Coach Perron good fit at Maine Volunteer assistant to receive master’s

BOSTON – There was nothing charmed about the end of Guy Perron’s third go-around with the University of Maine as an assistant hockey coach, but you won’t hear him utter a word of complaint about it.

Despite barely missing a chance to be part of an NCAA championship team for the first time and not getting a single cent for his work as assistant coach, Perron considers himself lucky.

“This was really a great opportunity for me,” said the 36-year-old Perron. “We decided as fans to come back here and do this for a year. We certainly didn’t know we were going to be in this situation, but it’s been great timing for us.”

“We” is Perron, wife Renee, and 6-year-old daughter Grace. There’s also son Jack, but at the tender age of 7 months, he had no say in the move. You see, the former UMaine hockey captain wanted to finish up work on a master’s degree in educational leadership and the timing was right for him to move back to Orono last year to do that. When the volunteer assistant’s job opened up at the same time, it was too good a chance for Perron to pass up.

Despite being a native of Laval, Quebec, Perron has come to call Maine home, if not his second home. The four-year letterman graduated from UMaine in 1990 and served as assistant coach during the 1991-92 and 1994-95 seasons. He also coached Bangor High’s hockey team for two seasons. Renee is a Bangor native and Black Bear fan who met Guy while attending Boston University.

“It was nice to come back with my wife being from Bangor and my family being 61/2 hours away in Montreal,” said Perron, who returns after six seasons as the coach and general manager of the North American Hockey League’s Chicago Freeze. “We were at a time in our lives where we needed to get something done. We bought some time to get our master’s and this was the time for me to get mine finished.”

After eight years spent working on it, Perron is now three weeks away from completing his work in educational administration, which will put him in good position to pursue a job as an athletics director. Renee earned her master’s in social work.

Perron, who worked primarily with the forwards on the team and provided video analysis, isn’t the only one who considers his hiring to be a bonus.

“It was a huge plus. When I heard he was interested, I said bring him in,” said Maine head coach Tim Whitehead. “He’s overqualified to be a volunteer assistant, but any time you can get a former player who connects well with the players – and he’s an alum – it just adds to that family feeling we have at Maine.

“He’s constantly looking to learn and I think that’s what makes him such a great coach. He always tries to improve too and I think that’s what separates people who take pride in their job from others who do it just to get it done.”

Perron said there was an adjustment period as he got used to working with Whitehead.

“Coming back, I knew what to expect as far as the program,” Perron said. “The difference was going from Shawn [Walsh] to Timmy and it was difficult at first, all of us getting on the same page, but Timmy gave me an opportunity to get more involved and all of us coaches are very happy with the way things have gone.”