Rivermen Make a Splash with New Coach

Chris Marchand is a six-time national champion

GPCIHL May 11th, 2007 at 5:00AM May 11th, 2007 5:00AM

Chris Marchand is the new inline hockey coach at the University of Missouri â?? St. Louis.

Marchand coached St. Charles Community College to six consecutive national championships (2000-05). He recently finished his first season as head coach of the St. Louis Pythons (Professional Inline Hockey Association). He replaces Tom Schneider behind the bench at UMSL.

Marchand says he has â??always admired UMSLâ? because of its passion, humility, and pride.

â??(UMSL) guys always cared. Pride is so important to me,â? Marchand said. â??Everything (UMSL) did, is how I feel inside, and thatâ??s how I want to run an organization.â?

Despite the clockwork success at SCCC, the coach and his team strived to stay hungry. Marchand says he expects his players to â??take nothing for granted â?? nothing.â?

The new coachâ??s advice will surely resonate with an UMSL team that has not won a postseason tournament as a number-one seed despite three opportunities over the past two years.

â??To be successful,â? Marchand said, â??youâ??ve gotta hate to lose. Thatâ??s the one thing Iâ??ve learned in all this time.â?

Marchand says humility is important, and that old-fashioned hard work is what leads to success: â??I always respect the other team, but if we play our game -- if we practice hard and put time in and work hard -- usually (success) takes care of itself. At St. Charles, I never predicted we would win, but I always knew we would do our best and would never quit.â?

Marchandâ??s philosophy is about more than just honest work and winning titles with class; he believes in his players and will return the favor when they battle for him.

â??Iâ??ll take care of the team; Iâ??ll give my heart to them,â? Marchand said. â??Even when weâ??re having a tough day, I always look for something good to come out of what the guys are doing. I believe in a positive attitude.â?

Marchand also strives to stay humble and considerate: â??I never think Iâ??m better than anyone else. I care about how people feel. I care about what people say.â?

Marchandâ??s sons, Ryan and Brandon, are two of the most accomplished players in St. Louis roller hockey history.

Among a long list of accomplishments, in 2002 Ryan scored the overtime championship-winning goal in St. Charlesâ?? 6-5 victory over Meramec in the DIII final at CRHL Nationals. UMSL captain Adam Clarke, then a rookie at Meramec, claims to be the defenseman beaten on the play, which gave St. Charles its third national title in a row. Marchand and Clarke were both named first-team All-America; Clarke won the Top Playmaker award.

Brandon, a senior at Lindenwood, has won two national championships in two years at LU. He started his college career at St. Charles, and teamed with Clarke in 2002-03 and '03-04 on dominant SCCC teams that won national championships. Brandon was a second-team DIII All-American in â??03-04, was named Division III national MVP in â??04-05, and moved on to Lindenwood for â??05-06.

UMSL assistant captain Ben Lambert played ice hockey for Coach Marchand in the early â??90s at the Valley Hockey Club in north St. Louis County. It was Lambertâ??s first travel team, and Brandon Marchand was a teammate.

Chris Marchand now takes over an UMSL team returning most of a roster that won the Great Plains Division II championship and lost to eventual champion Stony Brook in the DII national semifinal.

The team will begin preparing for the 2007-08 season with preseason intrasquad scrimmages starting in mid-August.

UMSL defensemen Adam Clarke and Eric Thompson were named to the GPCIHL Regional All-Star Team, and will travel to Estero, Fla., to compete against the other six regions July 22-24 at the NARCh Finals.

James Wetton and Zach Stacy were named alternates.

Ian Mackie will be coaching the Great Plains squad.

GPCIHL All-Stars, by school

LINDENWOOD: Brandon Barnette, Dustin Brown, Tommy Bruce, Kyle Gouge, Greg Thompson, Ryan Viamontes*, Brandon Marchand*.

UMSL: Adam Clarke, Eric Thompson, James Wetton*, Zach Stacy*.

ST. CHARLES: Ryan Maxwell, Blake Propp, Gus Maloney*

MERAMEC: Drew McCann

MISSOURI: Brian Hansen

SAINT LOUIS: James Cash

TRUMAN STATE: Drew Vandas

WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY: Tommy Paskvan

(* - alternate)

Wetton (first team) and Clarke (second team) received all-tournament honors at the College Roller Hockey National Championships. It was Wetton's third career first-team selection. Clarke is now a four-time All-American (twice in DIII, twice in DII).

The best news of all: Wally Iverson is OK. After a serious auto accident the night of April 5, Wally was in the hospital for almost three weeks. He's recovering, says he was lucky, and thanks everyone for their support and prayers.

The UMSL Rivermen Inline Hockey Club is a recognized student organization of the University of Missouri-St. Louis. The club competes in Division II of the Great Plains Collegiate Inline Hockey League, a member organization of the National Collegiate Roller Hockey Association. The Rivermen have reached the Division II final four in three of the last four seasons.