Color of Hockey: Pinchevsky set to coach University of Southern Maine

William Douglas has been writing The Color of Hockey blog since 2012. Douglas joined NHL.com in 2019 and writes about people of color in the sport. Today, he profiles Matt Pinchevsky, who, according to NCAA officials, is the first Black male head coach of a college hockey team in more than three decades after the University of Southern Maine hired him last month.

Matt Pinchevsky is on a hockey path that few have traveled.

The 41-year-old Pembroke Pines, Florida, native was named head coach of the University of Southern Maine’s NCAA Division III men’s hockey team Aug. 16 and, according to NCAA officials, he is the first Black man they can recall to lead a college hockey team in more than three decades.

“Driving everything forward in terms of what’s to come, I honestly hope it just inspires players that have no idea that they’re going to fall in love and find their true passion and calling in coaching,” Pinchevsky said of his hire. “Players of color, players of any gender, any beliefs, I hope it just lights a beacon to know it’s possible and to not be afraid to reach out and ask questions.”

NCAA officials said the only other Black male hockey head coach they are aware of is Ed Wright, who guided the University at Buffalo (then called the State University of New York at Buffalo) for 12 seasons in two stints from 1970-81 and 1986-87. He finished 138-155 with seven ties.

Pinchevsky replaced Ed Harding, who left the university in June after eight seasons, including 5-18-2 last season.

“Matt has a truly outstanding hockey background, is greatly respected in the hockey community by athletes and colleagues alike, and brings contagious energy, positivity and excitement to the position,” Southern Maine athletic director Al Bean said.

Before joining Southern Maine, Pinchevsky spent the past four seasons with Maine of the North American Hockey League, a junior team where he held head coach, associate coach and player development positions during his tenure.

He was director of skill development and associate head coach for the Seacoast Performance Academy from 2018-19 and spent two seasons with the Seacoast Spartans program from 2016-18.

He was coach and general manager of the Portland Under-18 team in the United States Premier Hockey League in 2015-16 after coaching Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the Metropolitan Junior Hockey League in 2014-15, which he guided to a division championship.

He also helped establish the Selects Academy at the South Kent School in Connecticut, served as coach of several East Coast Selects teams from 2011-18, and coached within the Florida Alliance AAA program between 2008-12.

“’Pinch’ was my first hire when I started Selects Academy and he was instrumental in finding the right players to help build that program out of the gate, said Eric Soltys, a University of Maine assistant coach and a former Detroit Red Wings scout. “Just the quality of kids that he’ll recruit will make the program better. The people that he brings into Southern Maine will make the school a better place because of how diligent he is in recruiting the right character kids.”

Pinchevsky is a member of the NHL Coaches’ Association’s BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) Program, an initiative that aims to support coaches of color in several areas, including skills, development, leadership strategies, communication tactics and networking.

“He’s served as a mentor for the younger coaches in our program, led networking sessions, and shared his knowledge of the game through presentations,” NHLCA executive director Lindsay Pennal said. “We’re thrilled for him as he takes on this new role with the University of Southern Maine. It’s well earned.”

Pinchevsky’s hockey origin began in Florida in 1992 after a devastating storm.

“Hurricane Andrew kind of wiped out our part of South Florida and everybody grabbed their insurance checks and moved further off the coast,” he said. “Where we moved, it was elderly couples whose kids were grown and brand-new couples with newborns. Here I am, about 10-11 years old, and there’s no one to play with.”

That was until Pinchevsky looked outside his window one day and noticed a boy skateboarding.

“I ran out of my garage, I tackled the kid, and I was, like, ‘Hey, do you want to play?’ almost like a dog jumping on him,” he said.

The boy, whose family moved to Florida from Nova Scotia, struck a deal with Pinchevsky: He would play Pinchevsky’s favorite sports if he learned to play hockey.

“I caught the bug really hard,” Pinchevsky said. “Five years of piano out the window, traditional sports out the window. Quit baseball, which on some levels broke my dad’s heart a little bit.”

The singular focus paid off. Pinchevsky transitioned from playing on rollerblades in his garage to playing on ice at a time when hockey was starting to take hold in the area because of the Florida Panthers’ entry into the NHL in 1993.

He became good enough to play at Shattuck-St. Mary’s from 1997-2000. The Faribault, Minnesota, prep school has produced NHL talent including Sidney Crosby, Zach Parise, Jonathan Toews, Kyle Okposo and Drew Stafford.

“From a hurricane in a non-traditional area to Shattuck two years later,” he said. “I grew so much as a person and a player there. It kind of wired me to have an expectation or a way about how I go about my business in the game from everything that was afforded through some of the great people I got to experience and learn from.”

Pinchevsky, a forward, went on to play for Curry College, a Division III program in Milton, Massachusetts, and had three assists in seven games from 2003-06.

Looking back, he said his hockey trajectory seems surreal given when and where he got involved in the sport.

“I can remember flipping through channels as a little kid, seven, eight years old, with my dad, getting to ESPN or even ESPN2 and an NHL game would be on,” Pinchevsky said. “We would kind of look at each other, look back at the screen, look at each other again, start laughing and change the station.

“Now myself, obviously, my dad included, if there’s any sort of hockey on the channel stops and we take it because that’s the family we’ve evolved into,” he said.

Now he’s part of a small but growing community of Black coaches in the NCAA’s men’s and women’s hockey ranks.

Kelsey Koelzer became the first Black woman to lead an NCAA hockey team when Arcadia University, a Division III school near Philadelphia, chose her to coach its women’s program in 2020.

The University of Maine tapped Nina Rodgers as an assistant for its Division I women’s team Aug. 30 after she was an assistant for Dartmouth College’s women’s team for the past two seasons.

Former Ohio State University captain Oliva Soares became an assistant for Union College’s Division I women’s team in Aug. 2022 after working as an assistant at Division III Colby College the season before.

Lennie Childs was hired as an assistant for Union’s Division I men’s team shortly after the college hired Soares.

Leon Hayward became an assistant for the University of St. Thomas’ (in St. Paul, Minnesota) Division I men’s team in 2021 after holding the same position at Colorado College from 2017-21.