Western Michigan University Athletics

Bob Caldwell was added to the WMU hockey staff for the 2012-13 season. Caldwell brings 35 years of teaching and coaching experience to the Bronco hockey program. He has spent time in Russia, Findland, Poland and Romania studying the game while helping those nations in improving their coaching development models.

He is a native of Deloraine, Manitoba where he and his wife Vicki have two children, a daughter Kelly and son Ryan. In Manitoba he fills a number of volunteer roles: serving as Hockey Manitoba Master Mentor, sitting on Hockey Canada’s Athlete Development Committee and National Coach Mentorship Advisory Council and chairing Sport Manitoba’s Advisory Board. Caldwell was one of the driving forces behind the formation of the National Coach Mentorship Program in Canada and continues to facilitate seminars from Calgary to St. John’s. He also initiated the Breakfast Club concept of utilizing idle morning ice in community rinks which now boasts 25-plus Manitoba members and several in other provinces such as Ontario, Newfoundland and Saskatchewan.

Caldwell's son was an All-American defenseman and won a National Championship at the University of Denver and now plays in Finland after spending time in the NHL.