By KEVIN OKLOBZIJA
The hockey version of Wayne’s World at Rochester Institute of Technology has officially come to an end.
Wayne Wilson, whose name has been synonymous with RIT hockey for a quarter century, today announced his retirement as the Tigers head coach.
Wilson, 63, is the only coach in NCAA hockey history to have been named Coach of the Year in Division I (2010) and Division III (2001).
He departs the Henrietta campus after 26 seasons with a career record of 471 wins, 337 losses and 82 ties (335-306-70 at the Division I level, 116-31-12 in Division III).
During his tenure, the Tigers won three ECAC championships at the Division III level in his first three seasons. After the program elevated to Division I status in 2005-06, RIT won six Atlantic Hockey regular season crowns, four AHA playoff titles and reached the Frozen Four once during a magical spring of 2010.
“As me and my wife (Lynn) talked, I realized I don’t know if there is ever a good time (to leave),” he said. “There are always freshmen on the roster that have three more years left, and recruits coming in and juniors with one more year left, so you’re always walking away from someone.
“But for me I know it’s the right time.”
Wilson informed his players of his decision at 2 p.m. this afternoon and the school made the announcement 30 minutes later. A replacement is expected to be named before the end of the week. Associate coach Brian Hills or assistant coach David Insalaco would be logical successors but College Hockey News is reporting. per sources, that RIT alum Matt Thomas, in his fourth season as assistant coach with the AHL’s Providence Bruins, will take over.
Wilson actually started contemplating the idea of retirement last spring, when defections via the NCAA transfer portal decimated the RIT roster. Top forwards Carter Wilkie and Cody Laskoski, defenseman Aiden Hansen-Bukata and goalie Tommy Scarfone all opted to play the 2024-25 season at another university.
“Those guys leaving was pause for thought,” he admitted. “The game has changed; how you coach, how you recruit is all new now. It’s been 40 years for me and it’s a different game that will need different approaches with NIL (name-image-likeness licensing), junior players, the transfer portal.”
Wilson and the Tigers are coming off their worst season since 2005-06, going 10-23-2 and losing in the one-game AHA play-in round in 2024-25. But he said that is not why he decided the time is right to retire. If anything, redemption for the distressing season could have lured him back.
“There’s other things for me to do now,” he said.
Namely, a lot of nothing and a lot of being a grandfather. He has four grandchildren, who quite likely won’t be happy they’ve lost their post-game privileges to roam the locker room hallway and the bench.
“Who knows, I might get bored in one week,” he said.
He does realize that breaking the coaching habit will be difficult.
“Even now I’ll be thinking, ‘We could use another …’ and then I catch myself; it’s not my team anymore,” Wilson said.
Which is not easy for former players to grasp.
“When he first told me he was done, I got pretty choked up and emotional,” Jared DeMichiel, the goalie on the 2010 Frozen Four team and now associate head coach at Michigan State University, said this afternoon. “He had such a positive impact on my life to the point where I’m now doing what he did.
“He helped me grow as a player and a person. He’s just a special man and a special coach.”
When Wilson arrived in Henrietta in 1999 from Bowling Green, where he had been an assistant coach for 11 seasons, he had no intention of making the Rochester area home for long.
“I was at a point where I wanted to be a head coach and RIT had a good reputation,” Wilson said. “I figured if I did a great job, I could go back to D-I with some program.
“But RIT just kept growing, going from D-III to D-I, to getting a new rink (the Gene Polisseni center opened for the 2014-15 season), to getting scholarships (with an NCAA rule change in 2022). There was never any reason to leave. There were always changes that kept invigorating me.”
Including a four-year playing career at Bowling Green, which included an NCAA title as a senior in 1984, he has essentially spent 45 years in college hockey.
His most special moments:
“Winning a national championship as a player and going to the Frozen Four as a coach,” he said.
And the most disappointing moments:
“Not going to the NCAA tournament as a player my junior year, and having an undefeated season but then losing the very last game to Plattsburgh in the NCAA (D-III) championship (in 2000-2001).”
Wilson is part of a quartet of long-tenured coaches saying goodbye to the game this spring. Mike Schafer retired after 30 seasons at Cornell, Army’s Brian Riley called it quits after 21 seasons and Jeff Jackson retired after 20 years at Notre Dame.
“That’s a good group of guys to go out with,” Wilson said.
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