Few outside the program gave Harvard a chance.

The Crimson’s 2001-2002 season hinged on whether or not it could upset top-seeded Cornell in the ECAC championship game. The Big Red entered the contest on a 15-1-1 surge and had destroyed Harvard in the teams’ previous meeting that February. While Cornell cruised through its ECAC semifinal the previous night, Harvard looked exhausted in a 3-2 overtime win over Clarkson.

The task of designing a strategy to beat the Big Red rested on the shoulders of Harvard assistant coaches Ron Rolston and Nate Leaman.

With three seasons of experience in breaking down tape and preparing game plans for the Crimson, Leaman and Rolston presented their ideas to Harvard head coach Mark Mazzoleni. Central to their strategy was a proposal to take full advantage of Lake Placid’s Olympic-size rink and spread out the slower Cornell defense.

Mazzoleni liked what he heard. And the plan worked perfectly.

Harvard outplayed Cornell for the entire game, and its efforts paid off in double-overtime as the Crimson earned an improbable automatic bid into the NCAA tournament.

It was a triumph of strategy that might not have happened under a different type of head coach. In the biggest game of the year, Mazzoleni had placed the bulk of the responsibility for preparation on his assistants.

“A lot of other coaches want to control just about everything,” Leaman said. “One of the best things about Mazzoleni is that he’s open to new ideas, and he’s really good at delegating responsibilities.”

For his extensive contributions as the chief assistant of Mazzoleni’s valued staff, Rolston was sought out and hired as an assistant at Boston College after last season. The Eagles boast one of the nation’s elite programs and were national champions in 2001.

Mazzoleni replaced Rolston with Sean McCann ’94, one of Harvard’s all-time great defenseman, a Hobey Baker finalist and the team captain in 1994. McCann joins the Crimson recently retired from seven years in minor-league hockey.

Despite his lack of coaching experience, he must handle one of the most demanding assistant’s positions in the country.

Harvard’s success depends on it.

Sharing The Load

Each week Leaman and McCann are responsible for breaking down tape of Harvard’s previous games and presenting the most important lessons to the team. They must then analyze the Crimson’s upcoming opponents, studying tape and tendencies to design the weekend’s game plan. Mazzoleni has input and final approval, but his assistants do most of the work.

Leaman manages the forwards in practice and from the bench during games, while McCann oversees the defense and faceoffs. The two split special teams duties with Mazzoleni.

“Mazzoleni really delegates a lot of the work to his assistants,” McCann said. “He oversees everything, but he really expects a lot of input, too. He really trusts what we have to say.”

Mazzoleni has delegated even more responsibility to his assistants this year, hiring Bruce Irving as a volunteer assistant coach. Irving, a former Cornell goaltender, will coordinate strength and conditioning and serve as the goaltender coach. That task used to be handled by Mazzoleni, who played goalie at Michigan State.

“I wanted the goalies to have someone that could give them everything he had,” Mazzoleni said. “With Bruce we have someone our goalies are going to really take to and who will be in a position to help them on a daily basis.”

But nowhere is Mazzoleni’s trust in his assistants more evident than in recruiting. While Mazzoleni will always see a recruit personally before making a final decision, he leaves most of the legwork and scouting to Leaman and McCann.

“Coach [Mazzoleni] has four children, so it’s tough for him to get away from his house,” Leaman said. “Ninety-five percent of the recruiting is up to Sean and me. That’s a ton of responsibility.”

Often, assistants will take recruiting trips during the season. Leaman, for example, missed five games last year for recruiting reasons.

“There’s times that we’re gone for weeks at a time out recruiting,” Leaman said. “In those situations, the other assistant has to pick up a great deal of the workload. But you’ve got to take care of the recruiting end. Otherwise, the head coach doesn’t have any players.”

The results thus far vindicate Mazzoleni’s faith in his assistants. Two of the staff’s first three recruiting classes were ranked near the top five nationally, and early returns indicate that next year’s class could be just as strong.

McCann-Do Attitude

The success of the Harvard coaching staff has certainly not been surprising.

Last year’s staff was one of the most decorated in the country. Rolston won two national titles as an assistant at Lake Superior State, while Leaman served as a volunteer coach on Maine’s 1999 national championship team.

So when Rolston left for BC in May, many thought that Mazzoleni would look for another experienced assistant with a track record of success.

From that standpoint, Mazzoleni’s choice of McCann might be surprising.

Although armed with seven years of pro hockey experience, McCann has never coached before on any level. Before joining the Harvard staff, McCann worked in project management for Disney.

But don’t tell Mazzoleni that McCann’s lack of experience is an issue.

“When I was looking for people, I had a lot of experienced people apply for the position,” Mazzoleni said. “When I asked around the Harvard community—people who know the program over the last 15 years—to tell me the most competitive guys who played, McCann was No. 1 on everyone’s list. Not only that, but he’s one hell of a person. I felt we hit a home run when we hired him.”

Perhaps more valuable than any coaching experience is McCann’s familiarity and success as a Harvard student-athlete.

McCann was a first-team All-American and Hobey Baker finalist in 1994, but he was also elected Class Marshal and credits his experience helping kids in public-service extracurriculars as one factor that influenced his return to coaching.

“I’ve been through the experience they’re going through. I know what’s happening to them and what to expect down the road,” McCann said. “Hopefully through my experiences I can help them deal with the pressures of playing D[ivision] I hockey as well as the academics at Harvard.”

In For The Long Haul?

With Rolston’s departure, Leaman now becomes the senior assistant for an upper-level college hockey program in just his fourth year of full-time coaching.

“Nate Leaman is one hell of a hockey coach,” Mazzoleni said. “I was very comfortable hiring someone like Sean who didn’t have a lot of experience because I have so much confidence in Nate as a coach, as a tactician, as a teacher and as a recruiter.”

In addition to managing the Crimson’s forwards and special teams, Leaman also takes on the critical role of liaison between Mazzoleni and his players.

Leaman provides a different voice to deliver Mazzoleni’s message, and serves as an outlet for players to express their complaints about anything, even Mazzoleni’s message.

“The head coach probably isn’t liked by the players,” Leaman said. “But it’s important for the head coach to be respected by the players. It’s the assistant’s job to communicate the message and develop a good relationship by the players. If they feel they need to talk about something, they can come to us.”

While Rolston used Harvard as a springboard to a more prestigious position, Leaman says he has no plans to leave anytime soon. In fact, Leaman says he has turned down job offers from other schools in each of the past two years.

“I have a lot of pride in the kids here and in Harvard hockey,” Leaman said. “I’ve invested a lot of time and building over these three years. I haven’t changed positions because I want to see this through. I think you can win a national championship at Harvard.”

Leaman and McCann might stay at Harvard for the foreseeable future, but Mazzoleni eventually has other ideas for his staff—ideas that his relatively hands-off style should someday help bring to fruition.

“I want them to all be head coaches someday,” Mazzoleni said.

—Staff writer Elijah M. Alper can be reached at alper@fas.harvard.edu.