According to a Harvard spokesperson, an announcement on the school’s men’s ice hockey head coaching vacancy will come “most likely the middle of next week.”
But Jamie Weir of the Harvard sports information office refused to confirm or deny published reports that have named Joe Marsh, Mark Mazzoleni and Tim Taylor as the leading candidates for the position.
Marsh, Mazzoleni and Taylor are the current head coaches at St. Lawrence, Miami and Yale, respectively. All three could not be reached for comment.
Officials at Harvard have confirmed that all three were interviewed for the position by athletic director and former long-time head coach Bill Cleary, but declined to indicate whether any finalists for the position were named.
The opening was created on May 15, when Ronn Tomassoni resigned after nine years as head coach of the Crimson.
Taylor, who has led Yale for 23 years, was captain of Harvard’s ECAC championship team in 1963 as a senior. He spent seven years as an assistant at his alma mater before becoming Yale’s head coach in 1976. He is a three-time ECAC Coach of the Year, and he was the head coach of the 1994 US Olympic Team in Lillehammer, Norway.
Marsh, a native of nearby Lynn, Mass., is a 1977 graduate of New Hampshire. He took over as head coach at St. Lawrence in 1986, and oversaw a meteoric rise in the program’s fortunes, culminating in an NCAA title game berth in 1988. Marsh has overseen seven 20-win seasons, and five NCAA Tournament berths, including 1998-99.
Mazzoleni just completed his fifth season as head coach at Miami. He is a 1980 graduate of Michigan State. Mazzoleni has already compiled over 225 wins in 11 seasons as a head coach overall. In 1996-97 he was named the CCHA Coach of the Year after guiding Miami to a second place finish in the CCHA and an NCAA Tournament berth.
