MacEwan Athletics
EDMONTON – The interim tag has been removed from MacEwan men's hockey coach Michael Ringrose's title.
Ringrose, who had been serving as the Griffins' interim head coach for the 2017-18 season, has been named the team's new head coach, MacEwan Director of Athletics Ken Schildroth announced on Wednesday.
"Michael Ringrose is a very good values match to MacEwan University from an athletic excellence, academic excellence and community engagement perspective," said Schildroth.
"As a coach, he is a teacher first, a motivator and an excellent recruiter. And he has the academic qualifications that fit with what we're looking for in an educational sport leader."
Ringrose has been a hockey coach since 2006 when he joined the Alberta Junior Hockey League's Fort Saskatchewan Traders as an assistant after his playing career wrapped up. He was a star scorer in both Bantam AAA and Midget AAA before launching into a successful AJHL career (2001-2005) that included two all-star nods (with Sherwood Park in 2004 and Drayton Valley in 2005). He also briefly suited up for the MacEwan Griffins in 2006 before becoming a coach.
Ringrose served as bench boss of the Leduc Oil Kings of the Alberta Midget AAA Hockey League (2008-2010) and then as Director of Operations for Vimy Ridge Academy's hockey program (2008-2016).
His last experience before coming to MacEwan was with the AJHL's Spruce Grove Saints where he was the team's associate coach (2010-2015) before landing the head coach/general manager job for the 2016-17 season. As an associate coach, he helped the Saints win three AJHL championships (2011, 2014, 2015) while sporting a 226-45-29 record (regular season) and 51-24 record (playoffs). In 2016-17, he led the Saints to a 40-18-2 mark (and 7-4 in the playoffs).
That sterling record of success carried over the Griffins this season as he guided them to a 20-7-1-0 record, good for second in the ACAC.
Ringrose – who holds a Bachelor of Physical Education, Coaching Studies from the University of Alberta – is pleased to become the Griffins' official head coach moving forward.
"For me, I think it's a great opportunity," he said. "I look at the program and the growth that it's seen over the last five years. To be able to take that and continue to build on some of the successes and work towards some of the goals that the university and athletic department have set out, I'm really excited.
"I think it's an exciting time to be a Griffin."
Since the beginning of November, no ACAC team has been hotter than the Griffins, who have gone 18-3-1 after a slow October start, and are on a nine-game winning streak as they head into the best-of-three ACAC Championship final against the NAIT Ooks this weekend.
Game 1 is Friday (7 p.m., NAIT Arena). Game 2 is Saturday (6 p.m., Downtown Community Arena) and Game 3, if necessary, is Sunday (6:30 p.m., NAIT Arena).
The Griffins are the defending ACAC champions, beating the Ooks 2-1 in the final last season.
