Providence announced Tuesday the hiring of Joel Beal as an assistant coach and Bruce Irving as a volunteer assistant coach.
“We are adding the brightest young coaches in our game to our staff,” Friars coach Nate Leaman said in a statement. “Joel was a high-level player and is an excellent communicator. He will do a terrific job of developing our student-athletes. Bruce is very passionate and has a vast knowledge of the technical aspects of goaltending with a vision of overall development to assist each goaltender in becoming the best version of themselves.”
Beal spent the 2018-19 season at Miami where he was involved with the RedHawks’ recruiting efforts and on-ice development. Prior to Miami, he spent five seasons, two as an associate head coach, with Sacred Heart.
He returned to his alma mater, Union, for two seasons from 2011 to 2013 as an assistant coach.
A four-year letterman for the Dutchmen from 2001 to 2005, Beal served as an alternate captain his final two seasons under Leaman, where he amassed 27 goals and 74 assists in 135 career games.
Irving spent the last three seasons as an assistant coach at St. John’s Prep (Danvers, Mass.) following a 12-year stint as a volunteer assistant coach at Harvard where he worked with the Crimson’s goaltenders. He also currently serves as an instructor with Stop It Goaltending in Woburn, Mass., and also was an assistant/goaltending coach with the EHL’s Valley Junior Warriors.
During his playing days, Irving was a goaltender for Cornell, graduating in 1985.
