Brian Griffith
Position: Coach
How I support my Hockey Habit: NJ Div. of Criminal Justice
"I started coaching when I was a sophomore in high school at Ice Land in one of the summer leagues (a squirt team consisting of 9 and 10 year olds). Our team finished 3rd out of 4 teams, but ahead of my high school coach's team (he was coaching his son). I didn't really coach again, until someone I played hockey with asked for some help with a new high school team (The Pennington School). I helped at Pennington for 2 years before moving to Florida and playing for Florida State University. When I returned from Florida, I saw Stephen coaching Queenston by himself and asked former QHC player, Kim St.Clair, if the team needed any help."
"During my time with Queenston, I was hired to be the head coach of Stuart Country Day school's ice hockey program, where my assistants were former QHC players Dawn "Scrappy" Waladkewics and Diana Danforth. During my one year as coach, we finished 5-7-2 (all our games were close except for the first of the season). At the end of my tenure, all my players were 100% better, with all players except for the 8th graders, having played in almost all of the games."
My Player Bio "I started playing ice hockey as a freshman in high school, being one of the founding members for McCorriston's ice hockey team. I was also one of the last players for the school when they cancelled the team my senior year. So I wound up playing at Steinert HS. I also played for the Lawrence Flames Midget "A" travel team for 1 year and the East Windsor PAL Panthers Midget "A" teams for 2 years. For a couple of years, I only played on in-house men's teams before I wound up going to Rider U and playing on their "Div 1" Club team as a defenseman. After a year at Rider I moved to Tallahassee and while attending Tallahassee Community College, I met the team manager of Florida State U.'s "Div 1 Club" manager at work. I was invited to play in a JV game as a try out, after scoring once, setting up 3 goals, and dominating in the defensive zone they brought me up to the "varsity" team. The team captain (a defenseman and the best hockey player I ever had the pleasure of playing with) told me he felt I was the best defenseman they had...always in position, always hitting, setting plays up, and defending the goalie like nobody's business. I forget the record, but we had a winning record. Upon moving back to Trenton, I was invited to the Trenton Titans first free agent camp (right before the inaugural season). Due to two quite painfully injured knees, I hung up the skates as a player striving to play pro... I currently play on a team or two at various rinks in NJ and PA."