Gary Astalos

ACHA Head Coach

The 2024-2025 season will mark Head Coach Gary Astalos' ninth year as the Head Coach of the Adrian College Bulldogs' American Collegiate Hockey Association (ACHA) Division 1 Men's Hockey program.

In his first eight years, Astalos has guided the team to THREE ACHA National Championships in 2018, 2021, and most recently in 2024 as part of five trips to the "frozen four", eight Great Lakes Collegiate Hockey League regular-season titles, the 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2023 GLCHL postseason crowns, a staggering 253-24-2 overall record, a 100-2 conference mark, and three different winning streaks of 20 games or more, while also earning six GLCHL Coach of the Year awards. During the 2020 season, the Bulldogs were also the #1 ranked team in the country for the last 17 weeks of the season, before the national tournament was canceled due to COVID-19.

During the 2017-18 season, Adrian went 34-1 overall, 15-0 in GLCHL play and ended with a 20-game winning streak (for second-longest in program history) that included a 7-0 playoff record while outscoring opponents 39-7 en route to the ACHA title. For his efforts, Astalos was named the ACHA Division 1 Coach of the Year while seeing Player of the Year seniors Austyn Roudebush (1st Team Goalie), Brad Kobryn (1st Team Forward) and sophomores Joe Costello (2nd Team Forward), JP Grineau (3rd Team Defenseman) land on the All-America Team while blue liner Jordan Oshowy was appointed to the ACHA All-Rookie Team.

In Astalos' first year, the 2017 Bulldogs finished first in the GLCHL standings with a 15-1 conference record, 33-3 overall, fourth in the ACHA Tournament and produced All-Americans Marcus Rose, Michael Barrett and Kobryn. Astalos earned his first conference coach of the year citation.

In addition to coaching at Adrian College, Astalos served as the head coach for Team USA who participated in the World Cup of University Hockey in April 2023 in Carta, Romania. The United States squad, which featured four Adrian College Bulldogs, were able to go 5-0 in the tournament; defeating Team Canada in the championship game to bring home the gold medal. In July 2024, Astalos received his second international coaching gig as he was named Head Coach of Team USA Men's Ice Hockey for the 2025 FISU World University Winter Games set to take place in Torino, Italy.

Astalos comes to Adrian after serving as the head coach and director of hockey operations for the 2015-16 Kingsville Kings, a South Division member of the Greater Metro Junior 'A' Hockey League in Ontario, Canada. He led the Kings to a 39-3 record and they won the division title by 10 points. He was also named the GMHL All-Star Game head coach and was a 2016 Russell Cup finalist.

Astalos received a Bachelor's degree in Business Administration with an emphasis in Management from Eastern Michigan University in 2012, where he was a team captain and most valuable player for his team. He earned All-GLCHL accolades and an invitation to the USA Hockey Evaluation Camp. He also represented EMU at the ACHA D1 All-Star Game. He played his junior hockey for the Missoula Maulers of the Northern Pacific Hockey League and the Kenai River Brown Bears out of the North American Hockey League. Astalos also earned his Master's degree in Sports Management from Adrian College in 2018.