OJS Coach Profile: Chris Kushneriuk
Throughout his life Ottawa Junior Senators assistant coach Chris Kushneriuk has been overcoming challenges with a positive attitude and an unwillingness to take “no” for an answer.
A cancer survivor with a truly inspirational story, Kushneriuk also brings a wealth of experience as a former CCHL, NCAA and professional player to the OJS bench.
He joined owner/GM/coach Martin Dagenais staff midway through last season and was a positive influence for a group of players that went all the way to game seven of the CCHL finals. Kushneriuk followed that up last spring with a successful stint as head coach of the Jr. Senators CDHL team.
“Hockey is so much about adapting,” Kushneriuk said. “I’ve played for a lot of different coaches and you have to adapt to what they want. Having played through last season, I bring a player’s perspective, especially for the forwards. I try to stress on them the importance of doing the small, but very important things like reading the offense, where to go on a face-off and where you should be to find open space.”
Kushneriuk knows all about doing the small things that’s how he got to the NCAA. As a young player he was something of a late bloomer and did not play AAA hockey until he was 17. To help attract attention Kushneriuk and his dad put together a package they sent to a slew of junior teams and the then Kanata Stallions signed him. He put up 11 goals and 11 assists as a fourth liner and then spent the next two seasons with the Orleans Blues, scoring 22 and 24 goals, respectively.
Although he saw plenty of ice time in Orleans and had good numbers, Kushneriuk was not getting attention from colleges. So he took it upon himself.
“I wasn’t scoring 40 goals and my name wasn’t getting out there,” he said. “So I did research and I wrote to coaches saying ‘I see you’re losing X number of guys and this is where I fit in. I can do the PK, I can forecheck hard, be gritty and play wing or center.’ As it turns out, college guys do want players like that.”
The good news was Wayne State University made an offer. After Kushneriuk committed came the bad news—the school would be dropping Division 1 hockey the following year. So he went back to contacting college coaches and after appearing in 37 games for Wayne State Kushneriuk received an offer from Robert Morris University.
RMU was in the process of building its program, which is now quite successful. Kushneriuk immediately fit in—serving two years as an alternate captain before wearing the “C” as a senior. The program was gaining prominence and Kushneriuk helped RMU to a pair of wins over powerful Miami of Ohio. He posted 29 points as a junior and 20 more as a senior, and despite missing several games with an injury, he was nominated for the prestigious Hobey Baker Award.
“I learned early on that you have to find out what your good at and make it your I.D. as a player,” Kushneriuk said. “Mine was using my speed to play a north-south in your face game, who could put the puck in the net. I want to be the kind of player a defenseman would not want coming at him.”
Following his senior season Kushneriuk signed with the Wheeling Nailers of the East Coast Hockey League (ECHL). He scored seven points in eight regular season games and added nine more in 15 playoff matches as the Nailers went to the semifinals.
He returned to Wheeling for the 2011-12 season and during the season he was diagnosed with stage 4 testicular cancer. Kushneriuk was given six months to live. He refused to accept the diagnosis. With the support of his family Kushneriuk went through an arduous ordeal of invasive treatments at the Indiana University Medical Center.
Not only did Kushneriuk recover, he returned to the ice for stints with the ECHL’s Las Vegas Wranglers and Florida Everblades.
“That ordeal humbled me so much,” he said. “Something like that makes you so appreciative of everything you have. Going through the worst taught me a lot about myself. One good thing is that a negative situation can turn out to be positive and I’m able to speak about awareness.”
The knowledge that a negative can be turned into a positive comes in handy as a coach.
“I have a certain amount of life experience that I bring to the job,” Kushneriuk said. “I’ve been through the ups and downs. It happens to all players. When a player gets a little down I tell them ‘tomorrow’s another day and you’ll have an opportunity to change things.’ I tell them how lucky they are to be playing and that there’s plenty of guys who wish they could switch places with them.”
Dagenais is clearly glad to have Kushneriuk on board.
“Chris relates to the players and in some ways he’s still like a player himself,” Dagenais added. “He knows what’s going through their minds and he can help them on and off the ice. He’s also an inspiration to the guys. He’s worked hard for everything he has. Chris plays a very important role for our team.”
In addition to coaching with the Jr. Senators, Kushneriuk works as a personal trainer and a strength and conditioning coach. He’s also working on his master’s degree in business administration to augment the bachelor’s degree in commerce he earned at Robert Morris.
