Full 2024 AHCA Major Awards Release
New England Women's Hockey Alliance (NEWHA) Commissioner Bob DeGregorio was announced as the 2024 recipient of the John "Snooks" Kelley Founders Award by the American Hockey Coaches Association (AHCA). Named after the famed Boston College coach, the award honors those people in the coaching profession who have contributed to the overall growth and development of the sport of ice hockey in the United States.
DeGregorio forged a unique career as an athletic administrator, both inside and outside of ice hockey. He is currently the longest-serving college hockey commissioner in the NCAA, having served four different conferences since 1993. He is commissioner of the New England Women's Hockey Alliance, having been introduced as the newest conference's commissioner in September 2018. As the NEWHA commissioner, DeGregorio helped to secure active NCAA Division I membership for the league, effective for the 2019-20 academic year. Starting with the 2021-22 season, active Division I membership allows the NEWHA champion to be eligible for a bid to the National Collegiate Women's Ice Hockey (Division I) Championship.
Prior to the formation of the NEWHA, DeGregorio served 20 years as commissioner of Atlantic Hockey, an 11-team men's ice hockey conference, and 11 years as commissioner of College Hockey America, a six-team women's ice hockey league. Under DeGregorio's tutelage, Atlantic Hockey grew from nine-member institutions at it's inception in 2003 to the current 11-member roster. He orchestrated the moving of the Atlantic Hockey Tournament Championships to a neutral site, negotiating with the City of Rochester and the Blue Cross Arena, to make the BCA the home of of the semifinals and final, where it remained from 2007 until 2018. DeGregorio then worked with the HarborCenter administration to keep the Atlantic Hockey Tournament in Western New York beginning in 2019.
DeGregorio is no stranger to guiding a major ice hockey league, having served as commissioner of Hockey East from 1993-96, a position he held while simultaneously working as Merrimack College director of athletics. DeGregorio, served Merrimack College athletics for two decades, joining the staff as business manager for the Athletic Department and for the college's S. Peter Volpe Physical Education Center in 1978. He was promoted to Director of Athletics in May of 1983.
Throughout his tenure, many of the Warrior teams became national powers. Although winning is always a goal, DeGregorio has constantly recognized and encouraged success in the classroom as well as community involvement. This was evidenced in July, 2001, when the first USA Today/NCAA Foundation Academic Achievement Awards were announced. Out of the 264 Division II schools in the country, Merrimack ranked second with an impressive student-athlete graduation rate of 86 percent.
A resident of Winthrop, Mass., where he resides with his wife Michele, DeGregorio graduated from Boston State College in 1973 with a bachelor's degree in education. He was inducted into his alma mater's Athletic Hall of Fame in the fall of 2023. Bob has two children, Leah and Robert Michael III.