On January 26th, LFA Athletic Director and former NHL goalie for the Ottawa Senators Darrin Madeley was inducted into the Illinois Hockey Hall of Fame. Currently coaching for the 20th year (and his 14th at LFA), Madeley has amassed over 500 wins at LFA. His impact has stretched far beyond the hockey rink, though – as Guy Blessing ‘19 put it, “Coach [Madeley] would do [a lot of things] off the ice to try to improve LFA.”
Originally, Madeley was set on teaching, “My mother said from second grade on, all I’d ever talk about was being a teacher.” Madeley started playing hockey when he was three on the pond across the street from his childhood home; the competition and his aversion to losing kept him involved with the sport. Madeley said, “I think there’s nothing quite like winning a game.” The social aspect of team sports was also important for Madeley. As an introvert, it was hard for him to be his true self: “Hockey allowed me to come out of that shell. My teammates were always around.”
Madeley looked up to his father as a coach and a role model. “It’s hard to explain who [my father] was,” Madeley said. In addition to his father, Madeley had great coaches, “I don’t know if I’ve had a bad coach.” When Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) was recruiting Madeley, RPI assistant coach Bill Cahill took a risk on Madeley, letting him know that RPI was talking to him only to try to get another recruit. This led Madeley to Lake Superior State University (LSSU), where he holds countless records and met his wife of 33 years, Jennifer. Madeley explained, “I kept in touch with him [Cahill] until the day he passed away.”
Madeley signed with the Ottawa Senators as a free agent in 1992. About his NHL career, he said that he “enjoyed it, but didn’t love it.” – he still looks back on his time in the NHL fondly, though. “I don’t regret going to Ottawa because I met a lot of good people and friends there.” Unfortunately, injuries ended Madeley’s professional hockey career but made way for a new challenge: the world of coaching.
Learning from his college coach at LSSU and current head coach at Notre Dame, Jeff Jackson, Madeley gradually became successful in his new role. Madeley said Jackson was “more than a great coach — he was a great person. He understood when to push me and when not to push me.” Cahill, along with Jackson and many other coaches, cared strongly about Madeley, contributing to his strong mentality that he carried with him to the U18 USA National Team and later to LFA.
One of Madeley’s greatest strengths as a person is understanding that at times, the game is bigger than hockey – and he knows that sometimes frustrating his players can be a part of his job as a coach, too. Trevor Stewart ‘23 explained how Madeley “has a balance between being a strict coach and also being a mentor to his players at the same time.” He teaches his players about the mistakes that he has made and advises them to learn and grow. As Madeley put it, “I never give up on a kid [that is] a good team member.”
Initially, Madeley wasn’t sure if he was going to stay at the school, but for him, “LFA stuck,” even though it was a different experience than coaching the United States’ national team. “[Coaching] the national team is tough because it’s all the best players in the country, but there’s one puck. I had to teach them how to play together. Here, at LFA, it was convincing the guys that they’re good enough.”
Madeley’s former players still look up to him to this day. Said Kevin Porter, a defenseman who Madeley coached when he was on the National Team: “Darrin is a great mentor and a great guy. He made it fun to come to the rink. He was a great coach who cared about his players.” Jimmy Howard, a goalie who Madeley also coached on the National Team, commented, “Madeley was just a stand-up guy. I remember the first time I got to meet him in Ann Arbor, and he was a straight shooter with me. He’s one of the best coaches that I’ve ever had in my life… He’s a true friend.”
From aspiring teacher to player to coach, Madeley has always worked tirelessly to get to the top — and it’s that same championship mentality that has resulted in his induction into the Illinois Hockey Hall of Fame. Now cemented in state hockey history, the face of LFA athletics will continue to provide the drive for his Prep Hockey team and every single athlete on campus for years to come.
