Sport(s) Ice hockey Name Don Vaughan 1980–1981 Canton Role Ice hockey | 1981–1984 St. Lawrence Positions Centerman 1984–1985 Enschede Lions Titles Head coach | |
1984–1985 Enschede Lions (player-coach) 1985–1987 St. Lawrence (graduate assistant) Team Colgate Raiders men's ice hockey | ||
Don Vaughan is a Canadian ice hockey coach and former player. Vaughan has been the head coach at Colgate since 1992–93 and is the programs leader in both wins and tenure.
Career
Vaughan began his college career at Canton College, playing for the hockey team for one season before transferring to the cross-town St. Lawrence University, a private university. More importantly Vaughan was now playing for a Division I program. Under Mike McShane Vaughan put up respectable numbers in his three seasons as the Saints posted winning records each year and made the 1983 NCAA Tournament, falling to eventual champion Wisconsin in the quarterfinals.
After graduating with a degree in economics Vaughan headed to Europe to serve as the player-coach for the Enschede Lions, an ice hockey club in the Netherlands. One year later he was back in Canton working on a master's degree at his alma mater and working as a graduate assistant for the hockey team, now in the hands of Joe Marsh. Vaughan received a post-graduate degree in 1987 and left St. Lawrence a year later, after the Saints had finished as runners-up in the 1988 Tournament, to accept an assistant coaching position at Cornell. The Big Red played well during his time there, producing winning marks each year, but Vaughan found himself back at St. Lawrence for a third tour of duty in 1990.
In 1991 long-time Colgate coach Terry Slater died suddenly and, after the season was finished under Brian Durocher, Vaughan was picked to replace him. The initial seasons were a bit lacking but Vaughan built the program back to its winning ways soon enough, giving the Colgate faithful a 20-win season in 1994–95 which started them on to six consecutive winning seasons culminating with their first NCAA tournament berth in a decade. The season finished with Vaughan being awarded the 2000 ECAC Hockey Coach of the Year Award.
In 2003 Vaughan agreed to serve out the season as Colgate's interim athletic director, allowing long-time assistant Stan Moore to assume control of the team for the year. The Raiders performed exceptionally in his absence, winning a regular season title and earning Moore his own Coach of the Year Award. Not to be outdone, when Vaughen returned the following season he pushed Colgate to a 25-win season (the second-highest total in school history), earning him a second tournament berth which he followed up by winning his first regular season title.
After that the team began to flounder, failing to produce a winning season until 2011–12, but it wasn't all bad news for Vaughan as Colgate established an endowed hockey chair named in his honor. The Raiders rebounded to earn their third tournament berth during his tenure (in 2014), earning him a second league Coach of the Year Award.