AHCA Awards: Wesleyan's Keith Buehler and Trinity's Matt Greason named as finalists

The American Hockey Coaches Association (AHCA) has announced its finalists for the Sid Watson and Edward Jeremiah Awards. Wesleyan's Keith Buehler (F, Jr.) has been named as a finalist for the Sid Watson Award and Trinity Coach Matt Greason has been named as a finalist for the Edward Jeremiah Award.

Sid Watson Award 

Wesleyan's Keith Buehler

The Sid Watson Award is awarded yearly to the best NCAA Division-III men's hockey player in the country. The award is named after former Bowdoin men's hockey head coach (1960-1983) and athletic director Sid Watson. Watson, a Northeastern alum, also played in the NFL with the Pittsburgh Steelers and Washington Redskins. Bowdoin's state of the art Sidney J Watson Arena is named after the Polar Bear Legend.

Buehler, a 5'10" forward from Skaneateles, NY, led the NESCAC in scoring (20-20-40) and was recently named the 2013 NESCAC men's ice hockey Player of the Year. Buehler makes the list of ten finalists as one of only two juniors. The only sophomore on the list is Louie Educate (F, So.), part of the Utica Pioneers team that just ousted Bowdoin from the NCAA Tournament on Saturday, March 9th.

The award has been given out since 1993, with NESCAC players taking home the honors seven times. Middlebury players have won it four times: Ray Alcindor (94), Ian Smith (96), Mark Spence (98) and Kevin Cooper (04). Amherst has won it twice, Jeff Landers (09) and reigning Sid Watson Award winner Jonathan La Rose (12). Bowdoin's Charlie Gaffney rounds out the list of NESCAC winners with his 1995 victory.

The winner will be announced this Thursday, March 14, during the 2013 NCAA D-III Men's Championship student athlete banquet in Lake Placid.

Full list of finalists and past winners 

Edward Jeremiah Award

Trinity Coach Matt Greason

The Edward Jeremiah Award is given annually to the Division-III Men's Ice Hockey Coach of the Year. The ward is named in honor of the Dartmouth College hockey coach from 1937-67. The finalists include coaches that won their respective conferences' Coach of the Year honors in addition to the coaches of the four D-III Frozen Four teams.

A Trinity alum ('03), Greason led the Bantams to a third place finish in the NESCAC regular season and a semifinal appearance in the conference tournament. For this, he was named 2013 NESCAC men's ice hockey Coach of the Year. Hamilton alum ('97) and Utica Coach Gary Heenan also makes the list of thirteen finalists.

The Jeremiah Award has been given out since 1970, with NESCAC coaches winning the award 11 times; three of those were by former Bowdoin coach Sid Watson (70,71,78). Former Middlebury coach Wendall Forbes won in 1975. Current Middlebury coach Bill Beaney has taken home the hardware four times (90, 95, 04, 06), while Bowdoin coach Terry Meagher has won it twice (86, 89) and Amherst coach Jack Arena is the reigning award winner (12), having taken the Lord Jeffs to the D-III Frozen Four last year.

As with the Sid Watson Award, the winner will be announced this Thursday, March 14, during the 2013 NCAA D-III Men's Championship student athlete banquet in Lake Placid.

Full list of finalists and past winners