Silvertips complete coaching staff

EVERETT — The Everett Silvertips announced Wednesday they have completed their coaching staff for the 2018-19 season by adding assistants Louis Mass and Harry Mahood.

While both coaches are new faces to Everett, they are both well-known to Tips head coach Dennis Williams.

“Familiarity and trustworthiness in your staff is important,” Williams said. “I definitely think they have a lot of valuable experience at all different levels.”

Mass, 41, was a defenseman who played four seasons in the United States Hockey League and was a teammate of Williams at Bowling Green State University from 1997-2001.

“I’m looking forward to it for a lot of different reasons with that being one of the big ones,” Mass said of reuniting with Williams. “Having known Willy a long time I respect him as a person, his values and his work ethic. I know his body of work so far has been impressive so it’s great to be able to reunite with him.”

Mass played six professional seasons in the ECHL and was an assistant coach with the ECHL’s Alaska Aces from 2010-2015. Mass has won three Kelly Cups as the ECHL playoff champions. He was a player on the Aces’s 2006 title team and was behind the bench as an assistant in 2011 and 2014. Mass has spent the past three seasons as an assistant coach at the University of Alaska-Anchorage and is an Anchorage native.

“I love living in Alaska and that’s been one of the reasons I’ve stayed here over the years,” Mass said. “I do enjoy spending time in the Pacific Northwest. It’s a real easy fit for me because there are a lot of similarities.”

Mahood, 55, played for four teams over four WHL seasons as a winger before going on to a four-year career at the University of Manitoba. He spent two years as an assistant with Williams — first with the North American Hockey League’s Amarillo Bulls in 2013-14, and the following season with the USHL’s Bloomington Thunder. Both Amarillo and Bloomington are owned by Consolidated Sports Holdings International, the same organization that owns the Silvertips.

“The friendships and relationships since I started with CSH have just continued to this day,” Mahood said. “It expands beyond Willy to a very large degree to a whole bunch of great people that we worked with in Amarillo and Bloomington… It just always feels like home.”

Mahood was an assistant with the NAHL’s Topeka Roadrunners before joining Williams’ staff in Texas. Mahood is a native of Matlock, Manitoba. He has spent the past three years working at Titan Sports Management.

“I probably would not have considered going back into junior hockey or coaching if it hadn’t been this particular situation and ownership group,” Mahood said. “It’s very familiar territory and I think a lot of the people that own the team and run the team, and have great understanding of what the Silvertips have accomplished in 15 years.”

Both Mass and Mahood will take over the duties formerly performed by long-time assistant Mitch Love who last month was named the head coach of the Saskatoon Blades. Last season Love served as the lone assistant to first-year head coach Dennis Williams. The addition of Mass and Mahood brings the total back to three that the team employed prior to last season.

“I’ve always had two assistants on the bench,” Williams said. “I think it really allows me as a coach to focus on the tactical side too. It’s a little bit harder sometimes with just two coaches.”

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