From player to coach: the journey of one man who makes all the difference.
By Anna Rich. Photo by Katie Billman.
“I wouldn’t ever want to play for anyone else.” This is how junior forward Justin Hryckowian chose to end his description of Coach Jerry Keefe, to whom he affectionately referred as ‘Keefer.’ “He is the guy to lead this team exactly where we want to go.”
Jerry Keefe has been the head coach of the Northeastern men’s hockey team since 2021, when he was promoted after 10 years of coaching as an assistant alongside Jim Madigan. Keefe believes his hockey journey began with growing up in the greater Boston area, and he spoke fondly of his childhood as being connected to hockey from all angles.
“I loved just always being around hockey. I was a player that loved being around the rink, and I always knew that I wanted to coach when I was done playing,” he said.
After playing as a center for Providence College and various professional teams, Keefe began his coaching career as a volunteer assistant at UMass Boston. He then went on to become the head coach at Westfield State, where he spear-headed the shift of the club team to an NCAA Division III spot. He recruited almost an entirely new team, defying all expectations with his first-year record of 12 wins and nine losses. After gaining the experience of building a team from the ground up, Keefe went on to Brown University, where he was an assistant coach for two years.
Keefe attributes his coaching style to all of the coaches who helped develop his own hockey skills.
“As a person, as a player, and then eventually as a coach, you take bits and pieces of all the stuff that you learned from all of them,” he said.
He gave credit for his passion and success to his own personal hockey legends: Marty Pierce, Mike Hastings, Paul Pooley, and of course, Jim Madigan.
In 2011, Jim Madigan became the 10th head coach of the men’s hockey team at Northeastern University, after serving as an NHL scout for nearly 18 years.
“The very first hire I made in 2011 was Jerry Keefe,” Madigan said. “He was an extremely bright hockey mind, very good at X’s and O’s. But he was also someone that related to the players, and I knew that he could attract student-athletes to Northeastern.”
Jerry Keefe spoke about how crucial his career with Jim Madigan was for his own development as a coach.
“I didn’t know Jim that well, but I felt like I did because that’s kind of how Jim is, right? He makes everyone around him feel really important, and the players really enjoyed playing for him because he cared so much.”
Madigan’s balance between intense, competitive coaching and building trusting relationships with his players is another take-away that Keefe incorporated into his own career as head coach. When asked about the most important part of a coach’s job, Madigan jumped at the opportunity to sing Keefe’s praises, calling his successor a tremendous success.
“If the players are bought in because of trust and because of the caring that the coaching staff has, then success will happen. And Jerry’s done that.”
After spending 10 years learning the ins and outs of the program from Madigan, who now serves as Northeastern’s 11th Athletic Director, Keefe described his advancement to head coach as natural, but also as a transition that forced him to learn how to jump in with two feet. He outlined the few ideals he believes led to his triumph as head coach – the most important aspects that he continues to remind himself in this position.
“Overall, it’s your culture,” Keefe said. “It’s all about wanting to play for the person next to you. Everyone has different roles on the team, but when your best players or your hardest workers care just as much about maybe a guy that doesn’t play as much, I think that creates a phenomenal culture to be around.”
Hryckowian proved his coach’s values don’t fall on deaf ears when he reiterated that key to success.
“Everyone’s got their own role on the team; not everyone’s expected to score all the goals, but everyone knows exactly what’s expected of them, and they do that to the best of their ability,” he said. “We expect everyone to be a difference maker in their role and to be a star in their role.”
Coach Jerry Keefe has a lot of experience under his belt that allows him to pass this kind of wisdom down to not only his players, but everyone around him. In 2018 (and again in 2019) Keefe was selected as an assistant coach for the U20 World Junior Team, along with three fellow Northeastern huskies – Cayden Primeau, Tyler Madden, and Jordan Harris – all of whom went on to play professionally. Keefe led the team to a silver medal in the 2019/20 season.
Aware of his influence as a result of such experiences, Keefe took a moment to reveal his most important piece of advice to other competitive coaches.
“You have to make sure that your players know that you are in it together. They have to feel that as a coach, you’re on the grind every single day with them.”
And like any good coach, Keefe is not just all talk. He illustrates that he is a man of his word by practicing what he preaches.
“A big thing he likes to bring up is just being an everyday-er,” Hryckowian said of his beloved coach. “I think for our group, a big message is to show up every day and be your best self.”
Hryckowian claimed that this is one of the most prominent mottos the team upholds, a value which leads to the overall positive culture that Jerry Keefe cultivates on the rink. Each player is responsible for himself individually, but also for the team he contributes to, the team he plays for, and for the team that has gotten him to this point. It is a work in progress every day to build that kind of culture, starting up top with the coaches and falling to every player down the bench, to maintain such a positive environment.
In the end, it is more than just the system of X’s and O’s that make up the game. It’s about fostering the growth of boys into men by developing their skills and their characters.
“There’s no better feeling than when you’re at the rink with the guys and you know that you’re all putting in work together,” admitted Hryckowian. “It’s great to be a part of something bigger than me.”
And it is his coach he has to thank for teaching him to cherish that feeling.
The Red & Black 