The Youngstown Phantoms take great pride in announcing that Head Coach Curtis Carr has accepted an assistant coaching position with the Warriors of Merrimack College. Merrimack competes in Hockey East with the likes of Boston College, Boston University and the University of Maine.

The Phantoms and the BJ Alan Corporation continue to pride themselves on both the development of their players and their coaching professionals that have called Youngstown home. For the Phantoms, this summer has been one for the memories as Scott Mayfield was drafted into the National Hockey League, the organization’s first ever NHL selection, 34^th over by the New York Islanders, seven players attended NHL rookie developmental camps and now the organization will proudly watch as Curtis Carr becomes the first Phantoms coach to coach NCAA Division-I hockey.

“The promotion of our head coach continues to validate the program that we continue to build here in Youngstown,” said BJ Alan President and CEO Bruce J. Zoldan. “Curtis is a solid character coach and he exemplifies what we and the other members of our organization look for in both our players and coaches. We have been proud to have a person like Curtis acting as a role model for the players that we continue to develop in our system.”

Carr was named the head coach and general manager of the Phantoms on April 2, 2010 after spending the previous four seasons as an assistant coach within the organization. As a coach in the Phantoms system, Carr assembled a coaching record of 170-100-20 after 290 games behind the bench. Carr and the Phantoms also found post season success as they made three National Championship appearances in the North American Hockey League (2006, 2007 and 2008). Carr also found success on the college recruiting trail as 90 players under his guidance have gone on to play collegiate hockey.

“My time here in Youngstown has been outstanding,” said Carr. “I am very grateful to have worked for the Zoldan family and the entire Phantoms organization. I also want to thank Bob Mainhardt for giving me the opportunity to work as an assistant coach underneath him in both the North American Hockey League and the United States Hockey League. I was very fortunate to move into the USHL and receive the promotion to head coach in such a prominent league. For me and my family we felt like this was the right time to move on and pursue my goal of coaching Division-I hockey.”

The Phantoms now former head coach will be headed to a Merrimack program that saw great success during the 2010-11 season. Not only did the Warriors finish the season ranked tenth in the nation, they put together a 25 win season, a new Division-I school record, reached the final game of the Hockey East postseason tournament for the first time in school history and Merrimack clinched a berth in the NCAA tournament for the first time since 1998. Ranking second in Hockey East in goals, goals against and power play, Merrimack defeated every Hockey East team for the second straight season and second time ever and was ranked nationally for the final seventeen weeks of the season, reaching #4 nationally in February. The Warriors finished the season ranked tenth by both United States College Hockey Online and USA Today. Adding to the success the Warriors have seen on the ice, this past season, ten Merrimack players were named to the Hockey East All-Academic team, while the program as a whole was named a finalist for the top GPA among all Merrimack male programs.

“I am very thankful and I am extremely excited to have the opportunity to join the Merrimack program,” said Carr. ”Coach [Mark] Dennehy has done a great job over the past seven seasons and Glen Stewart has done a phenomenal job scouting the right players for their program. I am looking forward to learning from both of them as I further my coaching career.”