Peter Belisle
Episode 107
15 FEB 2021
He is in his 15th season as the head men’s ice hockey coach at UMass Boston, where he is the winningest coach in program history. Along the way he has earned National Coach of the Year honors and has guided his team to the NCAA Frozen Four. Prior to his current role he spent nine years with Division I University of Connecticut as an assistant coach. As a student-athlete he had been a four-year letter winner with UConn.
Notable guest quotes:
“Very religious, ya’ know, growing up at Mt. St. Charles Academy, being, just, ya’ know, I spent all my days with the Brothers of the Sacred Heart.”
“My faith through mom and dad… and St. James, just, my memories are in that church with my family.”
“The bond that we had… it’s just divine intervention when you think of the whole story between my family and hockey, okay? My brother David gets cut by Lou Lamoriello at Providence College after playing, I think it was his senior year, and he was down, and dad hired him as an assistant coach, and they go on to win 26 state consecutive titles. And I was a little kid… so I saw that all that in front of my eyes… being on the bus as a stick manager, equipment guy.”
“My mom was the rock… She had ETWN, the Catholic channel, TV channel, on all the time, religiously, like, every day, 24 hours a day, and just a woman of faith, church every Sunday, church every day after my dad had his skull fracture.”
“I’ve been so blessed in my life with my parents and my sport of hockey because of my family.”
“Looking for my calling I didn’t know, and then, I said, ‘Maybe I do want to get into coaching hockey’ … and I got an opportunity at the College of Holy Cross to go back and work as an assistant coach and it was one of the best years of my life. I was, like, so passionate about, ‘This is what I want to do’!”
“People ask me my coaching philosophy and it’s easy. I want to make better men through the game of hockey.”
“There’s so much you can take from the game and really implement into just good lessons in life and what Jesus wants us and how He wants us to be.”
Related links:
Interview with Peter’s brother (David) on CSR 54
