HYANNIS – It was confirmed Tuesday night that Barnstable High School has hired one of its own to take the boys’ ice hockey team reins.
Tim Grace, a Marstons Mills native who graduated from Barnstable High in 2003 and was one of the Red Raider hockey captains in 2002-2003, was hired to take the position. Grace was a
Tim Grace
BHS Class of 2003
Head Coach
Barnstable High School
Boys Ice Hockey
Photo courtesy of Tim Grace
Barnstable junior varsity assistant when his predecessor, Barnstable High School Athletic Hall of Famer Scott Nickerson, first took the job as head coach in 2006-2007. Nickerson was on board two years when Grace took on the jayvee assistant’s role in 2008 and he spent three years working with former jayvee coach Paul Sherbertes.
Grace played hockey for Curry College (2004-08) and graduated in the spring of 2008 with a bachelor degree. After his three-year stint as a junior varsity ice hockey assistant for the Red Raiders, he took on the head coaching job for the U14 New England Junior Hurricanes.
“Tim’s a good guy, it’ll (Barnstable High hockey) carry on,” Nickerson said Tuesday night. “Tim will do a good job. He came on board when I first took over.”
Nickerson’s departure came as somewhat of a shock to the Cape Cod hockey community as he has been an integral part of it for over 20 years and is deemed one of the all-time greatest hockey players, and athletes, in Barnstable history.
Nickerson was also one of the school’s greatest all-time coaches as well, leading the Red & White icemen to seven Old Colony League championship titles. Grace said he knows he has big shoes to fill but he was excited about the hiring and looking forward to jumping back onto the Red Raider ice.
“I found out this morning and it’s been a whirlwind of phone calls all day,” Grace said. ”Scotty was a great coach, but I’m looking forward to the task.”
Grace spent five years as head coach with the Hurricanes, a junior hockey program that takes players from all over the Cape and slightly beyond. He also owns his own landscape company based out of Centerville and he said that the ice hockey head coaching job is a perfect fit for him.
“My business basically shuts down for the winter so this is perfect for my schedule,” Grace said. “I’m really looking forward to it.”
A two-sport captain at Barnstable High, Grace was a two-time Old Colony League all-star and twice named to the Cape Cod Times All-Cape & Islands first team boys’ ice hockey team. He was also the recipient his senior year of the Barnstable High School Red Raider Award for the winter of 2002-03, reserved for the season’s top male student-athlete. He was also the recipient of the BHS Ice Hockey High Scorer Award in both his junior and senior years.
He captained the 2003 Barnstable High boys’ lacrosse team and was a three-time letterman in both sports.
Grace was one of eight applicants for the position. He will be the 8th man to coach Red Raider hockey since the program’s inception in 1958. Nickerson was 115-63-19 in nine seasons as head coach.
— Sean Walsh is the sports editor for www.capecod.com. His email is [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @coachwalshccbm
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