A lifetime later, Dennis Williams ’01, ’03 is grateful that everything worked out this way.

Now in his second full season as the Bowling Green State University hockey head coach, the former Falcons player is overseeing a program resurgence. The Falcons are 14-6-4, ranked No. 20 in NCAA NPI, up to No. 18 in College Hockey News’ Pairwise rankings and a serious contender in the Central Collegiate Hockey Association with a month remaining in the regular season.

Slater Family Ice Arena, where the Falcons are 7-3-1 this year, is once again a place to be. When Williams shovels the snow from the driveway of his Bowling Green home, passersby honk and wave. Affectionately known as “Willy” within the BGSU hockey community, Williams’ trips to downtown or to the grocery store are stopped with people excited to talk about his team.

Saturday’s home game against Notre Dame has been sold out for weeks, making tickets – the very few for sale are going for more than $200 per seat on resale apps – one of the hottest commodities in hockey this weekend.

Anywhere people go, there’s a buzz about the Falcons again, a rekindling of a longstanding affinity between the community and its team.

“I really believe that it’s a true hockey town,” Williams said. “When I go out for dinner or lunch, everybody’s ready to talk hockey. I still see a lot of the same people from when I played who are still heavily involved this many years later because of their passion to see the program do well.

“I think that speaks volumes of the support we have, not just on campus, but in the community as well.”

Fifteen years, a journey across North America and one of his biggest professional disappointments later, Williams finds himself in a great situation at the helm of a re-energized program and University enrollment surging to new heights.

Ironically, it was Williams who was in the eye of the hurricane during the program’s lowest moment in the late 2000s. With the U.S. economy in the midst of a recession, steep financial cuts put the hockey program’s future in serious doubt.

Williams, then as assistant coach, was on the way out, ready to keep ascending the coaching ladder. He had accepted a coaching job in British Columbia and was preparing to move when a sudden resignation left BGSU without a head coach shortly before the 2009-10 season.

With the program handcuffed, the administration approached Williams to be the interim coach. He was still 29 years old, had a baby at home and a job waiting all the way across North America, yet Williams accepted the role knowing full well the program was on rocky footing.

Williams chuckles now as he thinks back to his year as the interim coach, facing off against coaching legends like Michigan’s Red Berenson or Notre Dame’s Jeff Jackson, both of whom collected 600-plus college wins. In his turbulent first year, he got five.

“Imagine how nerve-wracking that is for a young coach,” he said.

But the players who stayed competed hard. Williams was proud to help his alma mater at a time when it needed a hand, and he said he discovered a lot about himself.

“I don’t regret taking that job,” he said. “You learn so much from the adversities you face. At the time, just like a young player, I thought I knew what I was doing. What was amazing about that year was the buy-in from the guys, and I always appreciated that.”

By now, the story is ingrained in program history: Pushed to the brink, the community rallied to save BGSU Hockey, which stabilized through the wave of conference realignment that rocked college hockey during the decade to follow.

But for Williams, the program’s dramatic rescue meant a major change. Not quite seasoned enough to be a full-time Division I coach at the time, Williams was not offered the chance to stay on as head coach, which he says now was one of the best things that ever happened to him.

“At the time, I was devastated, crushed, embarrassed. I didn’t know how to handle it,” he said. “I had never been cut from a team, never been fired or non-renewed. That was my first go-round with that kind of disappointment.”

Williams said he received excellent advice from former BGSU assistant coach Danton Cole. If you want to coach, Cole told him, go coach without feeling sorry for yourself.

Williams said he took the advice to heart. In the process, he became one of the most respected junior coaches in North America. He found success, first with a stint with the Amarillo Bulls of the North American Hockey League, then again with the Bloomington Thunder of the United States Hockey League, and then with the Western Hockey League’s Everett Silvertips.

In seven seasons with Williams at the helm, the Silvertips won the U.S. Division four times and a Western Conference title. He coached Team Canada to a gold medal at the 2023 World Junior Championships and aided the development of several future pro prospects in Everett, including star forward Carter Bear, who became the Detroit Red Wings’ first-round draft pick in 2025.

When the BGSU job became available in 2024, Williams was ready: To not only help his alma mater but to bring his family to Bowling Green, where he knew they could thrive.

During his interview, Williams remarked to President Rodney K. Rogers that he couldn’t believe how much the BGSU campus had changed for the better in the 15 years he was away. Williams already knew BGSU players would earn NHL exposure and support from the program, but he also saw a complete college experience that would resonate with top recruits.

“President Rogers and everybody else involved have done an unbelievable job of building a whole new face to campus,” he said. “To me, campus is a very easy sell. Support on campus is next to none. The community is next to none. Players are going to get exposure with our location and our schedule, where Big Ten teams will come to our building.

“I just thought, ‘We can win here.’”

As the Falcons look for their first title in the new iteration of the CCHA, Williams’ second season has brought a brand of hockey worth the price of admission and a program on the upswing.

Williams is the first to say success is not easy. The work is not yet finished, or even close. But whenever Williams hears doubts about winning at BGSU, he often responds with a question.

Why not?

“For me, any time someone tells me we can’t do it, that excites me,” he said. “I want to prove them wrong and prove our supporters right. There’s no reason why we can’t win here.”