DAYTON, Ohio – After losing their first choice for the job to the ECHL last week, the Dayton Gems believe they have found the man who will lead the team to both on and off-ice success this season.

The team announced yesterday that they have hired Brian Gratz as their new Head Coach and General Manager for the 2010-12 seasons. Terms of the deal were not disclosed due to league and team mandates.

Brian Gratz/Photo Credit: Dayton Gems

“An extensive thought process went through our selection. We are very serious about stabilizing Professional Hockey here in Dayton,” Gems President Rob Garfield said. “Our head coach selection will prove to be a substantial building block in reaching our goals in the community and putting a solid and entertaining product on the ice.”

Gratz, who turns 29 on Friday, is a former goalie who played hockey at Penn State, winning four American College Hockey Association titles. Over the course of the next three seasons, he had brief stints with five minor league teams before calling it a career.

Gratz spent a season as the Volunteer Assistant Coach for the Reading Royals (ECHL). The following year, he began coaching in the Class A Mid-Atlantic Hockey League with the Indiana Ice Miners. The team went 31-1-0 with a 26-game winning streak when the league folded in 2008.

The following season, he coached the New Jersey Rockhoppers of the Class A Eastern Professional Hockey League to a 32-16-2 regular-season record. The team earned a playoff berth by winning the next-to-last game of the regular season, and then beat the first-place Brooklyn Aces in three games to win the league playoff title.

After the EPHL folded last summer, Gratz returned to Penn State where he was an assistant coach and the goaltenders coach.

Gratz will have a tremendous challenge ahead of him. The Gems were an International Hockey League-worst 25-46-5 last year, drawing a league-low 1,280 fans per game. But it’s a challenge he feels he can handle.

“Obviously the Central Hockey League is a great opportunity and Dayton is a great hockey market,” Gratz said. “The owners and I are committed to fielding a successful team. Dayton deserves an exciting and winning product and that is what they are going to get. Making the Dayton Gems infuse with the Dayton community is going to be just as important as what we are going to do on the ice.”

Rob Garfield, a member of the Gems ownership group believes changing the image of the team is a huge priority and thinks bringing in a fresh face to manage that change may be what the organization needs.

“A lot of times, older coaches are stagnant in their practices,” Garfield said. “They do the same thing over and over and it doesn’t work; that was obvious last year. You bring in a new, young, hungry, aggressive coach who knows what it’s like to win championships, and he’s in the early part of his career where he wants to advance...he’s gonna light a fire under these guys.”

Contact the author at robert.keith@prohockeynews.com