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Noreen: I want to coach in NHL someday
By Tom Williams
BOARDMAN
The youngest coach in USHL history has big dreams to go with his enthusiastic spirit.
“I want to be a head coach in the NHL,” Youngstown Phantoms coach Anthony Noreen, 28, told the Curbstone Coaches during Monday’s meeting at Blue Wolf Catering. “I’d love to coach the U.S. Olympic team someday.”
Noreen, the third head coach/general manager in the franchise’s three seasons in the USHL, has the Phantoms (26-14-5, 57 points) closing in on their first postseason berth. With the final quarter of the season to play, Youngstown is in fourth place in the USHL’S Eastern Conference, one point behind the Indiana Ice and two behind the Dubuque Fighting Saints.
The top six teams in each conference qualify for the playoffs, but only the top four seeds are guaranteed home playoff games. Youngstown is nine points ahead of fifth-place Cedar Rapids and 13 ahead of Team USA.
Noreen shared his hockey journey that brought him to Youngstown. It began as a three-time state high school champion in Illinois with Fenwick High where his father, Rich, was head coach. A defenseman and team captain at each level he played, Noreen spent two seasons with the Springfield Junior Blues program before playing for the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point.
All was not smooth sailing as Noreen was put on the Blues’ B (second-level) team.
“It was the first time I had ever been cut in my life,” said Noreen of relocating to Hartford, Conn. “I didn’t know anyone. I remember my Dad telling me ‘you have the chance to set the bar for whatever type of player you want to be. They don’t know you from Adam.’”
Within three months, Noreen was promoted to the A team and eventually became a team captain.
Injuries slowed Noreen’s collegiate start.
“My sophomore, junior and senior years, I was a good player but didn’t put up a lot of offensive numbers,” Noreen said.
When college ended, he considered turning pro when he received an offer to be an assistant coach for Stevens Points.
“I don’t know if I ever would have played in the NHL,” Noreen said of trading playing for coaching. Instead, he joined Wil Nichol’s staff and was an assistant for three seasons. “I think I always wanted to be a coach.”
After the 2009-10 season, Nichol advised him he should seek a job in the USHL, the top junior league in the U.S. He interviewed with three USHL teams and was hired by Phantoms owner Bruce Zoldan to assist Curtis Carr.
Noreen was intrigued with the chance to reverse the fortunes of USHL’s worst team in the 2009-10 season.
“That’s what excited me about it, being able to help turn a program around,” Noreen said.
In their second season, the Phantoms were eliminated from a playoff berth on the last day of play. Carr accepted a Division I position as assistant with Merrimack College in Massachusetts. Twenty-four hours later, Noreen was named his successor.