ASU Hockey: Powers named Frank Kush Award winner

ASU head ice hockey coach Greg Powers has been named the 2018-19 winner of the Frank Kush Award, which is voted on by fellow head coaches within Sun Devil Athletics.

The honor is given to the coach that impresses their fellow colleagues the most. The award is also selected every year around the time of the passing of legendary head football coach Frank Kush (June 22, 2017).

Led by Powers, the 2018-19 hockey season will be one that is remembered for quite some time. The former ASU club hockey coach took his Division I program and put them into the limelight of the national stage by taking them to their first-ever NCAA Tournament.

“We have world-class head coaches at ASU, and to be recognized by them is an honor words can’t do justice,” said Powers in a release from Sun Devil Athletics. “To take it a step further, Frank Kush is the standard here and is synonymous with Sun Devil Athletics. To receive an award with his name on it is any true Sun Devils’ dream. Lastly, any head coach is only as good as those he surrounds himself with, and I have surrounded myself with the best staff and group of players imaginable. This award is every bit as much theirs as it is mine.”

In addition to making the postseason, Powers recorded the first 20-win season ever and the team had a 13-win turnaround from the year prior. His group also had two players (Joey Daccord and Johnny Walker) who were up for the Hobey Baker Award as college hockey’s best all-around player.

ASU reached the USCHO top-20 for the first time and beat a top-10 opponent when Walker buried a breakaway goal to upset No. 6 Penn State on November 3 in overtime at Pegula Ice Arena.

Powers was also a Penrose Finalist, which goes out to the college hockey Coach of the Year. He will now bring in a big recruiting class for the 2019-20 campaign.

An ASU graduate, Powers is a true Sun Devil at heart. Coaching the team’s hockey program is what he has labeled as a “dream job,” and his pride in leading a team at ASU is something he detailed earlier this season (see tweet below).

As Powers said, he “bleeds maroon and gold,” and that can be exemplified even further with his 2018-19 Frank Kush Award.