Our Coaches

Head Coach - Matt Gurklis

2023 is Matt's 1st year in the the role of Hockey Director and Head Varsity Coach for the D155 Predators Hockey club. He played youth hockey for the Park Ridge Express at the AA and CSDHL levels, with his high school hockey career spent with Maine Township. He comes to D155 from the LZMW Yeti Hockey program and was most recently the Head JV1 coach and Assistant Coach on the Varsity and JV2 teams. He is bringing past experiences to the club not only to help solidify the D155 Predators as an elite hockey program, but also to continue to grow and develop the athletes to be ready for what is ahead of them after they leave the program. He aims to establish a winning culture that focuses on teamwork and developing the whole athlete.

Assistant Coach - Sean Vandamme



Head Coach - Larry Beller

Coach Larry Beller is in his 3rd season behind the bench for the Predators. Prior to joining our club, Larry spent 2 years as the head coach of Lane Tech’s JV team and the 3 years prior to that as head coach of the LZMW JV team. The previous 11 seasons Larry coached at the Barrington Redwings Organization. Larry has coached at all age levels from Mite through Midget, including seasons at the ‘B’, ‘A’ and ‘AA’ levels. Larry’s coaching experience includes 13 seasons at the High School Varsity and Junior Varsity levels at Niles Township, Palatine, St. Viator, Lake Zurich and Lane Tech. High Schools. Larry is certified as a level 4 Coach by USA Hockey and believes in setting the bar for his players high enough to take them out of their comfort zone while making sure that their goals are both attainable and sustainable. In addition to coaching, Larry promotes youth hockey in his role as a member of the Executive Board of the Northern Illinois Hockey League.

Assistant Coach - Paul Hooper

Coach Hooper is a USA Hockey level 4 coach with over 10 years of experience at the Squirt through Bantam levels in both Dodgeville Wisconsin and here in Crystal Lake with the Yellowjackets. This will be his first season at the high school level and he looks forward to coaching some of the same players he worked with previously at the younger age levels. He also served four years on the Board of Directors as the Predator's Registrar. He is excited to be able to continue being a part of the D155 Predators hockey club as a coach.

Head Coach - Ryan Thompson

Ryan joins the Predators in 2023 for his first year as a high school hockey coach. Ryan grew up playing hockey for the West Dundee Leafs at the Central States level. He also has one year of playing experience in high school hockey as he played for the Kings organization. Ryan is also the head varsity lacrosse coach at a local high school and is excited to bring that coaching experience back into hockey. Ryan brings his passion and dedication for the game to the club and hopes to inspire that same energy in our players at the JV White level. Ryan focuses on sportsmanship, building positive relationships with the athletes, and helping them to become the best version of themselves on and off the ice.



Assistant Coach - Brandon Galante



Skills Coach - Scott Herbster

Owner and operator of Herbster Hockey has been involved in the game of hockey for over 18 years. A native of northern Illinois Scott started playing hockey at the young age of 4 years old and since then has always had passion for the game. After his junior career ended, Scott wanted to give back to the game and started helping out at the youth level in Crystal Lake with the Crystal Ice House learn to skate program. Since then he founded Herbster Hockey in 2016 at the age of 20. He works with players at all different levels. From learn to skate all the way up to Professionals.

During the winter and spring seasons Scott works with multiple clubs and teams in Illinois and Wisconsin. Running skill clinics during holiday breaks and group skills training on a weekly basis for players of all skill levels.

During the Summer off season Scott spends his time training players who come home from their junior, college and pro teams were skills clinics consist of high tempo power skating drills and unique skill sessions. He also continues to train youth level players throughout the summer with his own clinics and camps.

Organizations Scott is currently working with:

College:

University Wisconsin- Superior Men's & Women's team (NCAA DIII) Depaul University (ACHA)

Youth:

Barrington Broncos High School Barrington Fillies Girls

Crystal Lake Yellow Jackets Crystal Lake Stingers

D155 High School

Glenview Stars

Prep High School

Goalie Coach - Roy Perfetti

Owner and co-founder of P.A.D.S. Roy works with ice hockey goaltenders to deliver comprehensive, professional, and superior training to goalies of all ages and levels of play. Unlike the competition, P.A.D.S. takes a personal approach and builds trust with the goalies. We take a genuine interest in the success of all the goalies we train. This approach provides the goalies with the very best instruction, and superior results.

P.A.D.S. School of Goaltending was founded in 2009 and in a short time has grown to be one of the finest goalie instructional programs in the Midwest. We pride ourselves on bringing practicality, organization and structure to each session.

After years of observing, and coaching in drill laden clinics, we felt there was a more practical way to teach the goaltending position. As with most of the goalie clinics in the marketplace, there is a huge void in teaching game situations to the goalies. We felt the timing was right for a change and a different approach. By seeing the lack of game situation coaching only reinforced our beliefs that teaching the fundamentals through game situations are the keys to successful battle tested goalies. We believe in positive reinforcement through strict fundamental instruction, and building confidence through success. . . very simple, very effective.

Our entire coaching staff has worked with several organizations in the Midwest including College, Junior programs, Clubs (AAA, AA, A), high school, and house programs.

Please visit our website regularly www.padsgoaltending.com for upcoming clinics and camp dates. Also follow us on Twitter and friend us on Facebook to get some of the latest information.