January 20, 2009
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Barnett Steps Down as Mercyhurst AD
CHN Staff Report
Mercyhurst athletic director Craig Barnett, the former head hockey coach at Findlay, has resigned citing personal reasons. He did not elaborate.
Barnett played pro hockey in Erie as a goalie in the East Coast Hockey League in 1989. He then went to Mercyhurst as an assistant coach to Rick Gotkin and was the Mercyhurst Ice Center director from 1991-93.
Barnett later was a coach at Kent State, then at Findlay, where both programs were later discontinued. He returned to Mercyhurst in 2006 as associate AD, before taking over for Pete Russo.
Barnett is also commissioner of Women's College Hockey America, of which Mercyhurst is a member.
The news came as a surprise to Gotkin, he said.
"We just heard about it this afternoon, and it was for personal reasons, so I hope everything is OK with Craig,'' Gotkin told the Erie News. "He was doing an outstanding job as an administrator, in my opinion, and the college has kept moving forward in athletics. He's always been a positive person and a good man to work with, and he will be missed.''
