Dan Fontas (middle) celebrates with Cushing senior Eric Lund after winning the Elite 8 in March. (Brian Kelly/NEHJ)
Well, that didn’t take long.
Shortly after Ryan Bourque left being Cushing’s boys hockey head coach to become an assistant for the AHL’s Providence Bruins, the Penguins opted to promote assistant Dan Fontas to bench boss.
Fontas has been at Cushing as a coach since 2021. From 2021-24, he was the head coach of the Varsity B team, which Cushing uses as a feeder to the big club. He jumped onto the bench as an assistant with the main varsity team this past season.
From 2012-19, he spent time as general manager and head coach of the New England Stars. He was the head coach for Acton-Boxboro High School in the MIAA from 2003-08.
This tenure of coaching the Penguins isn’t Fontas’ first time at Cushing.