Penn State Men’s Hockey: Longtime Director of Ops Moving on to Next Chapter

You might not know the name, but you’ve certainly felt his impact if you’ve been to enough Penn State men’s hockey games.

Alex Dawes, the now former director of hockey operations for the men’s program, is leaving Penn State after five seasons. The move – which will see Dawes relocated to Rochester, New York – is happening for personal reasons, and far later in his time at Penn State than he ever expected.

“I didn’t [expect to be with the program for so long]” Dawes said with a laugh, starting out at Penn State with the women’s program in 2013.

“When I when I took the job with the women’s team, I was like – three years and done, on to something else – and then looking back at that, man that just couldn’t have been more wrong. This place is awesome. The people are awesome. The rink is awesome. The staff is awesome – it’s just a place you want to be. […] everybody’s got the same passions, it’s just the place to make sure you stick around.”

For Dawes the move will be bittersweet, but not without knowing he made an impact along the way. Among his many other duties, Dawes was tasked with signaling to the bench during a game if a goal should be challenged. That means quick decisions about whether or not Penn State’s opponent entered the zone offsides, if there were too many men on the ice or if the goalie was interfered with, among other things.

So yes, he might have been stuck in a coaches box mostly by himself, but Dawes managed – with regular success – to impact the game in Penn State’s favor.

“So challenges are basically just me,” Dawes said. “It’s just me telling the bench yes or no. Anytime we scored a goal or they scored a goal you’d always see whichever assistant has the earpiece on wait and we actually taught our team – they wait for me to clear the goal before we go line up. That’s why sometimes you see Guy [Gadowsky] holding the team at the bench before they go because we’re waiting and we’re looking at something to make sure we don’t challenge.”

“I remember one game against Minnesota a few years ago when we had two challenges in the same game that we won. So it was a good way to kind of impact the game as a guy just kind of sitting up in the stands, sitting up in the coach’s booth.”

Outside of that Dawes managed all internal and external video efforts, coordinated travel plans and helped opposing team with their own video efforts and other pre and postgame needs.

Even though Dawes might be leaving town, he won’t be leaving sports, in fact if you look closely enough you might just so happen to him on your TV next year.

“I’m going to be the manager of on site operations for the PGA Championship in Rochester,” Dawes said. “The PGA Championship will be at Oak Hill in Rochester. So I’m going to be the on site operations guy for that championship, which is pretty exciting.”

And a lot warmer than hockey.

In the long term Dawes is hopeful to turn into an athletic director one day, a big dream, but one that can come with more experiences down the road. Of course if that day comes, you can bet it’ll involve a hockey program somewhere nearby.

“It’s a little bittersweet to leave the sport,” Dawes said in closing. “The sport has given me so much and gotten me so far but I’ve always had kind of bigger goals. […] I’ve always wanted to be an athletic director, and that’s kind of the route I want to go. Hockey has been a huge part [of that] and I would say there’s no such thing as a dream job as an AD that doesn’t involve having a hockey team to be a part of.”