Memorial High School boys head hockey coach Mike Collins has announced his decision to step down after four seasons with the Old Abes.
According to a release sent to the media from Perry Myron, athletic director and assistant principal at Memorial, Jeff Schemberger, an assistant coach with the Old Abes for the past 27 years, has accepted the head coaching position.
“We have been fortunate to have Coach Collins with our program since 2020 and are delighted that he will stay on staff as an assistant coach in our program,” the release went on to say.
Attempts to reach Collins for comment on his decision went unanswered as of press time.
Long a mainstay as a hockey coach in Eau Claire, Collins told the Leader-Telegram in a feature interview in February that his love for the game started in his native Canada.
Originally from Cornwall, Ontario, about 80 miles from Montreal, Collins started playing hockey in his backyard when he was just about 6 years old. “It’s just what we did, even in the summer,” he said.
As a player, he spent four years at UW-River Falls and helped the Falcons win a 1983 NAIA national championship. He continued his collegiate career playing club hockey for the Ohio University Bobcats in Athens, Ohio. At OU, Collins not only received his master’s degree in athletic administration, it’s where he continued improving as a center, and served as a player/coach for the squad.
Ohio University is also where Collins started thinking about how he could make the sport of hockey a permanent fixture in his life. “I knew that if I could get into a profession I enjoyed, I’d be happy,” the coach told the Leader-Telegram in that February interview.
Prior to coming to Eau Claire, Collins gained invaluable experience from coaching in the British Columbia Junior Hockey League, the Western Professional Hockey League and in college at Lake Superior State.
His credentials led him to UWEC, where he served as the first head coach for the UW-Eau Claire women’s hockey team, a role he remained in for 15 years.
Collins said in the February Leader-Telegram article that once he left UW-Eau Claire, he didn’t think he would get back into coaching, but decided to accept the Memorial offer in the summer of 2020 because of his immense love of hockey and joy of coaching.
“I really enjoy the energy and the excitement of the athletes,” Collins said in the Leader-Telegram interview. He noted that while that joy has never changed for him, what has changed over the years is his approach to coaching. “I have become more open. I’m doing this now for the pure enjoyment of coaching.”
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