Steve Hoar

Steve Hoar
Biographical details
Born	1952; Worcester, Massachusetts, USA
Died	July 11, 2016 (aged 63–64); Arlington, Massachusetts, USA
Alma mater	Boston College; Boston University
Playing career
1972–1976	Boston College
Coaching career (HC unless noted)
1978–1984	Army (assistant)
1984–1989	Plattsburgh State
1994–1998	Tufts
2004–2007	Becker (assistant)
2007–2016	Becker
Head coaching record
Overall	257–227–28 (.529)
Tournaments	8–6–0 (.571)

Stephen L. Hoar was an American ice hockey coach who led Plattsburgh State to a NCAA Division III National Championship that was later vacated.^[1]

Career

Hoar grew up in the Boston area and graduated from Vermont Academy in 1970. A few years later he began attending Boston College and earned a degree in Elementary Education and Teaching.^[2] He worked as a teacher for a time but soon turned to coaching and eventually found his way behind the bench at Plattsburgh State, becoming the head coach for the men's ice hockey team in 1984.

He was an instant success as a coach, leading the team to the Frozen Four in each of his first two seasons. For his third campaign, Hoar got the team to post 33 wins, still a program record as of 2023, and win the 1987 National Championship.^[3] After two more outstanding seasons with the Cardinals, the team was rocked by allegations of NCAA violations. It was eventually confirmed that between 1985 and 1988, several players had received improper benefits from people with ties to the university including free housing, free food, small cash loans and the free use of automobiles.^[1] Not only was the program put on probation, but their entire participation in NCAA tournaments during that period was vacated. While the team was allowed to keep their win totals, they had to surrender any claim they had to the championship. As a result of the findings, Hoar was out of a job.

After his time at Plattsburgh State, Hoar returned to his studies and earned a master's degree at Boston University. Shortly afterwards, he resumed coaching and took over at Tufts. His tenure with the Jumbos started out well, with a pair of winning seasons, but two consecutive losing campaigns and no playoff victories caused the school to look elsewhere for their head coach.

Hoar returned to his day job as a recreation & skating facility director in Lexington but was eventually lured back to college when Becker decided to field an ice hockey team. Hoar first worked as an assistant, helping the club team build up to its varsity debut in 2006. However, midway through the first season, Hoar was promoted to head coach. Over the next several years, Hoar helped the team produce respectable records but nothing that could get them close to an NCAA tournament berth. In the summer of 2016, Hoar died suddenly in his home in Arlington, Massachusetts.^[4]

Head coaching record

Statistics overview
Season	Team	Overall	Conference	Standing	Postseason
Plattsburgh State Cardinals (ECAC West) (1984–1989)
1984–85	Plattsburgh State	26–11–0	19–4–0	2nd	NCAA Third-Place game (loss)
1985–86	Plattsburgh State	27–13–1	16–5–1	3rd	NCAA Runner-Up (vacated)
1986–87	Plattsburgh State	33–6–0	23–1–0	1st	NCAA Champion (vacated)
1987–88	Plattsburgh State	24–12–0	19–6–0	2nd	NCAA Quarterfinals (vacated)
1988–89	Plattsburgh State	20–5–1	20–5–1	2nd	None ^†
Plattsburgh State:		130–47–2	97–21–2
Tufts Jumbos (ECAC Central) (1994–1998)
1994–95	Tufts	13–6–5	6–3–5	3rd	ECAC N/S/C Quarterfinals
1995–96	Tufts	13–8–2	9–5–0	3rd	ECAC N/S/C Quarterfinals
1996–97	Tufts	8–13–2	4–10–0	7th
1997–98	Tufts	9–13–1	5–9–0	6th
Tufts:		43–40–10	24–27–5
Becker Hawks Independent (2006–2007)
2006–07	Becker	0–8–1 ^‡
Becker:		0–8–1
Becker Hawks (ECAC Northeast) (2007–2016)
2007–08	Becker	12–12–2	9–6–1	T–6th	ECAC Northeast Quarterfinals
2008–09	Becker	11–14–1	9–7–1	6th	ECAC Northeast Quarterfinals
2009–10	Becker	13–12–1	8–6–0	4th	ECAC Northeast Semifinals
2010–11	Becker	11–13–3	7–4–3	4th	ECAC Northeast Semifinals
2011–12	Becker	9–15–2	4–9–1	6th	ECAC Northeast Quarterfinals
2012–13	Becker	10–13–2	1–11–2	8th
2013–14	Becker	3–18–3	2–9–2	8th
2014–15	Becker	5–20–0	1–13–0	8th
2015–16	Becker	10–15–1	6–9–1	7th	ECAC Northeast Quarterfinals
Becker:		84–132–15	47–74–11
Total:		257–227–28
National champion Postseason invitational champion Conference regular season champion Conference regular season and conference tournament champion Division regular season champion Division regular season and conference tournament champion Conference tournament champion

† Plattsburgh State voluntarily ruled itself ineligible for postseason play due to an ongoing NCAA investigation.
‡ Hoar took over in the middle of the season.

References

^ ^a ^b "Plattsburgh Gets Probation". New York Times. 30 March 1990. Retrieved 6 March 2019.
^ "Steve Hoar". Linked In. Retrieved May 11, 2023.
^ "Steve Hoar Year-by-Year Coaching Record". USCHO. Retrieved May 11, 2023.
^ "Hockey community mourns loss of Steve Hoar". Press Republican. July 13, 2016. Retrieved March 11, 2023.

External links

Biographical information and career statistics from The Internet Hockey Database

[NYT-1] "Plattsburgh Gets Probation". New York Times. 30 March 1990. Retrieved 6 March 2019.

[2] "Steve Hoar". Linked In. Retrieved May 11, 2023.

[3] "Steve Hoar Year-by-Year Coaching Record". USCHO. Retrieved May 11, 2023.

[4] "Hockey community mourns loss of Steve Hoar". Press Republican. July 13, 2016. Retrieved March 11, 2023.

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[4]

v t e Tufts Jumbos men's ice hockey
Venues	Malden Forum (2001–Present)
Coaches	Harry Briggs (1946–1947) Frank Anderson (1948) Warren Price (1948–1951) Charles Arthur (1951–1960) Vin Godleski (1960) Ben Sands (1986–1991, 1993–1994) Nick Mitropoulos (1991–1993) Steve Hoar (1994–1998) Brian Murphy (1998–2015) Pat Norton (2015–Present)
Seasons	1907–08 1913–14 1917–18 1919–20 1920–21 1942–43 1943–44 1944–45 1946–47 1947–48 1948–49 1949–50 1950–51 1951–52 1952–53 1953–54 1954–55 1955–56 1956–57 1957–58 1958–59 1959–60 1986–87 1987–88 1988–89 1989–90 1990–91 1991–92 1992–93 1993–94 1994–95 1995–96 1996–97 1997–98 1998–99 1999–00 2000–01 2001–02 2002–03 2003–04 2004–05 2005–06 2006–07 2007–08 2008–09 2009–10 2010–11 2011–12 2012–13 2013–14 2014–15 2015–16 2016–17 2017–18 2018–19 2019–20 2020–21 2021–22 2022–23
Conference affiliations	ECAC North/South (1986–1992) ECAC North/South/Central (1992–1998) ECAC Northeast (1998–2001) NESCAC (2001–Present)
Tufts University Medford, MA