Cornell's Mike Schafer Announces Retirement After Upcoming Season (2024)

June 13, 2024 PRINT

Clarkson's Casey Jones Returning to Alma Mater as 'Coach in Waiting'

by Mike McMahon/Staff Writer (@MikeMcMahonCHN)

Clarkson head coach Casey Jones is headed back to Cornell where he will serve as associate head coach, and the head coach in waiting behind Mike Schafer.

Schafer will retire at the end of the 2024-25 season and Jones will take over the program in 2025-26.

"We share so many values," Schafer said of Jones, in discussing the succession plan. "He knows that Cornell is built on playing a team game with no egos. He knows we have to develop talent here. He's going to bring his own ideas and things that made him successful at Clarkson."

Schafer is a Cornell alum and a two-year captain. He has been the head coach of the program since 1995. Under Schafer, Cornell has reached the NCAA Tournament 14 times and would have made the tournament in 2020 as one of the top seeds if not for the COVID-19 pandemic. Cornell made the Frozen Four in 2003 and has been one win shy of the Frozen Four nine other times, including each of the past two seasons.

Schafer's teams have won six ECAC regular-season championships and six ECAC Tournament championships, including this past season, when the Big Red fell one game short of the Frozen Four for the second straight season.

"I'm grateful our administration and (athletic director) Nicki (Moore) on leading the charge on this, beacuse first and foremost it's about our student athletes," Schafer said. "It's about the guys who are preapred to have a great year next year. We have a lot of guys back, that doesn't guarantee success, but we have a lot of great returners, and I didn't want to end it by just retiring this year. But at the same time, next year I knew the transition was going to be difficult for me personally. So Nikki came up with this idea and it totally made sense. And Casey already knows a lot of the stuff we're doing, it will be great for him to develop those relationshipswith our athletes and keep the continuity going with our recruiting. There's so many factors that go into it that make the transition seamless."

Jones was a four-year forward for the Big Red (1986-00) and served as Cornell’s captain in 1990. He began his coaching career as an assistant with Cornell in 1991 and was the associate head coach for the Big Red from 2008-11 before he was hired as Clarkson’s head coach.

Jones has had significant success at Clarkson, going 234-185-56. He inherited a team in 2011 that had three straight losing seasons. Jones only has four losing seasons in 14 years, and only one since 2013 (2022-23, and the Golden Knights went 16-17-4).

“This is a really exciting moment for myself and my family — returning to my alma mater, the place I met my wife, and where I spent the best four years of my life,” Jones said. “Mike is a great friend and someone I have unlimited respect for, and I’m excited to celebrate what he has helped build before accepting the challenge of leading Big Red hockey into the future.”

Clarkson qualified for the NCAA Tournament under Jones in 2018 and 2019, and the Knights were primed to make the tournament in 2020 before it was canceled due to COVID-19. Clarkson was 23-8-3 that season when the pandemic wiped out the remaining games on the schedule. Clarkson had a chance for the NCAAs again in 2021, but positive COVID tests made them ineligible just before the ECAC Tournament. The Golden Knights won the ECAC Tournament in 2019 under Jones.

“This creative succession solution allows us to seamlessly compete to win in the present and plan for the future with our current and future student-athletes top of mind," Moore said."To have a coach of Casey’s caliber be supportive of this approach, and to have a person with his character and deep ties to Cornell be fully enthusiastic about the unique opportunity our plan offers is extraordinary. I am so excited for Mike, for Casey and for our student-athletes and staff.”

Clarkson becomes the second opening this week. Grant Potulny resigned from Northern Michigan earlier this week and will reportedly become the next head coach of the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins (AHL).