Aug 5, 2025
This article originally appeared in Issue 22 of Wild Times Magazine.
Greg Cronin graduated from Colby College in 1986 without a plan. For several months, he worked odd jobs around Boston, repairing roofs and building decks with his cousins. One day, he overheard people talking about New Zealand.
“I don’t know what motivated me to do it,” said Cronin. “The light bulb went off in my head.”
Cronin, who had previously traveled outside of New England sparingly, mostly for hockey tournaments, left Boston with a bag of clothes and $900 in his pocket. For seven months, he worked his way around the world, spending time in California, Hawaii, Tahiti, New Zealand, and Australia.
“I just roughed it,” said Cronin. “I worked different jobs. I stayed in youth hostels. I stayed on park benches. I hitchhiked. I bought a car at an auction in New Zealand. It was the first time in my life that I was on my own. I’d meet people at hostels and get jobs from sheep farms to boat yards to construction sites because I had to make money.”
Cronin describes the trip as his first real taste of managing his own resources and attitude on a daily basis.
“It creates a real black and white world,” said Cronin. “You’re either going to be on a park bench or find a place to stay.”
Cronin returned to Boston in the spring of 1987, where he decided to give coaching a try under Michel Goulet, his former head coach at Colby College.
“I kind of liked it, but wasn’t sure I wanted to do it,” said Cronin.
After one season at Colby College, Cronin elected to continue his education at the University of Maine, pursuing a master’s degree in business while holding a graduate assistant position with the hockey team. After two seasons with Maine, Cronin joined Colorado College for three years before returning to the Black Bears.
Maine was led by head coach Shawn Walsh and assistant coach Grant Standbrook, who built the team into a powerhouse throughout the 1980s and 1990s.
“Shawn Walsh and Grant Standbrook were the biggest mentors I had in coaching to this day,” said Cronin. “I caught on to an identity coaching with those guys that motivated me to stay in it.”
Walsh, a young, brash coach, was in the process of elevating the University of Maine from an afterthought in Hockey East into a perennial powerhouse. When reflecting on what drove Walsh’s success in upending Hockey…
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