Miami Hires Bowling Green's Bergeron

Alumnus Returns to Oxford after 9 Years Leading Falcons

CHN Staff Report

Miami has named former Bowling Green coach Chris Bergeron as its new head coach Friday, as CHN first reported Thursday night.

Bergeron, who led Bowling Green to the NCAA Tournament this season following the school’s 29-year drought, accepted the position at his alma mater after leading the Falcons to 171-154-44 in nine years at the program.

Miami will formally introduce Bergeron at a news conference Monday at 1:30 p.m.

Miami fired long-time coach Enrico Blasi, under whom Bergeron was an assistant coach for 10 years, last month.

Bowling Green attempted to keep Bergeron from returning to his alma mater by offering, in recent days, a significant increase in salary. Bergeron's base salary at Bowling Green is $185,000 annually. Blasi's annual salary was more than $360,000.

"On behalf of my family and myself, I want to say a very sincere 'Thank you' for the last nine years," Bergeron said to the Bowling Green community. "Your unconditional support from our early rebuilding years to the turnout last Saturday in Allentown has meant more to me than you will ever know. The last few days have been very difficult for me because President (Rodney) Rogers, (athletic director) Bob Moosbrugger and Jim Elsasser stepped up and showed their commitment to Falcon hockey. Having to choose between two places that I love dearly has been the toughest decision I have ever had to make. Thank you for allowing me to be part of this program that means so much to all of you. We are extremely proud that we are leaving the program better than we found it."

Upon taking the job at Miami, Bergeron, who is in the fourth year of an eight-year contract, will be required to pay a buyout of $150,000 to Bowling Green.

Ty Eigner, one of Bergeron's assistants, will likely be a top candidate to replace the outgoing coach.

"As someone who returned to their alma mater, I understand the attraction to return to a place that you consider home," Moosbrugger said. "We are thankful for the nine years of leadership in our hockey program from Chris Bergeron. In the same way that he asks his players to leave the program better than they found it, he has done the same at Bowling Green. This is a great job and we have already begun the national search to find the individual who will continue to elevate our program."

Miami and Bowling Green are scheduled to open the regular season with a home-and-home series in early October.

Prior to leading BGSU's program, Bergeron was an assistant on Miami's staff from 2000 through 2010. Blasi was fired on March 19 after four consecutive losing seasons and an 11-23-4 record in 2018-19 — the worst of his tenure.

It does not appear as though Miami courted any other candidates seriously in their search. Sources told CHN there was some contact elsewhere, but Bergeron was the primary focus.

Bergeron was on Miami's staff for both of its Frozen Four appearances with Blasi at the helm. They came in 2009 and 2010.

Miami lost the 2009 national championship to Boston University in overtime, and fell in the Frozen Four the next year to Boston College.

Once at Bowling Green, Bergeron, 48, worked to save the program from elimination, due to financial issues and poor results for years as a bottom-feeder in the CCHA. The Falcons eventually shifted to the WCHA after realignment and proceeded to emerge as a contender in the conference.

Bowling Green reached the WCHA Tournament semifinals in each of the past five years. In two of the last three, the Falcons lost the league's title game — both defeats came in overtime.

Bergeron led the Falcons to the NCAA Tournament this season. They lost, 2-1, in overtime to defending national champion Minnesota-Duluth on Saturday in the Midwest Regional semifinal.

Following the loss to UMD, Bergeron appeared to acknowledge that he may have coached his final game while thanking the program, university and its fans for their support in guiding Bowling Green back to prominence.

"This may be difficult for me to get out so I want to apologize," he said. "I want to thank our fans. We all wanted this. I wanted this for nine years and they probably wanted it for 29. You saw how much BG hockey means to people with the orange in the building tonight. It is a pretty special thing and I want to make sure that they all know how much we appreciate them putting forth the time and effort of coming here and cheering us on. We are pretty proud to represent them with our hockey program. Everybody out there listening, thank you very much for coming, we appreciate it."

Sources told CHN that current Bowling Green assistant Barry Schutte is likely to follow Bergeron to Oxford as is staff member Jimmy Spratt, a former BG goaltender. It is unclear who will serve as Bergeron's other assistant coach at this time. Peter Mannino was named interim head coach at Miami last week. He has been an assistant there for one season after previously being at Nebraska-Omaha.