Richard Reuben
Mite Head Coach
Richard Reuben is the parent of two Eagles: Patrick (squirts) and Danny (mites), and a law professor at the University of Missouri School of Law. He was born in St. Louis, but moved to Atlanta when he was 10, where he stayed until his late 20s. He earned his law degree from Georgia State University, and later his masters and doctorate from Stanford Law School. He and his wife, Robin, met in Atlanta and lived for many years in Los Angeles and Boston before moving to Columbia in 2000. Reuben has been a hockey fan for much of his life, first following the Calgary Flames back when they were the Atlanta Flames, and then following the Los Angeles Kings since the early '90s. (Given the Kings' record during this time, he doesn't really know why, other than force of habit.) In working with kids, he emphasizes teamwork, good sportsmanship, learning the game, and the commitment to doing your best.
Mites Assistant Coach
Ken has been a volunteer coach of Jefferson City hockey teams since
1994. He is a graduate of Mercy
Catholic High School in St. Louis and Florissant Valley Community College. After playing youth hockey in University City, he was a standout for
Mercy High for four years. In
recent years, he has also continued playing in senior men’s leagues.
John Brueck
Mites Assistant Coach
John is beginning his first season as a volunteer assistant coach for the Central Missouri Eagles Mites Team. John is new to the Columbia area having moved along with his family in January 2007 from Ft. Lauderdale Florida. John' has two children, Adisen (6) and Riley (4) both of whom play on the Mites squad, and have been involved in hockey since they were each 2 years old. John is a graduate of Nova Southeastern University, and is the General Manager of FairCom Corporation, a high speed database management company based in Columbia. John's wife Haley teaches TV Broadcast Production at Columbia's two High Schools after teaching TV Production for 10+ years in Coral Springs Florida (suburb of Ft. Lauderdale) and concluding a TV career in writing, producing and directing nationally syndicated programming.
Born in Chicago, John began skating at 3 and playing ice hockey at 4 years old. John has been involved with various levels of ice hockey for 38 years, having coached at the mite, squirt, midget and bantam levels, refereed at the same levels, and played hockey for Team Illinois, Junior A hockey in Canada, and gained international hockey experience playing for the USA Select Team in 1982 and 1983 culminating with being the second to last cut from the SE Region try-outs for the 84 Olympic Team that was headed for Sarajevo. John is proud to have played 60+ games on a line with 1984 USA Olympic Teammates and NHL standouts Pat Lafontaine (Buffalo Sabres, New York Islanders and others) and Ed Olczyk (Chicago Blackhawks, Toronto Maple Leafs and others). While living in Florida, John founded the first organized hockey league and worked to gain sponsors and grow the player base which grew from 2 teams and 1 rink to over 80 teams and 5 rinks in 2005.
John co-founded a 501(c)3 Not-For-Profit Corporation in 1992 named "Hockey for the Homeless". The charity, originally formed to assist the families devastated by Hurricane Andrew in 1992, utilized NHL arenas to host hockey tournaments for adults and children of all age brackets, with proceeds from gate attendance, player fees and corporate sponsorships being issued to local homeless charities in the NHL participant city. Hockey for the Homeless enlisted the Celebrity All-Star Hockey Team from Los Angeles California for ticketed games. Like other prior events, John oversaw and handled all logistics and sponsorships for the event in 1994 during the NHL Lock-out season. This game was a showcase event held at LA's Great Western Forum, in which TicketMaster handled all ticket sales, a contract for satellite TV was signed for the event, and major sponsors signed and brought on board such as Sheraton Hotels, Marriott Hotels, American and United Airlines, Nike, Gatorade, CellularOne Group, AT&T, and Price Waterhouse just to name a few, with all proceeds being given to local charities. John was instrumental in negotiating and gaining the approval from the NHL and the NHL's Anaheim Mighty Ducks and Los Angeles Kings to allow their training and coaching staffs to participate in the tournament as they would in "game-day" and "game-time" situations. This added to the "reality" factor, and offered the players, both kids and adults alike the opportunity of a life time.
John enjoys traveling internationally, collecting a large collection of NHL Game used memorabilia, collecting World War 2 memorabilia and offering tours of the Normandy and Bastogne Battlefields, and spending as much time as possible playing with his sons. To John, the essence of coaching is all about fun, learning, teamwork, and fairness. He believes in being a role model, and letting the kids be kids.
Christos Cossyphas
Mites Assistant Coach
Christos lives and works in Columbia, Missouri and this is his second year as a volunteer coach for the Eagle Mites. He earned both his undergraduate degree and his MBA in Finance from the University of Missouri in Columbia, and is currently working on a doctoral degree also from MU. For the last 11 years he has served as the President of Tigers Credit Union and for the last seven he has lectured in the evening program at Columbia College as an adjunct faculty member teaching their finance classes.
Though born in Chicago, he moved with this parents to Greece when he was three (one of only two countries in Europe that don't have an ice rink) and did not return stateside until after high school. He was inspired by the Eagles and his son Andre (an Eagle Mite for three years) to pick up skating and learn the sport of hockey.
On his free time Christos and his family enjoy traveling, riding their bikes on the trail, and playing sports. You can also find Christos drinking coffee and reading a book at Lakota coffee shop!
Doug Abrams
Squirt Coach
Doug, a law professor at the University of Missouri, has coached youth hockey at all levels from mites to high school for 40 years.
After playing youth hockey in New York, Doug was a goaltender at Wesleyan University in Connecticut. In 1973, he set an Eastern College Athletic Conference record for most saves in a game (64), and he became the first Wesleyan hockey player ever named to the weekly ECAC All-East Team. He also graduated first in his class, was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, and won the Scholar-Athlete Award. He then earned his law degree in 1976 from Columbia University Law School in New York City.
Doug began coaching youth hockey in 1968-69, his senior year in high school. In 1989, his Long Island midget team won the USA Hockey Tier II National Championship by defeating the Michigan state champions in sudden-death overtime in the finals. Doug’s midget team also won the New York State Championship that year and in 1982-83.
For 20 years, Doug was the head goaltending coach at a leading New England summer hockey camp, where he coached more than 2500 goalies. He has also conducted pre-season weekend goalie clinics for youth hockey programs throughout the Northeast.
Doug and his coaching philosophies are prominently featured in Just Let the Kids Play, a book written by former Boston Celtics basketball player Bob Bigelow. Doug serves on the Expert Panel of the Center For Sports Parenting, which is administered by the Institute For International Sport at the University of Rhode Island. Together with several major league baseball players and leading educators, he also serves on the board of advocates of The Center For Kids First In Sports, an Maine-based group stressing sportsmanship and wholesome competition. He also serves on the board of directors of the Kindness Counts Foundation.
Doug teaches family law, juvenile law constitutional law, and American legal history. He has written or co-authored five books, including Children and the Law, which is required reading in nearly 70 law schools throughout the nation. His articles appear regularly on the editorial pages of major newspapers from coast to coast, and he is a frequent guest on radio and television talk shows, including ESPN’s Sports Center.
As a member of the Missouri Bar Commission on Children and the Law, Doug wrote fifteen bills to improve the lives of Missouri’s children, including comprehensive legislation to assure the health and safety of abandoned newborn infants. The Governor signed all fifteen bills into law.
In 1994, Doug received the Meritorious Service to the Children of America Award, presented by the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges. Two years ago, the Missouri Bar Foundation presented him with its Spurgeon Smithson Award for outstanding contributions to the cause of justice. At the University of Missouri Law School, he has received the Professor-of-the-Year Award (voted by the students), the Administration of Justice Award, and the Distinguished Faculty Achievement Award. In 1998, he received the Citation of Merit from the Missouri Park and Recreation Association to recognize his three decades as a youth hockey coach.
Jay Luebbert
Assistant
Squirt Coach
Jay is a native of Jefferson City and a graduate of Helias High School. He works full-time for the Missouri Army National Guard as a Program Analyst for the State Army Aviation Office. Jay and his wife, Cathy live in Jefferson City and have two children: Austin (age 8) and Chandler (age 6). Jay is an avid water skier and sports fanatic. The Luebbert family enjoys sports of all kinds and just spending time together as a family.
Fitz Fitzgerald
An instructor at Linn State Technical College, Fitz recently received
the Governor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching, awarded annually to a select
group of Missouri’s leading college and university faculty.
Three years ago, Fitz received a Golden
Whistle commendation from Stanford University’s Positive Coaching Alliance,
after being nominated by his high school players and their parents. Several parents wrote nomination letters praising Fitz, who had coached
their sons for the past three years.
Craig
McGonagle
Pee Wees Assistant Coach
Craig began coaching hockey in his late teens and has
coached on levels from learn-to-play to junior college. In recent years, he has
been active in his son Keegan's introduction to the sport and has helped Keegan
and his teammates move from learn-to-play to the squirt level.
Craig has also helped in other youth-related activities such as baseball, soccer and scouting. Craig and his wife Deb have been married for nearly twenty years, and they are actively involved in the children's ministry of their church, Christian Fellowship in Columbia. They have two children, Ruth (age 12) and Keegan (age 9).
Born and raised in St. Louis, Craig and family moved to
Columbia 1-= years ago. He holds an undergraduate degree from Mizzou, and he has
spent nearly twenty-five years in the banking industry. He currently is Senior
Commercial Lender for Union Planters Bank in Columbia.
Craig was introduced to hockey by his father, who had grown up in the Boston area. Craig attended his first professional hockey game at approximately age 6 watching the St. Louis Braves, a Chicago Black Hawks farm club. Craig began skating at age 11 when the expansion St. Louis Blues came to town and rinks began sprouting up in the area. He spent many hours at public skating sessions at the Kirkwood Rink, and he played for the Kirkwood Stars. In high school, Craig played center for Chaminade College Prep, an original team of the Mid-States High School League. While attending Mizzou, Craig played three years for the university's club hockey team. In his senior year, Mizzou won the ICHL regular-season championship After graduation, Craig continued to play hockey for many years in various St. Louis senior men's leagues.
Dewey Crepeau
Bantam Head Coach
Dewey grew up in St. Peters, Mo. and was in 6th grade when the Blues came to St. Louis. At that time, St. Peters was a very small town and the only ice available in the area was on ponds. (The winters were much colder back in those days.) Dewey learned to skate on his own and began organizing his classmates to play ice hockey as well as street hockey.
Dewey met his wife, Susan, while in college in Columbia. Some of their dates involved going to his men’s league hockey games at the old Ice Chalet rink in Columbia and going to Mizzou ice hockey club games until graduation from the MU School of Law in 1980.
In 1982 Dewey opened his law practice in Columbia and continued to play hockey when men’s league games began in Jefferson City. Shortly after the birth of his son, Luke, in 1993 he had to quit playing men’s hockey because the late hours the games were scheduled got to be too much. However, a chance meeting with an Eagles hockey parent resulted in his son Luke attending Eagles practices in 2005 and Dewey was asked to be the assistant coach for the 2005-2006 Pee-Wee team. This was Dewey’s first time coaching and he enjoyed it immensely along with the opportunity to get involved in hockey again.
