St. Cloud Icebreakers Name Familiar Face Head Coach

The St. Cloud Icebreakers named a familiar face as head coach Tuesday. Mark Chamernick, who had the job from 2005-2015 (ten seasons), will be back at the helm for the upcoming season.

"They are kind of having a hard time throughout the state of Minnesota finding girls hockey coaches," Chamernick said. "I have found myself at the rink more now that I wasn't coaching, so I thought I might as well be there and help out."

Chamernick will have an impressive, and extensive, stable of assistant coaches helping him out behind the bench. Robert Davidson, Rob Poganski, Jenna Traut, Brooke Rundell and Brianna Stephens will all be a part of the staff in some capacity.

"The assistant coaches I will bring on board will definitely help out," Chamernick said. "We have some veterans there, but they couldn't take over and be the head coach."

Nick Thibault took over the Icebreakers in 2015 after Chamernick stepped down. Thibault recently took the head coaching job at the College of St. Benedict.

Despite vacating his seat behind the bench, Chamerick says he followed the team closely from afar.

"I saw a lot of them when they were growing up in the 10's and 15's, and always caught up with them in school at Cathedral," Chamernick said. "I coached some of the younger girls and saw all of them play at the youth level, so I have a good feel of what the team is going to be like.

"That was kind of the last draw for me, that these are really good girls with great character," Chamernick said.

St. Cloud will lose some key players from last year's team, including forward Allie Cornelius, who is heading to SCSU and goaltender Emily Musielewicz, who will play for Concordia-Moorhead. In all, the 'Breakers will lose nine seniors from last year's 17-6-2 squad.

Chamernick says the challenge for him this season will be to blend the returning players with the younger players who are ready to make the jump to varsity.

"We will have to step it up a little bit in scoring with the loss of Cornelius," Chamernick said. "What we will have to do is blend the group of players from last year with the up-and-comers from the 15 (year-olds)."

Chamernick is also the head coach of the Cathedral Crusader football team. He says that there shouldn't be many conflicts in the schedule, despite the fact girls hockey starts earlier in the fall than boys hockey.

"Even though girls hockey does start a little earlier, it shouldn't conflict too much," Chamernick said. "Even if it does, I have Robert Davidson and Rob Poganski, two veteran guys who can take over and run practice if need be."