WATERVILLE — Colby College made official the hiring of Tyler Walsh as a men’s hockey assistant coach.

Walsh, the head coach at North Yarmouth Academy and an assistant with the USA Hockey National Team Development Program, will start July 1.

The Kennebec Journal and Morning Sentinel first reported the news of the hire on May 31.

“Working in the (New England Small College Athletic Conference) with a school like Colby, it’s a really special school,” Walsh said. “I talked to other coaches who are coaching there, and they all say the same thing. It’s a special league. Colby is a special school, and (head coach Blaise MacDonald) is so respected throughout the entire hockey community.

“I think it’s a really, really good time for me to go there.”

Walsh is the oldest son of Shawn Walsh, the legendary former coach who led the University of Maine to a pair of NCAA Division I national championships, in 1993 and 1999. Shawn Walsh died in 2001 of kidney cancer complications.

Tyler Walsh replaces Chris Hall, who left Colby to pursue other opportunities. Hall had been MacDonald’s top assistant since MacDonald came to Colby in 2012.

“I think he’s going to bring a good level of experience,” MacDonald said of Walsh. “He has a tremendous passion for the game, a real commitment to his players. I think he’s going to be able to provide a lot of collective instruction and a lot of individual attention to the players, too.”

Walsh is a 2014 UMaine graduate and began his coaching career as a student assistant coach in 2012-13 under then-UMaine head coach Tim Whitehead.