came back and persevered. In situations like that game, situations I’ve gone through in terms of my development path have only given me the opportunity to grow.”

It was not a hard decision for Williams to take the Bowling Green job, describing it as the one he always wanted.

“And the question was easy for me. It’s not called college hockey. It is Bowling Green,” Williams said. “And I made that really clear when I talked with Derek. This is a really special place.

“There could be a ton of other schools that would call at the same time and offer me the same opportunity. It’d be a quick no. But when the Bowling Green opportunity came available right away, it struck a real part of my heart.”

Williams becomes only the seventh coach ever to coach major junior and college hockey, something he was not aware of when asked.

“Seventh? Alright, that is pretty good, not too many that do it. I guess hockey is hockey,” Williams said. “I learned that when I went to the North American League, I just wanted to be a coach, and I took that job.

“When I took that path, it led me to Admarillo, then Bloomington, then Everett, where the owner owned all three teams. If I did not take that job in Amarillo, where would I be?

“When you play college hockey, when you grew up in this environment. I had other options when I was a player to go to the OHL (Ontario Hockey League) and play major juniors. All my buddies did, but I stuck to coming to Bowling Green, and I laughed. My dad still has a letter that he typed up to Wayne Wilson thanking him for our visit.”