Griffins video coach Erich Junge is responsible for assembling the clips that can offer helpful video analysis throughout the season.

Story by Mark Newman / Photo by Nicolas Carrillo

        Erich Junge loves hockey, but he realized early that playing in the pros was not his future. He played the sport through high school, but that ended his professional hockey dream.

        "Like I tell everyone, I wasn't good enough to play in college, so I started coaching," said Junge, who is beginning his third season as the video coach for the Griffins. "I always knew I wanted to be involved in hockey. Ideally, I wanted to play, but I'm not the best skater and I don't have the greatest hand-eye coordination. So I was a decent player but not great."

        Originally from the West St. Louis suburb of Ballwin, Missouri, Junge decided he wanted to study sports management in college. He attended Ohio University, which is highly regarded for its sports management program. He served as a volunteer with the school's club hockey team from 2016-20.

        Junge kept statistics for the team during his first three years at Ohio. "I was tracking shots, hits, plus/minus, faceoffs, and everything else for home games," he said. "I would send them to the coaches after the games, and they could do with it whatever they wanted.

       "During my last year, I worked on video with a good friend who is now at Long Island University. I filled more of a video coaching role, kind of like what I'm doing here. The budget wasn't very big, so my friend knew the software and was able to create something similar on Google Sheets."

        After graduation, Junge spent the 2020-21 campaign as volunteer director of skill development for Ohio University. "I was doing more hands-on coaching on the ice," he said. "I was still doing video, but more individualized video. My role was more of an assistant coach. I was on the bench communicating with players, talking strategy, and all that."

        He served as a volunteer assistant at Bemidji State University in Minnesota during the 2021-22 season. He had interviewed for the position the year prior. "They went with someone else, but a year later, I applied again, and they remembered me," he said.

        At Bemidji, Junge worked with the highly regarded Tom Serratore, who was named CCHA Coach of the Year last season after completing his 23rd campaign with the Beavers.

        "He's one of a kind," Junge said. "I like Tom. He's unique, but he cares about his players and staff, and he does things the right way, which is good to see and he was good to learn from. He took me in and taught me for a year. You do things his way, but his way is generally the right way."

        Junge was surprised at the difference in play from the club level to Division I college hockey.

        "Ohio has one of the best club programs in the world, but Bemidji was a whole other level," he said. "They're there to play hockey and then also do school. Some of those guys went on to play professional hockey and it opened my eyes to see what good hockey is, how they treat it, and what it takes to be successful."

        At Bemidji State, Junge helped guide the Beavers to the CCHA championship game before being bested by No. 1-ranked Minnesota State-Mankato 2-1 in overtime.

        It was a clip of video – not his – that made for a memorable finish.

        "We were playing in our conference finals and we went to overtime and basically lost twice," he said. "Mankato scored in overtime and we went through the handshake line, they were awarded the trophy, and when we got back to the locker room, one of our scratches pulled up a video on his phone, saying, 'Hey, that goal didn't go in. It went in through the side.'

        "Our coaching staff went to the officials, who went to the CCHA commissioner, and they started looking at it and after an hour, they decided to disallow the goal and replay the overtime. Half of the fans had left, but they decided they couldn't award the conference championship like that, so the teams went back out on the ice. We lost for a second time about two minutes later, but it was a crazy thing. I don't think I'll ever be involved in a game like that again."

        Serendipity helped land Junge his position with the Griffins.

        "I had been looking for a job all summer," he said. "I was applying and interviewing, but I hadn't heard anything. I applied to be the director of hockey operations at Notre Dame, a role that would have been similar to what I'm doing now. They got down to their final two or three candidates, but they picked someone else over me.

        "Ben Simon, who was the Griffins' coach at the time, was looking for a video coach. He graduated from Notre Dame and is still close with the staff there and apparently, they told him, 'We're hiring this guy, but we like this other guy, too. You should take a look at him.' I was on the golf course with my buddies back in St. Louis when Ben called to set up an interview on Monday.

        "By Tuesday, I was offered the job, and a day later, I accepted."

        Junge faced another learning curve when he joined the Griffins' staff. "From the club level to the collegiate level, there was a jump, and from college to the pro level, it's just a whole new game because here it's hockey all the time. For these guys, this is their job and if they don't perform well, they're not going to have a job next year."

        As the team's video coach, Junge helps the staff evaluate and assess game action as well as scout upcoming opponents.

        On a practice day, Junge is usually at the rink early in the morning, working on his pre-scout for the next opponent. "I'm assembling clips that show the team's faceoffs, D-zone, forecheck, neutral zone, and their scoring chances for and against. I'm probably leaving out a few things, but I'm pulling together all the stuff that will help us have the best idea of how their team is going to play.

       "Generally speaking, most teams don't change too much over a season, so I'm looking for the most up-to-date clips, especially when we're playing the same team for the 10th or 12th time. The most up-to-date clips can serve as reminders of what they're doing."

        Junge uses software called Catapult Thunder to organize all the clips into separate folders so every faceoff or forecheck can be more readily accessed. "You can organize it however you want," said Junge, who can cut apart a game in roughly an hour because he watches the action at double speed. "It's tedious, but it needs to be done."

        All AHL home teams upload their game video to a shared site where video coaches can watch and tag clips that they can use as teaching tools for their players. "I usually give [head coach Dan Watson] an 8-9 minute video and he'll cut it down to a 3- or 4-minute video, and that's what we'll show the team."

        Junge will dig through clips from the past four games of special teams play for Griffins assistant coaches Brian Lashoff and Steph Julien. "They want to see any goals that happen and their faceoffs, too," he said. "That takes up the majority of my time on a practice day."

        If he has time, Junge will join the team for practice. "I'll go and help out on the ice, which is one of the things I enjoy. Otherwise, I'm setting up for our meetings, making sure everything's good to go before whoever gives the presentation. I make sure there aren't any issues because I'm the unofficial IT guy. I try to help with any computer issues, and we have a printer when we travel on the road, so I'm responsible for setting it up."

        The team uses software called Sportlogiq for more personalized instruction. "Steph and Brian do a good job of compiling individual clips for players," he said. "I'm usually more focused on the team stuff while they will pull clips to show players on an individual basis."

        Junge is also responsible for generating the pre-scout sheet on individual players that gets posted before each game. "It's tidbits about specific players, like how they play and their general tendencies," he said. "It's nothing too crazy in-depth, but it's a tip sheet that we hang in the room before every game."

        During home games, Junge sits in the press box high above the ice. "I'll tag the game live from up there, using a feed that goes directly into my computer and then transfers to our coaches' computers after I finish," he said. "During intermissions, they'll watch the clips quickly and go over anything they might be seeing."

        Although the AHL does not allow official challenges, Junge and Julien maintain radio contact if there is anything worthy of drawing attention. "They might ask for a second look on missed calls or what happened in terms of penalties or even injuries," he said. "They might want to know what happened by looking at the video."

        On the road, Junge is responsible for setting up the team's router and server. "Everything I do can be shared with the staff in real time, so the trickiest part, for me, is setting up the technology and then making sure all the wires are plugged in properly and everyone's connected to the server. I don't love that part, but it's something that I have to do to make sure their lives are easier," he said.

        At times, it can be stressful. It's one of the reasons that he enjoys relaxing at concerts with his newlywed bride, Erin, who works for the City of Portland Parks & Recreation Department. "I never thought I was a big music guy, but I like going to concerts. We've seen several concerts this summer. I've gone back to St. Louis a couple of times and we just got back from Tennessee," he said, naming Staind, Shinedown, Tim McGraw, Jordan Davis, Creed, and Three Doors Down as some of the recent acts they've seen.

        But as much as he's become an avid concertgoer, no show compares to the sport that is his passion.

        "I love hockey," he said. "It's intense, it's fast, and things can change just like that. It's fun because you never know what's gonna happen. Things can change in a second."