Striding Rough Ice: Coaching College Hockey and Growing Up in the Game

by Gary Wright

A behind-the-scenes look in the locker room, on the bench, and on the bus with award-winning Division 1 hockey coach Gary Wright, who began his compelling career playing for his father at a prep school during the end of the outdoor era, and leaves American International College tied with Michigan’s coach Red Berenson for the longest tenure at one school.

"Striding Rough Ice" is filled with both humorous and serious anecdotes, and delves into coaching challenges, on-ice tactics, and face-offs with champion teams across the US. Wright shows how hockey and life are intertwined, and introduces us to the fascinating people and players who touched his rewarding hockey career, and life, along the way.

“Gary Wright has produced a warm and authentic tribute to his life in hockey, one that is both unique yet also familiar to those of us who have been blessed to follow a similar path. It is detailed and it is entertaining. A true hockey book by a true hockey guy.”

—Joe Bertagna, former ECAC Hockey and Hockey East Commissioner and author of Late in the Third

262 pages, Paperback

Published October 11, 2022

Reviews

[Jennifer Robb · Rating 3 out of 5]

So you'd think someone with grandparents in Chicago and Milwaukee would have had exposure to hockey growing up, but aside from seeing youth hockey practices at an ice rink near Chicago, I really didn't know much about hockey until I was in graduate school in Pittsburgh, PA and would watch the Penguins play on TV.

Despite that, I thought this book would be an interesting look into hockey when I saw it listed on LibraryThing's Early Reviewers Program. And it is. Just maybe not in the way I expected.

I knew nothing about Gary Wright prior to reading the book. Though I appreciated him discussing how he got into hockey while young, I felt the book got more interesting after he started his coaching career. Even with that, I knew very few of the names he mentioned in the book--though serious hockey fans might.

I am glad I read it. I received an ARC so there was no index--I think an index might be helpful for readers looking for certain names or schools.

[Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

A nice chronological review of a hockey coach's life and career in a great sport. I would have liked less information but I got what I wanted from this story, which was insight into a coach's thinking.

I appreciated the history passages because I was one year behind Wright, though I was at St. Lawrence. I also liked the prep school boyhood section.

[Dan Simonsen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Striding Rough Ices is a facinating ook at the world of small college NCAA athletics--where competition is for the love of the sport with minimal hope of playing at the next level. Gary Wright's 30 years of coaching seems to fly by as you turn the pages. Fans of college hockey and college athletics will enjoy this book.

I received this book through LibraryThing'ss early reviewer program.