2022/2023 Coaching Announcement

St. Charles County, MO. – Following an extensive national search, Mark Turnipseed has been named the first head coach of the Liberty Eagles JV hockey program, The Board of Directors for the club announced on Friday afternoon.

Turnipseed (pronounced Turnip-seed) becomes the 1st head coach in JV program history and the 2nd in the overall program's era, which began in 2021.

Born and raised in St. Louis, Mark spent his youth embedded in St. Louis hockey. He grew up a Meramec Shark where at the age of 9 made the switch from forward to goalie. From there, he would enjoy various levels of success playing with the AAA Blues, St. Louis Jr. Blues and at various USNTD camps. Most of this while also playing for Fox High School in the mid-states league.

After junior hockey, Mark played a couple seasons with the Missouri River Otters of the UHL before signing at Lindenwood University for their inaugural ice hockey program. During his 2 years at Lindenwood he was a 1st Team All American and ACHA Player of the Year in 2005. That same year, Mark was honored to represent the USA at the World University Games, a collegiate Olympic tournament in Innsbruck, Austria where his team would finish 4th and he would be recognized as one of the top goaltenders at the tournament.

After graduation, Mark was retained at Lindenwood in a coaching role where he would help take the program to 2 national championships during his 6 years. Mark enjoys coaching and sharing his knowledge of the game with today’s young players. Growing up he spent many years instructing at numerous goaltending camps around the area and eventually became a goaltending consultant for USA hockey while also at Lindenwood. Since then, he has coached high school hockey in St. Louis and most recently was involved in the St. Peters organization for many years before taking some time off to coach his daughter’s soccer teams. Now, Mark looks forward to getting back on the ice and is excited to be a part of the Liberty Hockey Club.

This is an exciting time for Liberty Hockey, and we're pleased to congratulate Mark as we continue to build this program.

Additionally, the club is extremely excited to bring back and re-sign our B-Team Head Coach, Grant Haddock (pronounced HAD-DOCK).

A St. Louis native, Grant grew up in Kirkwood and played at Kirkwood High School. He fondly remembers playing in the Mid-States Hockey Championships and experiencing the thrill of hoisting back-to-back Cups with an amazing bunch of teammates. These experiences led to fun exploits on inline and ice hockey mens’ leagues.

Grant spent several years with his older boys coaching 12U and 14U inline hockey in the St. Charles area. After these initial years as a coach, he began coaching at the St. Peters Hockey Club. From Mini-Mites through Bantam, he has been the Head Coach of many teams along the way and, in what’s past is prologue fashion, has been fortunate enough to guide some of those young players to hoist Blue Note Cups of their own over the years.

Most recently, he has served as the Liberty Eagles first ever B-Team Head Coach where the team has started the season on an unbeaten streak in league play at the midway point. Prior to that, he served as the Head Coach of the Holt High School B-Team. Grant is a USAH CEP Level 4 Coach with a “student of the game,” perspective. He’s a firm believer in bringing together a skillful, earnest, and invested group of coaches that will nurture and protect a positive team culture and embrace the philosophy of hockey as a rehearsal for good citizenship and future leaders.

Terms were not disclosed for either signing.