![\"Durocher](\"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/files\/2016\/04\/durocher-and-oc-78-beanpot.jpg\")
<\/a>Since that day in Providence, R.I. in the late 1970s, Durocher has nestled himself into quite the niche at his alma mater. After serving as Assistant Coach and later Associate Head Coach for the BU Terriers, the School of Education alumnus has been the Head Coach for the Women’s Ice Hockey Team since the squad’s inception in 2005. At the helm, BU has gone\u00a0231-129-43, has claimed five Hockey East Championships, and has appeared in two National Championship Games.<\/p>\n
“There have been some fantastic players who\u00a0have gotten the job done and\u00a0[the coaching staff]\u00a0tries to prepare them during the week and stay out of the way on weekends so that they know that if they make a mistake, or if they have a bad shift, or if we get rattled for about ten minutes that we can get our feet back on the ground,” said Durocher. “We’ve got to right the ship and get going, and we’ve been lucky to do that.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
“For the man that once thought to be the successor of legendary coach Jack Parker by taking over the BU Men\u2019s Team, transitioning to coaching women\u2019s hockey has gone relatively smooth for Durocher.<\/p>\n
\u201c[The players] love the game, they play just as hard as the guys, they care about winning, but I think at the end of the day because there isn\u2019t the illusions of grandeur [\u2026] that they make it a little more like a game,” said Durocher. “I think in some ways it makes it much more fun.”<\/p>\n
As the Coach of the women\u2019s squad, Durocher has brought the program out of infancy and into the National spotlight, with two of his teams reaching the National Championship.<\/p>\n
In 2011, the Terriers became the first Hockey East team to appear in the final game of the season before they fell to the University of Wisconsin by a score of 4-1. Two years later, Durocher compiled arguably his greatest team as BU once again made a push for the National Championship. In a year in which they recorded their least amount of losses en route to compiling a 28-6-3, the Lady Terriers fell to the University of Minnesota, 6-3, in the title game.<\/p>\n
Durocher\u2019s laid-back personality effortlessly translates to his coaching life, where one Hockey East official described him as \u201cthe easiest coach to deal with in the conference.\u201d When asked about his levelheadedness behind the bench, Durocher cited his faith in his players as his reasoning for being so understanding.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think we as coaches impact the game as much as some people think. In hockey it\u2019s a read and react game and we\u2019ve got to try and keep the kids loose so there\u2019s no sense in me yelling at them, and no sense in me getting on the refs all the time,\u201d said Durocher.<\/p>\n
This quiet and relaxed demeanor makes his occasional outbursts at referees and players alike all the more powerful.\u00a0One aspect that does bring out the Hulk side to this hockey Bruce Banner is mental mistakes.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe only times I probably get upset or disappointed are when there\u2019s bad mental errors by our team. I know the kids on our team don\u2019t try to intentionally have the other team pick of a pass or intentionally make a bad shot, so I don\u2019t get on them for physical errors, its more the mental you watch for.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, while Durocher dislikes seeing his team not be mentally present 100% of the time, he sure does understand the pressures of being a student-athlete at one of the nation\u2019s best research institutions turned hockey powerhouse.<\/p>\n
\u201cHaving the same type of life [trying] to put together academics and athletics [\u2026] you have that type of understanding and it can be more helpful. I think it is more helpful especially nowadays because these kids work harder and have longer seasons than we used to,\u201d said Durocher<\/p>\n
Many around the women\u2019s college hockey world wonder how long Durocher, who has two fully-grown daughters of his own, will remain the head of an already storied program. While he has been a coach since he graduated from BU almost 40 years ago, Durocher has no plans to leave anytime soon, as he has a few more goals he\u2019d like his team to accomplish first.<\/p>\n
\u201cPersonally, I love what I\u2019m doing and I see myself here for another ten years of coaching. We want to try and win a National Championship, we want to do well in Hockey East Championships, and we want to grab a Beanpot in there too,” said Durocher.<\/p>\n
“If we can keep bringing in quality student-athletes to the school some of those wins and trophies will be there. But mostly, I want to make sure that the people in and around BU see that we\u2019ve got a classy group of kids that are a great reflection on Boston University.\u201d<\/p>\n
With that goal in mind, all 23 of Durocher\u2019s players have the perfect role model of class and elegance in hockey, school, and life right in front of them: their always-smiling head coach.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By: Dave Souza In 1978 the Boston University Men’s Ice Hockey Team won the National Championship with Brian Durocher captaining and backstopping the Terriers. In his four years as a member of the Scarlet and White, Durocher led the Terriers to 47\u00a0wins in his 61 games played, two Beanpots, and the team’s third National title […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17194,"featured_media":7115,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1039,1041],"tags":[1053,1482],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7113"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17194"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7113"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7113\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7115"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7113"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7113"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7113"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}