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Following 18 seasons as an assistant coach and the primary recruiter for the Black Bears, Grant Standbrook will begin the 2006-07 season in a new role as the volunteer assistant coach. While he will no longer be on the road recruiting, Standbrook will still work with the team on a daily basis. Since coming to Maine in 1988, Standbrook has coordinated recruiting of classes which have consistently ranked among the best in the nation. Those recruiting classes at Maine have formed the foundation for the program that has won five Hockey East Tournament Championships, advanced to ten Frozen Fours and won two NCAA Championships. Overall, Standbrook has been on coaching staffs that have won five NCAA Championships and been in the title game four other occasions. In recognition for his career work as an assistant coach, he was the recipient of the 2005 Terry Flanigan Award, presented by the American Hockey Coaches Association. At Maine, he has coached 33 All-Americans, including David Cullen, Steve Kariya, Paul Kariya, Scott Pellerin, Jim Montgomery, Garth Snow, Mike Dunham and Greg Moore. Eight of his players at Maine have been U.S. Olympians, two have been Canadian Olympians. Before joining the Black Bear staff, Standbrook was an assistant coach at Wisconsin where he played an integral role in the Badgers winning three national championships during his 12-year tenure at that school. Together with head coach Bob Johnson, Standbrook built a college hockey dynasty, winning national titles in 1977, 1981 and 1983 in addition to reaching the NCAA Championship game on two other occasions. While at Wisconsin, he recruited and coached several All-Americans, Olympians and future NHL players, including Chris Chelios and Mike Richter. A noted coach of goaltenders, Standbrook recruited and guided NHL players such as Dunham, Snow, Mike Morrison and Jimmy Howard while at Maine. From 1970-75, Standbrook was the head coach at Dartmouth College where he inherited a program with just 29 wins in the previous 10 years, and led the team to the Ivy League Championship game in his third season. He also coached soccer and lacrosse for the Big Green. In 1987-88, he was the head coach of Varese-Kronenberg of the Italian league where he led the team to a second place finish. He was an assistant coach of the 1976 U.S. Olympic hockey team, and the U.S. National teams in 1974 and 1975 and has coached several teams for USA Hockey. Always an innovator in training methods and techniques, Standbrook initiated weight training and off-ice variations of resistance training with his teams in the 1960s, well before such training methods were accepted by most in coaching circles. A native of Winnipeg, Manitoba, he is a 1961 graduate of the University of Minnesota-Duluth. Standbrook was a two-year letterwinner for the Bulldogs, scoring 22 goals and adding 24 assists in 31 career games as a center on the hockey team. The team lost only eight games during his junior and senior seasons. He also was a member of Minnesota-Duluth's track and field team. A versatile athlete, Standbrook finished second in the Manitoba Judo Championships in 1954. He also played on a Canadian national championship soccer team in 1962 and was a prolific scorer in lacrosse. Standbrook and his wife, Joy, reside in Bangor and have three children, Todd, Jill and John. They have six grandchildren - Rose, Emily, Gracie, Peter, Grant and Luke. |
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