Friday, November 30, 2007

The Prodigal Coach Returns

High school hockey coaches don't retire, they just move on to other schools -- and then occasionally return to play their former teams. Former West Catholic coach Joey Gallant, who also ran Patterson rink and worked for the Griffins Youth Foundation, returns to West Michigan this weekend as the head hockey coach of Bishop Foley High School, a Catholic school in Madison Heights. Gallant took the job in July, and his team is off to a 1-2 start.

The Ventures -- Bishop Foley's team name, not the '60s surf guitar rockers -- play a pair in GR this weekend. They take on West Catholic on Saturday afternoon at 5 p.m. and then play the Northview/Comstock Park team on Sunday at 4 p.m. Both games are at Griff's Icehouse.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

What year did Joey help with the Griffins Youth Foundation? We've been a part of the program for years but I don't remember him.

The Blogger said...

Hmmm. I'll have to check that out. I vaguely remember that Joey was involved in the first year or two when my buddy Don Hunt was doing PR for Devos and helping out the Griffins. I thought Joey was running the Foundation and doing community relations for the Griffins. If I get to the Grandville game tonight, I'll ask Jon Beilstein.

Anonymous said...

Great! Will be nice to know the roots of this successful program. Mark Izzard is also one of the GYF originals. He is still going strong alongside Lou and Lynn Rabaut. Marvelous assets to our community!

The Blogger said...

Did some checking and Joey Gallant was indeed the executive director of the Griffins Youth Foundation during its first few years, until he took the job at Standard Federal.

Anonymous said...

How did they do vs Northview on Sunday?

The Blogger said...

Bishop Foley swept the West Michigan teams they played this weekend. They beat West Catholic 4-3 in OT on Saturday and then spotted Northview a 3 goal lead before coming back to win it 5-4 in regulation.