M. hockey's head coach dismissed

Len Quesnelle '88 was fired yesterday as head coach of the men's hockey team. He had just completed his fourth year, as the team was swept out of the first round of the Eastern College Athletic Conference playoffs by Rensselaer. The Tigers fell, 5-4, on Friday night and 3-2 in overtime on Saturday.

In his time as the head man at Princeton, Quesnelle compiled a 29-84-11 record.

In his first two seasons he led the Tigers to respectable .500 records in the conference. The last two seasons have been very disappointing, however. Princeton finished 5-24-2 overall this season after struggling to a 4-26-1 mark last year. The team finished 12th in the conference both years.

The fact that the firing came so soon after the end of the season is not surprising.

"I'm not too surprised about when it happened," sophomore goalie Eric Leroux said. "Last year the idea was tossed around."

"My job is to evaluate coaches on an ongoing basis," Princeton Director of Athletics Gary Walters '67 said yesterday afternoon in a phone interview.

Based on his evaluation, it was clear to Walters that Quesnelle had to go. "This was a decision made in the best interest of the program," Walters added.

The captains of the men's hockey team were contacted before the final decision was made.

Player reaction to the decision varied.

"I can't say that it took me completely off guard," sophomore defenseman Brett Westgarth said. "We didn't do what we could have done, and eventually someone had to go."

This season, his fourth with the team, Quesnelle finally had all of his own recruits. All four classes were composed of players that he had brought into the program. With the team falling even further behind the elite in the ECAC instead of improving, Walters decided a move needed to be made.

"All the guys are his recruited players," Westgarth said. "I guess they gave him long enough to do what he could with the program."

Get the best of the ‘Prince’ delivered straight to your inbox. Subscribe now »

Before being named head coach prior to the 2000-01 season, Quesnelle served as assistant coach of the squad for 12 seasons. This included the 1998 campaign in which the Tigers won the ECAC Championship and earned an NCAA Tournament berth.