Published: June 12, 2008 10:24 pm            

MEN'S HOCKEY: Niagara signs Burkholder to extension

Ed McLaughlin wasn’t going to take a chance.

The college hockey world is much smaller than its hardcourt contemporary, making it more difficult for a coach to parlay success at a small college to more money and prestige elsewhere, as is often the case in basketball.

But in reaching an agreement Wednesday on a contract extension with men’s hockey coach Dave Burkholder, McLaughlin, the Niagara athletics director, diffused the possibility that a bigger program could steal one of the Purple Eagles’ prime assets.

“With the success that he’s had here, who wouldn’t want to look at him?” McLaughlin said Thursday. “I didn’t want him to get to a point where he was interested in anything else.

“... I think the world of him as a person and I’m very glad we can keep him here as our hockey coach.”

Burkholder, a two-time College Hockey America coach of the year who led Niagara to the NCAA tournament in March, said he’s happy to hold one of just 58 Division I head coaching jobs, and “extremely happy” to do so at Niagara.

“It’s the only place for me,” Burkholder said by cell phone Thursday from the back nine at Niagara Falls Country Club. “This is my home. My wife (Kathleen) is from (Orchard Park) and this is where we want to stay.”

His daughter, Taryn, will enter Niagara as a freshman in the fall, and will play lacrosse.

The extension runs through the end of the 2011-12 season, Burkholder said, adding two years to the previous deal and indicating to the Purple Eagles’ incoming freshmen that the coach who welcomed them to Monteagle Ridge will be there for the duration of their collegiate career.

“I think that’s important for the student-athletes and their families,” Burkholder said. “It gives them peace of mind.”

McLaughlin said he and Burkholder began discussions on an extension after the CHA meetings in April.

“It was really a simple thing, other than just the language of the contract,” McLaughlin said.

Financial terms of the contract were not disclosed by either party.

Burkholder joined the Purple Eagles during their inaugural season in 1996 as an assistant. He became the head coach in 2001 and has since coached Niagara to a pair of CHA regular-season championships and two CHA tournament titles that resulted in NCAA tournament berths. Over the past three seasons, Niagara has boasted a .597 winning percentage, 13th best in the country.

“It has been a labor of love,” Burkholder said in a news release, “so to get the opportunity to build on our successes and help take this program higher is wonderful.”

Contact reporter Jonah Bronstein

at 282-2311, ext. 2258.

        

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