The journey started 40 years ago for Greg Pruden and Randy Moy.

Moy picked up Pruden at the airport when he arrived to play hockey for U.S. International University and Moy was an assistant coach there. At that time, USIU was an NCAA Division I hockey program and Pruden, an Edmonton native, wound up playing four years there.

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“Randy was a big help to the program and always took good care of me,” said Pruden.

Moy is a Detroit-area native and for the past 10 years, he and Pruden have coached and developed the top talent from San Diego with the Jr. Gulls.

After USIU, the two went their different ways with Pruden playing and coaching in Germany and Moy coaching youth hockey and working his day job as an accountant.

“I’ve had a passion for hockey since I began to play growing up in the Detroit area,” Moy said. “After playing college, I began to coach high school, NCAA D-III (St. Thomas College in St. Paul, Minn.) and D-I college at Ferris State and USIU. When my two kids were three years old, they also began to play hockey and they loved it, so I began to coach them. I have continued to coach youth hockey and give lessons every day.”

Both Moy and Pruden have sons playing pro hockey and Randy has a daughter, Keely, currently playing D-I at Harvard.

“We would never have known it when Randy picked me up at the airport 40 years ago, but we are back together again in San Diego on the ice,” Pruden said. “It’s been an amazing ride and the connection between our two families may not soon be over because Randy’s son, Tyler, and my son, Garret, are now both playing professionally in Europe and who knows? They may be coaching together in the future.”

— Matt Mackinder

(Feb. 19, 2019)