After graduating from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York, where he played hockey for four years and was a captain, Ben Barr started working at a bank because “I knew I wasn’t good enough to play hockey for a long time.”
That didn’t last long.
“I realized pretty quickly that’s not what I wanted to do,” said Barr who turned his attention to coaching hockey.
He began working as a volunteer assistant at RPI in the 2004-05 season, and coached in the Capital District youth program the next two seasons before returning to RPI as a volunteer for one season.
Then Nate Leaman hired him as a paid assistant coach at Union College.
Barr quickly established himself as a top-notch assistant coach and recruiter and, after serving as an assistant coach or associate head coach at Union, Providence, Western Michigan and UMass, he landed his first head coaching job at the University of Maine four years ago.
Former coach Red Gendron had died unexpectedly on April 9. 2021 and Ken Ralph, UMaine’s athletic director at the time, hired the 39-year-old Barr. Ralph was the athletic director at RPI when Barr was there.
After a 7-22-4 record in his first year at UMaine and a 15-16-5 mark in his second season, Barr has guided his Black Bears to their first two Hockey East semifinal berths and NCAA Tournament appearances since the 2011-12 season.
And the Black Bears captured their first Hockey East tournament title since 2004 last Friday with a 5-2 win over UConn. That had followed a 7-1 quarterfinal win over UMass Lowell and a 4-3 double overtime win over Northeastern.
Thousands of UMaine fans swarmed the TD Garden for the victories over Northeastern and UConn to the point where several referred to it as “Alfond South.”
It was that fan support and storied hockey tradition which included 18 NCAA Tournament appearances, 11 Frozen Fours and two NCAA championships that drew his interest for the job.
“You try to create that everywhere you go,” said Barr, whose team will face Penn State in the Allentown Regional on Friday night at 8:30. “There were 15,000 Maine fans there [last] Friday night. Whether it’s a pro sports team or college team, it takes a really long time to create. We’re fortunate. We just had to ignite it again and then you have it.”
That foundation was set decades ago, he said.
“It’s an intangible thing you can’t really put a value on until you see what it’s like and then you’re like, ‘Wow.’ Once you get that going, it’s powerful,” added Barr.
He said even in his first year when they won just seven games, Alfond Arena was “still one of the better places to play” in college hockey.
“Then you show progress, get a new scoreboard and lights and what a big difference that makes not just for us but for everybody. It shows that the school cares and then you get the [ongoing $45 million] renovation to the arena. All that stuff is really important,” said Barr.
The Black Bears have continually overachieved under Barr following his first season.
They were picked last (11th) in the Hockey East preseason coaches poll prior to the 2022-23 season but they wound up tying for sixth with a league record of 9-11-4 to go with an overall record of 15-16-5.
“It’s really easy to get behind him and leave it all on the line for a guy who cares about you that much and really just wants what’s best for you as a person and as a player,” said graduate student center and co-captain Lynden Breen.
UMaine was picked ninth before the 2023-24 season and finished third (14-9-1, 23-12-2).
Prior to this season, they were projected to finish fourth in the conference and wound up second. They then earned the third overall seed for the NCAA Tournament with just one NHL draft pick on their roster in senior left wing and UMass transfer Taylor Makar (7th round Colorado).
Atlantic Hockey American champion Bentley is the other only program in the 16-team NCAA Tournament without at least two NHL picks. The Falcons don’t have any.
The other 14 teams average 8.1 draft picks per team.
UMaine is 24-7-6 overall including a 13-5-6 league regular season record.
Breen is the only Black Bear who played for Gendron during the Covid-interupted year when they went 3-11-2 and played all but one of their games on the road.
“He is a great coach but nobody knows how much else he does and how much he cares,” said Breen. “It is so much deeper than just turning the program around. The connections he makes with us and the relationships we develop.”
Breen decided to return for a fifth year this season to try to win a national championship and to play for Barr.
“I’m lucky to have him as a friend for the rest of my life and I take huge pride in that because of the type of person he is and the leader he is,” Breen said about Barr.
The other co-captain, senior defenseman David Breazeale, concurred with Breen.
“He’s the best,” said Breazeale. “It has been so great to play under him for four years. I can’t say enough good things about him.
Breazeale said he has learned a lot from him hockey-wise and has become a smarter player with a better understanding of the game.
“But I’ve also learned stuff from him off the ice about growing up as a young man. He develops great character people and turns guys into pros. We wouldn’t be where we are without him,” said Breazeale.
Barr is a stickler for details and insists on his team outworking their opponents.
He admits he is tough on his players to try to get them to reach their potential and have the team reach its potential. He is an excellent communicator who holds his players accountable and lets them know where they stand.
Their practices are intense.
“He is somebody I needed as a coach,” said sophomore defenseman and Merrimack College transfer Frank Djurasevic. “He is somebody who is going to tell you how it is and be honest with you and hard on you. That’s what I wanted.”
Djurasevic said that “at times it’s tough” and he and Barr sometimes go back and forth.
“But at the end of the day, it’s all love. He wants what’s best for me,” said Djurasevic.
Barr said he is surrounded by “really good people and it’s really easy to care about good people.”
He said in the current environment with the transfer portal, it’s hard to push college players because it’s easy for them to feel they are a victim of circumstance and then decide to transfer.
“But we don’t have guys like that,” said Barr, who recruited players for three first-time national championship teams at Union, Providence and UMass.
“We support them the best we can but we also try to push them hard,” said Barr.
Freshman right wing Thomas Pichette called him a “great coach” who explains everything.
“He’s easy to play for. If you make a mistake, he’ll tell you,” said Pichette. “That’s what you want.”
Barr said he has benefitted from working for exceptional coaches like Leaman at Union and Providence, former RPI assistant and current St. Louis Blues coach and UMaine Sports Hall of Famer Jim Montgomery, Seth Appert at RPI, Andy Murray at Western Michigan and Greg Carvel at UMass.
When asked if he is a better coach now than he was four years ago, the 43-year-old Faribault, Minnesota, native said he didn’t know.
But he said being around such high-quality assistants like Jason Fortier, Alfie Michaud and Eric Soltys along with sports performance coach Codi Fitzgerald “makes you look good.”
Barr, who has three children with wife Tara, said it is important for the program to keep progressing because things can “go south in a hurry.”
And he said the foundation of the program’s success is not only the support of the fans but the support of the administration.
He said he hoped to turn the program around as soon as he could, but you never know how things are going to work out until you begin.
“We are fortunate to have the support of the school and the community. That’s the most important part. Without that, none of it happens,” said Barr. He credited people like Athletic Director Jude Killy, President Joan Ferrini-Mundy, UMaine System Chancellor Dannel Malloy and Senior Associate Athletic Director for Development and Capital Planning Seth Woodcock.
“Those are the people who make it happen,” Barr said, deflecting attention away from himself.
