May 19, 2016
By Dan Colleran
NOTRE DAME, Ind. – Former Notre Dame hockey players John Wroblewski and Josh Sciba assumed new head coaching roles over the last week. Wroblewski was named the National Team Development Program head coach, while Sciba was selected as Union College’s new women’s head coach.
Wroblewski, a 2003 University of Notre Dame graduate, will serve as the head coach of the U.S. National Under-18 Team at the NTDP in 2016-17. He is the 10th head coach at the NTDP, whose first head coach was current Irish Head Coach Jeff Jackson (1997-2000).
Wroblewski was the head coach of Youngstown (USHL) in 2015-16 and he led the Phantoms to a 31-20-9 record. At Youngstown, he coached 2016 USHL Rookie of the Year and incoming Notre Dame freshman forward Cameron Morrison.
Prior to Youngstown, Wroblewski was an assistant coach for two seasons with the Rochester Americans (AHL). Before Rochester, he spent three seasons in the East Coast Hockey League (ECHL) as an assistant coach with Wheeling for one season and then as a head coach with Gwinnett for two seasons. He was named the ECHL’s 2011-12 Co-Coach of the Year.
Wroblewski played at the NTDP in its first two seasons on the ice (1997-99) under Jackson and served as an assistant coach for the NTDP from 2007-2010 before heading to the ECHL.
While at Notre Dame (1999-2003), Wroblewski played in 144 games, scored 29 goals and added 35 assists for 64 points. A four-year monogram winner, he also served as an alternate captain during his senior season.
Sciba, a 2007 University of Notre Dame graduate, was named Head Women’s Hockey Coach at Union College on May 13. Prior to becoming Union’s fourth head coach, Sciba served as an assistant coach at Colgate from 2012-2016. At Colgate, Sciba helped lead the Raiders to a program record 22 wins this past season.
Before Colgate, Sciba served as the head coach at Niagara for one season after spending two years as an assistant with the Purple Eagles.
While at Notre Dame (2003-07), Sciba totaled 38 goals and 34 assists for 72 points in 141 games. He was part of the 2007 CCHA championship team that also advanced to the NCAA Midwest Region Final.
Sciba went on to play in the ECHL during the 2007-08 season. In 31 games with Bakersfield, Las Vegas and Dayton he scored nine goals and added an assist.
— ND —
Dan Colleran, associate athletics communications director at the University of Notre Dame, has been a part of Fighting Irish Media since August 2015 and coordinates all media and publicity efforts surrounding the Notre Dame hockey and men’s golf programs. A native of Walpole, Massachusetts, Colleran spent the previous three years working with the men’s hockey and soccer programs at Providence College. Colleran also spent two years as an Assistant Executive Director of Communications & Championships at the Ivy League and is a graduate of Providence College (’06 & ’08G).