Farkas Named NYU Ice Hockey Head Coach
story by Julia Baxley
Michael Farkas was hired as the head coach of the men’s hockey team, New York University Athletics announced. He joins the Violets after serving as the Assistant Coach of Men’s Ice Hockey at the University of Pennsylvania for five seasons.
“It’s a high quality program at a great school,” said Farkas. “You have a team that had success at the D2 level, has made the jump into D1. This is one of the higher level programs that there are in the country. NYU just presents such a great opportunity.”
A Philadelphia native, Farkas played college hockey during his undergraduate career at Rutgers University, where he received an education in journalism and political science. He moved back to Philadelphia after graduating and began working as an Assistant Coach at the University of Pennsylvania.
Farkas helped transform their program, and UPenn finished either first or second during the final three seasons of his tenure, the highest they had reached since the 2001 season. He moved to New York during the pandemic, and found that NYU’s academic rigor and reputation matched his previous coaching experience.
“It’s familiar to me in the sense that it’s a great academic school, like Penn was,” said Farkas. “You’re not dealing with a school that majors in athletics. This is a school that majors in academia. I knew I’d be really familiar with what the student base is, and how diverse they are, and how much smarter they are than me. It’s nice to work in that environment.”
Although fans are not yet allowed to attend NYU’s home games at Chelsea Piers, Farkas looks forward to what he promises will be an exciting debut season.
“This is not my team. This is the NYU students’ team. I’m a guy that holds a clipboard. This is their team, and it should be fun, on and off the ice it should be an enjoyable experience, and that means fans should be in the building – when we’re allowed – and they should be cheering on a fun team to watch. It’s gonna be a fun atmosphere, I can promise you that,” said Farkas.