Saint Mary's Magazine Fall 2004 - Saint Mary's University of Minnesota

SPORTS NEWS
Two coaches, two sports,
and two national titles
Steve Miller ’88
University of Denver
assistant coach,
men’s hockey
As a senior player, Steve Miller
’88 helped guide the Saint Mary’s
University men’s hockey team to
its first Minnesota Intercollegiate
Athletic Conference title in 23
years and a school-record 22
wins that still stands today.
Sixteen years later, Miller was
again instrumental in helping a
team end a drought that spanned
decades.
Miller was behind the bench
when Denver University made a
first-period goal stand up en route
to a 1-0 victory over Maine in the title game of the NCAA
Division I national tournament, giving the Pioneers their
first national championship since 1969 — a span of 35
years.
“It’s pretty hard to describe the feeling when that final
horn sounded,” admitted Miller. “These are guys that you
recruited — they believed in you (as a coach), we believed
in them, and together this dream came to fruition.”
The Pioneers finished fourth in the Western Collegiate
Hockey Association regular-season standings, then won the
NCAA Western Regional with wins over Miami (Ohio), 3-2,
and top-ranked North Dakota, 1-0, to earn their berth in the
NCAA Frozen Four. Denver then knocked off WCHA rival
UM-Duluth with a come-from-behind 5-3 win, before their
title-clinching 1-0 win over the Black Bears.
“This team had a never-say-die
attitude,” Miller said of the Pioneers.
“Two years ago we felt we had a team
that could have gone all the way, but we
went out to Michigan and lost. This time
around, we weren’t going to be denied —
this team just kept getting better and
better as the year went on.”
Miller just completed his 10th season
as a Denver assistant and his 13th as a
member of coach George Gwozdecky’s staff.
After graduating from Saint Mary’s in 1988, Miller
stayed at his alma mater as an assistant varsity coach, head
junior varsity coach and recruiting coordinator. He helped
SMU capture the 1988-89 MIAC playoff championship and
a berth in the NCAA Division III quarterfinals.
As a player, Miller played three years of varsity hockey,
twice being named the team’s most inspirational player, as
well as most improved as a sophomore. He was also an
Academic All-MIAC selection following his junior season.
“I look at how my coaching career has developed over
the years and a lot of what I have — a lot of the successes I
am enjoying now — are because Coach (Don) Olson and
Saint Mary’s were willing to take a chance on me, first as a
player, then as a coach,” said Miller.
John Tschida ’90
University of
St. Thomas
head coach,
fastpitch softball
In 2000, John Tschida ’90 guided
the Saint Mary’s University
fastpitch softball team to the
school’s first-ever NCAA Division
III softball national championship,
sweeping through the eight-team,
double-elimination tournament
without a blemish.
The Cardinals did not lose a
post-season game that season,
sweeping through the Midwest
Regional in Cedar Rapids, Iowa,
with three straight wins, then
going 4-0 at the national
tournament in Roanoke, Va. —
including a title-clinching 5-0 win over Chapman.
Four years later, Tschida was at it again — same venue,
same result.
Only this time, Tschida was guiding the University of St.
Thomas fastpitch softball team to its first-ever NCAA
Division III national softball title, as the Tommies completed
their perfect 7-0 run through the regionals and the national
tournament with a 2-0 title-clinching win over Moravian in
— where else — Roanoke, Va.
Add to that the fact that both Tschida-coached national
championship teams were led by a
Huegel — Jackie for the Cardinals in
2000 and Kristi for the Tommies in
2004 — and it makes you realize just
how similar the two teams were.
“There were a lot of similarities
(between the 2000 and 2004 titles),” said
Tschida, who stepped down as SMU’s
head coach after that championship run
in 2000 to take over the St. Thomas
program. “Both teams played hard. They
weren’t intimidated by their surroundings —
they just went out there and got the job done.
“The SMU team was pretty much built from
scratch — we had to change the culture, the work
ethic, everything. That’s why I said after we won it
(in 2000), that our success was in part because of the hard
work and dedication of the players who came before them,”
Tschida continued. “It was sort of the same situation here
(at St. Thomas). A lot of the players — four of the nine
starters — played junior varsity as freshmen and worked
hard to improve to get to where they are today.”
After starting the season 5-4, the Tommies rattled off 41
straight wins — an NCAA Division III record and the
second-longest winning streak in any NCAA softball
division.
“Even with all the similarities, you can’t compare one
title to the other,” Tschida said. “They are both special in
their own way.”≠
WWW.SMUMN.EDU/MAGAZINE 23