Turner leaves with all-time state record for wins, 11 state titles

By Frank Wladyslawski, The News-Herald Sports

With one last hockey state championship to his credit this season, legendary Trenton Coach Mike Turner has decided to call it a career.

Turner, 64, announced his retirement Wednesday night at the team banquet honoring the 2013-14 Division 2 state champs.

In two different stints with the Trojans, he won 11 of the school’s 14 state titles and his 629 career victories tops the state’s all-time list for high school hockey coaches.

Turner first came to Trenton in the 1973-74 season and coached until 1981, then returned in 1994 and headed up the squad until this season.

“I came to Trenton 41 years ago, I had two goes at it, 28 years, it was just time,” Turner said. “I’ve kind of been thinking about doing this for a couple of years, I was just hoping to have a good season- and with this group of seniors.”

The 2013-14 Trojans dominated from start to finish, as they went 26-4-1 and crushed Hartland 8-3 for the Division 2 state final, which was the team’s 16th total appearance in the title game under Turner.

In the first game of the 2014 playoffs, Turner picked up his 624th career victory, which gave him the most wins of any high school hockey coach in state history.

“Getting the all-time record and the winning the regionals, which we didn’t do last year, and winning the state, it made a pretty complete year,” he said.

During Turner’s first stretch as Trenton coach, he won a state title in 1976 and then captured the trophy back-to-back in 1979 and 1980.

After leaving Trenton due to a layoff from his teaching job in the district, Turner served as an assistant coach for University of Michigan from 1981-83 before getting his teaching job back in 1984.

His return to the team in 1994 resulted in state titles in 1996, 1998, 2003, 2004, 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2014.

Turner said he has no plans to stay on as an assistant at Trenton, but will still watch the games and help out at times if he’s asked.

The announcement comes seven years after he retired from his teaching position in the district.

As a player, Turner skated for Ohio University from 1967-70 and he later earned both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree from Eastern Michigan University.