The search for a new head coach for the Harvard men's ice hockey team may be nearing an end, Harvard officials said.

Middlebury College hockey coach Bill Beaney confirmed Wednesday he is among the remaining candidates for the position vacated by veteran coach Ronn Tomassoni last May.

"My guess is that it shouldn't be more than a few weeks before [the search committee] makes a decision," said Paul McNeeley, assistant director of sports media relations, who is not a member of the committee.

"We are towards the end of the search," said Assistant Director of Sports Media Relations Jamie Weir, who is not on the committee. "My guess is that a decision will be made late next week or early the following week."

Although Harvard athletic officials declined to name the remaining candidates, Beaney said Wednesday that he is one of the finalists for the position.

He met with the search committee in Cambridge last week and called the one-day interview a "great time to sit with the committee and express my ideas."

Beaney said the committee did not tell him when the decision would be made.

"I'm surprised it hasn't been made yet," he said. "I'm sure they want to get it done as soon as possible."

A number of newspapers, radio stations and discussion lists have speculated that other top candidates for the job include U.S. Women's National Team Head Coach Ben Smith '68, Yale Head Coach Tim Taylor '63, Union Head Coach Kevin Sneddon '92 and Assistant Hockey Coach Jerry Pawloski '88.

According to Weir, a number of other vacancies--such as the head coach position for the squash, fencing, and men's soccer teams--prevented this search from taking top priority.

"We didn't want to shortchange these considerations," she said.

Neither Athletic Director William J. Cleary '56, who will make the final decision based on a recommendation from the search committee, nor Senior Associate Director of Athletics Patricia Henry could be reached for comment.

According to McNeeley, the search committee is composed of different people from around the university, and probably includes athletic directors, alumni and team members.

Promising an Upbeat Tempo

During Beaney's 13 years with Middlebury, he led the Panthers to one ECAC tournament championship and five consecutive NCAA Division 3 titles.

Beaney graduated from the University of New Hampshire in 1973, captaining the ice hockey team his senior year. He has been coaching ever since.

"I try to create an atmosphere on a team where players are going to challenge each other to become the best players that they can be," Beaney said. "I'd like to give as much ownership to the program to the players. This has been the secret to my success at Middlebury."

The Lake Placid native has also coached for a number of hockey programs, including the U.S. national women's junior team, where he crossed paths with Crimson superstar A.J. Mleczko '99.

If offered the top hockey job at Harvard, Beaney said he would play a style that was "up-tempo" and "aggressive offensively."

"My style is to look to try and play a real transition-orientated game and allowplayers to be creative," he said.

"There is such a great tradition of hockey atHarvard," Beaney added. "My goal would be tocreate excitement in the rink."

While Harvard athletes compete in the higherprofile Division I, Beaney said his Division IIIsquad is similar to the Harvard program.

"Students come to Middlebury for theacademics," Beaney said.

"Because of that, it has been a rewardingexperience to deal with student-athletes who havea real perspective," he added