Garrow and Gardner Join Princeton Staff

PRINCETON - Princeton men's hockey coach Bob Prier announced the hiring of Scott Garrow and Greg Gardner to his coaching staff. Garrow brings 17 years of college coaching experience to the Tigers, while Gardner has served as an assistant coach in the college ranks for five seasons.

"Scott will be a tremendous asset to our staff," says Prier. "He brings a wealth of coaching knowledge and recruiting contacts and experience to Princeton."

Garrow's coaching career has included two stops each at Western Michigan and Cornell. He started as a volunteer assistant at his alma mater Western Michigan and then spent four years at Cornell before returning to Western in 1999. Garrow spent four seasons in his second stint at Western before returning to Cornell, where he has served as an assistant coach for the past eight years.

In his last eight seasons at Cornell, Garrow has helped lead the Big Red to four NCAA tournament appearances, two ECAC championships and two Ivy League titles. Garrow worked primarily with Cornell's forwards and the team's power play unit. He also worked extensively with the breakdown of video and recruiting.

In his 17 years of collegiate coaching experience he has helped his teams to five league championships and six NCAA tournament appearances. That doesn't include Cornell's two NCAA appearances in 2002 and 2003 (Frozen Four), which included several players that Garrow recruited in his first run at Cornell.

A graduate of Western Michigan, Garrow was a four-year letter winner for the Broncos. As a player at WMU, he set a school record by playing in 161 consecutive games. During that span, Garrow compiled 41 goals and 61 assists for 102 points. He scored a career-high 15 goals in 1991-92 and at season's end, received the team's Catherine Lawson Sportsmanship Award. The centerman twice received honorable mention for the All-CCHA Academic Team (1991, 1992), graduating with a bachelor of science degree in history in 1992. He received a master's degree in sports studies from WMU in 2000.

"Greg has a tremendous coaching and recruiting track record," says Prier. "He will bring a ton of energy and goaltending expertise to our staff."

Gardner comes to Princeton off a five-year run as an assistant coach at his alma mater Niagara, where he played goal from 1996-2000. Gardner's responsibilities at Niagara included video analysis, scouting, recruiting, overseeing strength and conditioning and working closely with the Niagara Goalies. Gardner has helped lead Niagara to a regular season and tournament championship, as well as an NCAA tournament appearance in 2008.

"I want to thank Bob Prier for this incredible opportunity to work at Princeton University," said Gardener. "I was very impressed with everyone involved here. From the second I arrived on campus, I fell in love with both Princeton's proud academic and athletic traditions as well as its beautiful campus. It is an honor to be a member of the Tiger staff and I looking forward to coaching our student-athletes."

Following his collegiate career at Niagara, Gardner began a six-year professional career. He signed an NHL contract as a free agent with the Columbus Blue Jackets becoming the team's first-ever signee. He played in two exhibition games for the Blue Jackets, beating Nashville, 2-1, and losing to Buffalo, 2-1, and attended three NHL training camps with Columbia (2000 and 2001) and Buffalo (2003). Gardner's professional career included stops with the Syracuse Crunch (AHL), Rochester Americans (AHL), Dayton Bombers (ECHL) and Mississippi Sea Wolves (ECHL). Gardner went overseas for his final two seasons, playing in Germany for Bremerhaven of the German Bundesliga. In his two seasons in Bremerhaven he led the league in goals-against average and was also Named Bundesliga Goalie of the Year.

In his college career, Gardner graduated with 16 shutouts over 113 career games. That total included an NCAA-record 12 shutouts during the 1999-00 season and his total of 16 ranks fifth in the NCAA record books. He also led the NCAA that year with a 1.53 GAA, which still ranks ninth best in Division I history. Gardner was named the College Hockey America Goaltender of the Year, CHA Player of the Year and was named to the First All-Star Team in 2000. In the classroom, he was named to the 2000 CHA All-Academic Team and was honored as Niagara's Male Student-Athlete of the Year. Gardner was named to the 2000