BERTAGNA GOALTENDING bertagnagoaltending.com For immediate release: Friday, May 17, 2013 Bertagna Goaltending Celebrates 40th Anniversary It was the summer in which the Watergate drama reached its conclusion in the resignation of a president. Eric Clapton sang, “I Shot the Sherriff.” Moviegoers went in large numbers to see “The Sting” and “Godfather II”. And Joe Bertagna was teaching skate saves and two-pad stacks to young goalies at hockey camp. In the summer of 1974, as part of Tim Taylor’s West Suburban Hockey School in Natick, Massachusetts, Joe Bertagna took the reins from Tim’s longtime friend and goalie coach, Warren Cook, and began four decades of coaching goalies of all ages. And this summer, Joe and his staff will celebrate his 40th summer directing goalie schools. “You start out looking for a way to stay in the game and maybe make a few dollars on the side,” Says Bertagna. “You never think about it becoming a big part of your life.” Joe addresses a recent camp. Bertagna, a native of Arlington, Massachusetts, has been fortunate to spend his entire life in the game of ice hockey, with a big part of that devoted to the study and teaching of the goaltending position. As a player, he played for three Hall of Fame coaches in Arlington High School’s legendary Eddie Burns, who spent 50 seasons at AHS, and Harvard University’s Ralph “Cooney” Weiland and Bill Cleary. But he credits Taylor, who passed away on April 27, and Cook for launching his coaching career. “Before the advent of showcase events, kids used the summer to hone their skills and hockey camps were more popular than they are today. And Timmy had the best of them all,” recalls Bertagna. “Warren provided me with the first structured approach to understanding and teaching the position and from that point on I developed a strong desire to learn more about it and to develop my own teaching methods. Tim Taylor And from that start began a 40-year career in which Bertagna has reached thousands of goalies not only in New Eng- land but, it is not an exaggeration to say, across the globe. “I’ve calculated that in my own clinics and camps alone, I have been on the ice with more than 10,000 goalies. And I don’t know how to estimate how many goalies have seen my writings or videos. I’m sure it is more than double that num- ber,” says Bertagna. The writings began while he attended Marquette University Journalism School during the 1975-76 academic year, living in downtown Milwaukee and playing briefly for the Mil- waukee Admirals. Bertagna wrote the manuscript for, “Goaltending: A Complete Handbook for Goalies and Coaches.” Self-published, the book sold just shy of 8,000 copies. “I was very proud of that book,” says Bertagna. “Save for some of the photos that show old equipment and maybe a few of the techniques that are no longer used, it holds up pretty well all these years later.” Perhaps the best praise for the book came from the NHL’s “GOAL” magazine some years later. When reviewing a book written by famed Russian goalie Vladislav Tretiak, the NHL’s of- ficial publication stated, “Those seeking the final word on goaltending instruction would be better off with the books written by Jacques Plante and Joe Bertagna.” Bertagna’s writings over the years have appeared in countless publications, including “USA Hockey Magazine,” where Joe’s brief articles, complemented by the illustration’s of Mike Curti, helped thousands more understand the position. And it was through USA Hockey that Joe’s place in the goaltending world went even further. When USA Hockey first produced a video and a coaches’ handbook on goaltending, it turned to a trio of goaltending coaches that included two veterans and a younger Joe. “I was privileged to be asked to help put together a script for a video with Dave Peterson and Al Godfrey, two legends of Minnesota Hockey, Dave going on to be our Olympic coach in 1988. I was the kid with a lot to learn and they became great friends,” says Bertagna. That trio actually came together earlier when USA Hockey created the first summer goalkeeping camp for elite goalies across the country. The practice is now commonplace but it was new at the time. The coaches from the West were Peter- son, Godfrey and former Wisconsin goalie Mike Dibble. From the East came Bertagna, former UNH and Whalers goalie Cap Raeder and former Yale goalie and current Yale head coach Keith Allain. USA Hockey came calling again when Bertagna was tapped as goalie coach for Team USA in the 1991 Canada Cup by the late Bob Johnson and again in 1994 when Tim Taylor made Bertagna Assistant General Manager and Goalie Coach for the 1994 U.S. Olympic Team. “I owe quite a bit to USA Hockey,” he says. “And because of that, I try to give back and respond when they call.” The international assignments came as Bertagna was finishing a six-year stint as goalie coach with the Boston Bruins. That came about primarily through the efforts of Mike Milbury. Joe, as Boston Bruins goalie coach, with Bill Ranford (left) and Reggie Lemelin (right). “Mike had retired as a player and was moving into the administration of the sport,” recalls Bertagna. “He was looking to bring in a skating coach, a sports psychologist a goalie coach and put his imprint on the team in a number of ways. My name kept coming up when he was researching the goalie position and in the end he, along with Harry Sinden, had the most to do with my having an opportunity at the NHL level.” Says Milbury, “There is a reason that Joe Bertagna will be celebrating his 40th season hosting goalie camps. He knows how to coach. Following my playing career with the Boston Bruins, I was fortunate enough to become head coach and Assistant General Manager of the club. It was then that I enlisted Joe as Goalie Coach. It’s no easy task to re-shape a professional goaltender’s game but Joe’s keen sense of observation and ability to convey those observations with a calm demeanor to top level players gave him immediate credibility. In the years to come, Joe has helped hundreds of goalten- ders improve their games. I can’t give anyone a better endorsement.” Bertagna served the Bruins from 1985-1991 as a part-time coach and experienced the team reaching two Stanley Cup finals, in 1988 and1990. He returned for part of a season in 1994-95 when the NHL year was shortened by labor issues. “I am very grateful to Harry and particularly Mike for giving me that opportunity,” says Bertagna. “It allowed me to con- tinue my education on the position and I still draw from that experience today.” Due in part to the attention he received during his Bruins days, Bertagna’s summer camps enjoyed unprecedented suc- cess in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s. In a few of those summers, more than 500 goalies attended his schools. “We had it gong pretty well back then,” he remembers. “We worked 10 weeks, sometimes two rinks at the same time, and there wasn’t a great deal of competition. And I wasn’t married with kids yet!” The times have changed. Techniques have changed. There are full-time goalie coaches doing this work for a living. And Bertagna and his clinics have managed to remain relevant throughout it all. “Parents aren’t content with traditional summer camps. They want instruction year-round. And so we have become busier in the winter than in the summer,” says Bertagna. “And through the likes of Mike Morrison, one of my former stu- dents who went on to the NHL, I have kept my teaching current.” Morrison, who was part of an NCAA championship team at the University of Maine and who went on to play in the NHL, has become Joe’s righthand man in the goalie coaching business. He says, “As former goalie student at Bertagna Goaltending and cur- rent goalie instructor, I have seen first hand how Joe has been able to evolve with the forever changing methods of today’s goalies. His love for the game and position as well as his students that come from all over the world, has motivated him to continue learn- ing the new techniques and strategies that goalies use today. Joe’s mentoring and guid- ance had a big influence on me achieving my dream of playing hockey at the Division 1 and NHL levels. I have seen Joe’s staff evolve over time with some of the most reputable goalie minds in the game. A good balance of young and more veteran coaches, has been a big reason why Bertagna Goaltending has stood the test of time and continues to help produce quality goalies who have learned to appreciate hard work, respect the position and love the game. Bertagna hears people say, “Joe’s good at the basics,” and he finds it a left-handed compliment. Mike Morrison “I think my staff is very good at teaching the basics,” he says. “But I know that my competitors throw this out as if to imply we can’t help more advanced goalies and that’s nonsense. We have a young staff and we stay up to date. It is still about positioning and puck control. Learning a series of techniques is not the same as ‘knowing how to play goal.’ That is what’s lacking in much of today’s teaching.