HOCKEY OPERATIONS STAFF

The 2023-2024 season will be Ryan Cruthers’s first full season with the Marksmen as the Head Coach / Director of Hockey Operations.

Cruthers, 39, from Farmingdale, N.Y., served last season as the assistant coach for the USHL’s Sioux Falls Stampede.

Cruthers’s coaching experience has included multiple stops at the top levels of American junior hockey. He was the head coach and assistant general manager of the USHL’s Chicago Steel during the 2017-18 season and the following year was tabbed as bench boss for the NAHL’s Corpus Christi Ice Rays.

Most recently, Cruthers helped engineer a USPHL-Premier expansion franchise with the Columbia Infantry before undertaking the assistant coach’s post in Sioux Falls.

From 2015-22, Cruthers was one of the architects of the Charlotte (N.C.) Rush championship teams in the USPHL. The Rush won their first of two USPHL-Elite national championships under Cruthers in 2017, just his second season with the organization. In 2021, both the Charlotte Elite and Premier divisions captured national titles while he served as general manager and Premier head coach.

For two games during the 2017-18 season he filled-in as the interim head coach for the Marksmen and earned a record of 1-0-1.

Prior to his coaching career, Cruthers was a force on the wing with eight seasons of ECHL experience. In 429 ECHL games and 32 AHL games, he logged four separate 20-goal seasons and led the 2009-10 Reading Royals in points (71).

Consistently touted as a leader, Cruthers was captain of the Royals from 2010-12 and then donned the “C” for the Orlando Solar Bears in 2012-13. He was the captain and first rostered player in Solar Bears history.

A standout at Robert Morris University, Cruthers was a four-year NCAA Division-I letterwinner. He captained the Colonials in his senior season, a year where he was also a preliminary nominee for the Hobey Baker Award as the NCAA’s top men’s college hockey player. Prior to starring with R.M.U., Cruthers played his first two college seasons as the United States Military Academy at West Point.

Player Inquiries: RCruthers@MarksmenHockey.com

Sharkey, 30, a native of Moore, Okla. – served as an assistant coach with NAHL’s Minot (N.D.) Minotauros last season.

An SPHL veteran, Sharkey logged 150 SPHL games as a player and notched 130 points (50g, 80a) with the Huntsville Havoc. In 2018-19, Sharkey finished third in points for the eventual President’s Cup champion Havoc.

A two-time SPHL champion, Sharkey also contributed for the 2017-18 championship Havoc team, and served as an alternate captain for the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point on the Pointers 2015-16 NCAA division-III championship squad.

Contact Kyle: ksharkey@marksmenhockey.com

The 2023-2024 season is Kyle Sherrill’s sixth with the Marksmen as the Head Athletic Trainer. He has been involved in minor league hockey in Fayetteville since 2007.

A native of Red Springs, N.C., Kyle earned his B.S. in athletic training from Methodist University . He also minored in physical education as well as strength and conditioning. He has been a BOC certified athletic trainer since 2008.

He was a member of the medical staff for the Fayetteville FireAntz, SPHL championship season (2006-07), and the FireAntz Regular Season Championship (2012). He was also a member of medical staff for the Fayetteville Guard, NIFL Championship season (2007) and the Cape Fear Heroes AIF Championship Season (2012), SIF Championship Season (2017).

Along with his passion of working with professional athletes, Kyle also enjoys providing athletic training services youth athletes in the Cape Fear region. Kyle has been a member of the NATA since 2005 and enjoys using his knowledge to educate the community in sports medicine.