Paul Pearl

Paul Pearl
Current position
Title	Head Coach
Team	Cushing Academy
Biographical details
Born	Winthrop, Massachusetts, U.S.
Alma mater	College of the Holy Cross
Playing career
1985–1989	Holy Cross
Position(s)	Defenseman
Coaching career (HC unless noted)
1990–1992	Portsmouth Abbey School (director)
1992–1994	Connecticut (assistant)
1994–1996	Holy Cross
1996–1997	Brown (assistant)
1997–2014	Holy Cross
2014–2018	Harvard (associate)
2018–2021	Boston University (associate)
2021–present	Cushing Academy
Head coaching record
Overall	297–293–69 (.503)
Tournaments	1–2 (.333)
Accomplishments and honors
Championships
	1999 MAAC Tournament champion; 2004 Atlantic Hockey Champion; 2004 Atlantic Hockey Tournament champion; 2006 Atlantic Hockey Champion; 2006 Atlantic Hockey tournament champion
Awards
	1998 New England Sports Writers Coach of the Year; 1998 ECAC East Div. II Coach of the Year; 2002 MAAC Coach of the Year; 2004 Atlantic Hockey Coach of the Year; 2011 Atlantic Hockey Coach of the Year

Paul Pearl is an American ice hockey coach and former player. He was previously the associate head coach for Boston University, having also served as head coach for Holy Cross for 19 seasons.^[1]

Career

Pearl began attending Holy Cross in 1985 and played for the Division II program for four years, becoming captain of the team in his senior season.^[2] Pearl was also a four year letter winner of the Division I baseball team and captained the team his senior year. After graduating Pearl became director of the ice hockey program at Portsmouth Abbey School for two years before returning to college as an assistant at Connecticut under Bruce Marshall. In 1994 he was named as head coach for his alma mater. He became just the fifth head hockey coach for the Crusaders and would go on to lead his teams to 9 of the 11 most successful seasons in their history.

Holy Cross became a founding member of the MAAC ice hockey conference in 1998 and Pearl helped the team celebrate by winning a then-team record 22 wins capped off by capturing the inaugural conference tournament. Unfortunately the MAAC did not possess an automatic bid for the NCAA tournament and Holy Cross was not invited despite its achievement. As they had done before Holy Cross won the premier conference tournament for the successor Atlantic Hockey conference but this time were invited to the 2004 tournament. While Pearl's team was blanked by North Dakota their second berth two years later provided what is widely considered the biggest upset in college hockey history when the 15th seed Crusaders downed the second ranked Minnesota Golden Gophers 4-3 in overtime.^[3]

In addition to hockey, Pearl was also the head coach of the Holy Cross Crusaders baseball team from 1999 to 2001. He coached the first two teams to ever make the post season tournament and was twice named Patriot League coach of the year.

In 2014 Pearl resigned as head coach and took a position as the associate head coach with Harvard.^[4] In 2021, Pearl was named the Head Coach at Cushing Academy, a preparatory school in Ashburnham, Massachusetts.^[5]

Head coaching record

Statistics overview
Season	Team	Overall	Conference	Standing	Postseason
Holy Cross Crusaders (ECAC East (D-II)) (1994–1996)
1994–95	Holy Cross	15–10–0
1995–96	Holy Cross	13–11–2
Holy Cross:		28–21–2
Holy Cross Crusaders (ECAC East) (1997–1998)
1997–98	Holy Cross	16–8–2
Holy Cross:		16–8–2
Holy Cross Crusaders (MAAC) (1998–2003)
1998–99	Holy Cross	22–9–4	19–6–3	2nd	MAAC Champion
1999–00	Holy Cross	8–24–3	8–16–3	7th	MAAC quarterfinals
2000–01	Holy Cross	8–22–2	8–16–2	10th
2001–02	Holy Cross	17–12–5	14–7–5	t-3rd	MAAC quarterfinals
2002–03	Holy Cross	17–18–1	14–11–1	t-3rd	MAAC semifinals
Holy Cross:		72–85–15	63–56–14
Holy Cross Crusaders (Atlantic Hockey) (2003–2014)
2003–04	Holy Cross	22–10–4	17–4–3	1st	NCAA West Regional semifinals
2004–05	Holy Cross	16–14–6	12–7–5	4th	Atlantic Hockey Semifinals
2005–06	Holy Cross	27–10–2	19–7–2	1st	NCAA West Regional final
2006–07	Holy Cross	10–20–5	9–14–5	6th	Atlantic Hockey Quarterfinals
2007–08	Holy Cross	10–19–7	9–15–4	9th	Atlantic Hockey Quarterfinals
2008–09	Holy Cross	13–20–5	10–15–3	7th	Atlantic Hockey Quarterfinals
2009–10	Holy Cross	12–19–6	10–13–5	7th	Atlantic Hockey Quarterfinals
2010–11	Holy Cross	17–16–5	14–8–5	3rd	Atlantic Hockey Semifinals
2011–12	Holy Cross	20–15–4	15–8–4	t-3rd	Atlantic Hockey Quarterfinals
2012–13	Holy Cross	20–14–3	15–9–3	3rd	Atlantic Hockey Quarterfinals
2013–14	Holy Cross	14–22–3	11–13–3	t-7th	Atlantic Hockey Quarterfinals
Holy Cross:		181–179–50	141–113–42
Total:		297–293–69
National champion Postseason invitational champion Conference regular season champion Conference regular season and conference tournament champion Division regular season champion Division regular season and conference tournament champion Conference tournament champion

References

^ "Holy Cross Men's Hockey Team History". USCHO.com. Retrieved 2016-09-29.
^ "Paul Pearl". Go Holy Cross. Archived from the original on 2016-10-01. Retrieved 2016-09-29.
^ "Remembering the Holy Cross Upset 10 Years Later". SB Nation. 2016-03-24. Retrieved 2016-09-29.
^ "Holy Cross confirms Pearl's departure; AD says he's 'saddened to see Coach Pearl go'". USCHO.com. 2014-05-16. Retrieved 2016-09-29.
^ "Paul Pearl Named Head Coach of Cushing Academy Boys Hockey". Cushing Academy. July 1, 2021. Retrieved February 6, 2023.

External links

Paul Pearl career statistics at The Internet Hockey Database

Awards and achievements
Preceded by Rick Gotkin	MAAC Coach of the Year 2001–02	Succeeded by Ryan Soderquist
Preceded by Inaugural C. J. Marottolo	Atlantic Hockey Coach of the Year 2003–04 2010–11	Succeeded by Rand Pecknold Ryan Soderquist

[1] "Holy Cross Men's Hockey Team History". USCHO.com. Retrieved 2016-09-29.

[2] "Paul Pearl". Go Holy Cross. Archived from the original on 2016-10-01. Retrieved 2016-09-29.

[3] "Remembering the Holy Cross Upset 10 Years Later". SB Nation. 2016-03-24. Retrieved 2016-09-29.

[4] "Holy Cross confirms Pearl's departure; AD says he's 'saddened to see Coach Pearl go'". USCHO.com. 2014-05-16. Retrieved 2016-09-29.

[5] "Paul Pearl Named Head Coach of Cushing Academy Boys Hockey". Cushing Academy. July 1, 2021. Retrieved February 6, 2023.

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v t e Holy Cross Crusaders men's ice hockey
Playing venues	Hart Center (1975–present)
Head coaches	Bill Kane (1966–1976) Mike Addesa (1976–1979) Peter Van Buskirk (1979–1988, 1996–1997) Bill Bellerose (1988–1994) Paul Pearl (1994–1996, 1997–2014) David Berard (2014–2021) Bill Riga (2021–Present)
Seasons	1966–67 1967–68 1968–69 1969–70 1970–71 1971–72 1972–73 1973–74 1974–75 1975–76 1976–77 1977–78 1978–79 1979–80 1980–81 1981–82 1982–83 1983–84 1984–85 1985–86 1986–87 1987–88 1988–89 1989–90 1990–91 1991–92 1992–93 1993–94 1994–95 1995–96 1996–97 1997–98 1998–99 1999–00 2000–01 2001–02 2002–03 2003–04 2004–05 2005–06 2006–07 2007–08 2008–09 2009–10 2010–11 2011–12 2012–13 2013–14 2014–15 2015–16 2016–17 2017–18 2018–19 2019–20 2020–21 2021–22 2022–23 2023–24 2024–25
Conference affiliations	ECAC 2 (1967–1984) ECAC East (1984–1998) MAAC (1998–2003) Atlantic Hockey (2003–present)
All-time leaders	Statistical leaders Joe Lunny (219 Points) Larry Murphy (119 Goals) Tony Quesada (61 Wins)
NCAA Tournament appearances	2004 2006
Conference Tournament titles	MAAC: 1999 Atlantic Hockey: 2004 2006
College of the Holy Cross Worcester, MA