Massachusetts assembling ‘consultative committee’ to hire next coach

Massachusetts has announced the consultative committee which will be involved with the hiring of the next head coach.

Don ‘Toot’ Cahoon stepped down earlier this week.

UMass athletic director John McCutcheon will oversee and chair the committee, which is made of up representatives from the athletic department, the university and former players. The committee is comprised of McCutcheon, Rocko DeLuca, Mike Merchant, Peter Trovato, Jeff Smith, Glenn Wong and Juan Jarrett.

DeLuca is the department’s associate athletic director, director of development and hockey program administrator.

Merchant is the Pond Club president and was a UMass letter-winner from 1974-77, serving as a captain his final two seasons.

Trovato was a four-year letterman from 2001-05 who finished his career with 13 goals and 35 points. He played professionally for several teams throughout the United States and also founded and served as the executive director of the Massachusetts Soldiers Legacy Fund, a charitable trust established for the children of fallen U.S. service members.

Smith is an associate athletic director for sports medicine who has been at UMass for 11 years. He has worked with the hockey program for the past three years after working with football since his arrival in 2001. He is also the administrator for the track and field and rowing programs.

Wong is UMass’ faculty athletic representative and a professor in the sport management program’s Isenberg School of Management.

Jarrett is the assistant vice chancellor for Human Resources. He is responsible for the oversight of all Human Resource operations for the UMass-Amherst campus.

The next head coach at UMass will be the 13th in program history and the third since the sport returned to campus in 1993.