OHL Notes: IceDogs hire new assistant coach

***NEWS RELEASE***

ST. CATHARINES—The Niagara IceDogs are pleased to announce the appointment of Mike McCourt as the new assistant coach of the Ontario Hockey League team.

McCourt, who served as an assistant coach last season with Robert Morris University in Pittsburgh, has agreed to a three-year contract and will join the IceDogs on Aug. 1.

“We’re excited about Mike joining us,” said Dave Brown, general manager of the IceDogs. “He fits in well with the direction our organization is looking to take.”

"It was just one of those things, an opportunity came up and they made a very attractive offer to us," McCourt said from his home in Pittsburgh. "I'm looking forward to the challenge. There's a lot of buzz in the city. They had some top picks taken in the NHL draft and some others projected for next year. To work with that calibre of kids is exciting. For a coach, it's an opportunity you relish and can only dream of."

McCourt has connections with the IceDogs through his one-time ownership of the Brockville Braves of the Central Junior A Hockey League. He has close ties with Brockville native Scott Halpenny, who now is the director of scouting for the IceDogs.

McCourt played with the Braves and then spent four years at St. Lawrence University on a hockey scholarship. He also played and coached in the minor leagues in Europe and the United States before taking a coaching job with Clarkson University. He bought the Braves in 2002 but then sold the team to take the job last season at Robert Morris.

McCourt, his wife Julie and son Riley are currently looking for a house in the St. Catharines area and hope to move in before their young son begins the school year.