Player to coach, teammate to teacher

(Photo courtesy of UAA Athletics)
Listen to a more in-depth interview with Matt Shasby on the Seawolf Voices podcast to hear him talk about his career in hockey, his passion for teaching, his vision for the Seawolf team and more. Available on Spotify, Audible and YouTube.

One year ago, hockey at UAA was in a much more precarious place. One of three athletic programs slated for discontinuation due to drastic cuts to the University of Alaska System’s state-funded budget, Seawolf hockey elicited support from Alaska to Washington, meeting its fundraising goal of $3 million to be reinstated in time for the 2022-23 season.

Back on track, the UAA hockey team has a brand new head coach, one who may be familiar to followers of the Green and Gold: former Seawolf hockey player Matt Shasby, B.A. History ’08.

“The talk around town was who’s crazy enough to take the job, but I couldn’t think of a more exciting opportunity than to provide an environment where our student-athletes can succeed,” said Shasby. “It’s about representing our university in a way that makes the town proud. That isn’t always wins and losses, but connecting businesses, connecting families and making our community feel a part of something.”

Shasby played 127 games as a Seawolf from 1999 to 2003. During that time, he was an All-Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA) Defenseman and named to the All-WCHA Academic Team three times. After graduating, Shasby played professional hockey, appearing in 375 games, primarily with the Alaska Aces of the East Coast Hockey League.

Off the ice, Shasby serves as vice president of player development for the State of Alaska and volunteers with USA Hockey to run summer camps every year. The move to coach university players is a natural progression from his years coaching youth hockey at every age for the Anchorage Hockey Association.

Shasby knows how to coach hockey players at any age because he’s played hockey at every age. Born and raised in Eagle River, he describes his younger self as the type to come home from school and immediately lace up to play street hockey until bedtime. All of this to say that Shasby is tailor-made for the job of UAA’s seventh head hockey coach.

“To come to the rink and see my name on the wall every day is the greatest privilege,” said Shasby. “Putting on the Seawolf jersey I watched my whole life and being a student here was surreal, and now being in charge of the program and welcoming new Seawolves to this campus — I understand what this experience can do for a young man and watching players develop academically as well as on the ice is extremely exciting.”

Before starting the job toward the end of fall 2021, Shasby taught seventh and eighth grade social studies at Northern Lights ABC, another one of his passions stemming from his childhood dream to play and coach hockey.

Coming full circle, Shasby plans to take an approach of individualized development in his coaching, which is something he picked up from teaching. Thanks to the amount of time afforded to him by four years at university, Shasby can develop each player’s unique skills, address their unique needs and build the best team possible.