Ron Kennedy

Ron Kennedy started his coaching career in 1988 with the Medicine Hat Tigers of the Western Hockey League (WHL). He was awarded the Dunc McCallum Memorial Trophy as the WHL's 'Coach of the Year' right in his first year as a head coach. In 1992 he took over Austrian club Villacher SV, where he worked for a total of six years (92-94, 98-02) and 329 games (226 wins). He lead the club to three Austrian championship titles (93, 99, 02) to become the most successful coach in the club's history.
From 1995 to 1998 and 2003 to 2007 Kennedy was head coach for several teams from the German DEL. During his time in Berlin and Villach, Kennedy was also head coach of the Austrian national team from 1996 to 2002. He took over after the relegation from the top pool and brought the team back to the elite nations one year later. During his era, the Austrian national team stayed in the top pool World Championship for five consecutive years and participated in two Olympics.
After returning to Austria and HC Innsbruck he stepped down as the club's head coach due to his bad health on December 29th, 2008. Ron Kennedy passed away on July 9th, 2009 after losing his battle against cancer.
(by Hannes Biedermann)