Rick Gotkin
Rick Gotkin, also known as Richard Leonardo, is an American ice hockey head coach and former player. He is currently the head coach of the Mercyhurst Lakers men's ice hockey team, a position he has held since 1988.
Career
Gotkin began attending The [College at Brockport, State University of New York|SUNY-Brockport] in 1978, managing to work his way onto the varsity ice hockey team in his final two years there before graduating in 1982. He spent one additional year with the program as an assistant the following season. By 1986 he was back in the college ranks as an assistant coach for Rensselaer. After two campaigns with the Engineers he received his first head coaching opportunity at Mercyhurst.When Gotkin arrived in Erie the college's ice hockey program was only a year old. He took over after Fred Lane led the team to a very good 16-7 mark the year before and while Gotkin's first season was disappointing at 11-16-1 he soon brought the Lakers to Division III prominence with at least 18 wins in four consecutive seasons. Mercyhurst made their first postseason appearance in his third year and their first Division II [Men's Ice Hockey">NCAA Division II">Division II [Men's Ice Hockey Championship|National Championship] appearance by year five. Gotkin would lead the Lakers to their first 20-win season two years later but wasn't able to push them any further for the rest of their time in D-II.
A year after the MAAC ice hockey conference was formed Mercyhurst was invited to join alongside Bentley and they became a Division I program for the 1999–2000 [NCAA Division I men's ice hockey season|1999–00 season]. The Lakers started off strong, finishing with a second place finish in their inaugural year, before winning the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference [men's ice hockey tournament|conference tournament] the following season and making their first List of [NCAA Division I men's ice hockey tournament champions|NCAA tournament appearance]. Gotkin would get the Lakers to three consecutive regular season titles from 2001 thru 2003 and a second NCAA berth in '03 but after the season the MAAC conference dissolved when founding members Iona and Fairfield dropped their programs.
Fortunately for Gotkin and the rest of the programs, the remaining universities continued to support their teams and formed a new conference, Atlantic Hockey which began play in 2003–04 [NCAA Division I men's ice hockey season|2003–04]. Gotkin and the Lakers weren't quite as successful in the second version as they were in the MAAC but he still helped the team to several 20-win seasons, a tournament title in 2005 [Atlantic Hockey men's ice hockey tournament|2005], a regular season title in Division I men's ice hockey season|2013–14] and notched his 500th win during the 2015–16 season. Gotkin signed a 5-year extension that will keep him with the team through the 2020 season.