Maine Gladiators 16U head coach Caleb Labrie, left, 18U head coach Jeff Guay, center and assistant Tom Metivier watch practice last week at Norway Savings Bank Arena in Auburn. The coaches, who collaborate to coach the two youth hockey teams, were unhappy with the effort they were seeing from the players and shortly after brought them together and told them so. Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal

The Maine Gladiators 18U and 16U boys hockey players are confident that their coaches will give them an advantage at their national tournaments this week.

“They’re both definitely very knowledgeable. I think that’ll help us do good at nationals and we’ll have a chance at winning, for sure,” Edward Little’s Andrew Clements said.

The two Gladiators teams are playing this week in USA Hockey’s Tier II Youth Nationals. The 18U team is in Utica, New York, while the 16U team is playing in Wayne, New Jersey. Each tournament begins Wednesday and runs through Sunday.

The teams, which are based at Auburn’s Norway Savings Bank Arena, are led by coaches with experience at higher levels of hockey.

The 18U coach, Jeff Guay, spent seven seasons with the Lewiston Maineiacs of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (now known as the Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League) as an assistant coach, and later as an interim head coach, from 2003-10. He was head coach of the Hallowell-based Maine Moose from 2012-14 when the team was in the Northern States Junior Hockey League. He also was an assistant coach for the University of Southern Maine the men’s team from 2015-19.

Caleb Labrie, the 16U coach, is an assistant coach for the Lewiston-based Maine Nordiques of the North American Hockey League after spending the previous four seasons as an assistant with the USPHL’s Twin City Thunder, who played in Auburn from 2018-24.

Guay said that coaching youth hockey isn’t much different from coaching future NHL players in the QMJHL or college players.

“A lot of the drills are very similar to when I was coaching the Maineiacs in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League and also at the Division III level at USM,” said Guay, who also was an assistant coach on Lewiston High’s 2002 state championship team. “… We’re trying to give them not just one or two things to try to do in a drill, it’s three, four and five, because the game is the fastest that the game has ever been in today’s world.”

Minot’s Ronan Newell, who played for Hebron Academy this winter, said Guay’s experience is beneficial to the Gladiators’ 18U team. And, while Guay has adapted to the modern, faster game, he does it with a throwback flair.

“He’s coached at a really high level in the QMJHL, and I think that translates really well,” Newell said. “He likes (us) to play a physical game with some old-style hockey, some dump-and-chase, stick to the systems. And he knows how to develop players, and I think that’s going to translate really well when we go over to nationals.”

The 18U and 16U coaching staffs collaborate with each other, and teams practice together, since Labrie is sometimes away with the Nordiques on a road trip.

Cam Plourde of Lewiston, a forward on the 16U squad, said Guay and Labrie have taught him to process the game quicker.

“It’s a lot of multiple things and drills, so you have to be constantly thinking, and that helped me improve and think faster and (make) the correct decisions,” Plourde said.

While Guay and Labrie share their knowledge and experience from coaching at higher levels, they understand the Gladiators aren’t at the same level as junior hockey players.

“As a coach, you have to change,” Labrie said. “I know coaches like perfection, but knowing that, OK, these guys may make a little more mistakes than what I see in the morning at practice with the Maine Nordiques. … I’m always very mellow with the approach because I like teaching the game. I have a group of kids that’s always willing to learn and get better.”

Gorham’s Landan Anctil, a member of the 16U team, said the coaches are able to teach at the level of the players and expand the Gladiators’ understanding while not complicating the message.

“I think the little things like getting pucks out, making the simple passes, just doing the simple plays that you might not always see in high school. Definitely, in travel (hockey), you can see it more,” Anctil said.

Guay, 53, joked that he’s been coaching for so long — he coached Labrie in youth hockey — that he has to remember this crop of kids might not know some of the players he refers to during drills. So he will use some modern-day players like Brad Marchand — who, by the way, Guay coached against in the Q.

Labrie, on the other hand, said his work with local players through coaching junior hockey or at PucDevelopment — a hockey-specific training facility in the Lewiston-Auburn area — resonates with the Gladiators players. He has worked with Lewiston’s Damon Bossie, who recently committed to play at the University of New England, Tanner Anctil (no relation to Landan), Alex Rivet and Jeromey Rancourt.

“I try to use a lot of the local players that have gone to play higher levels,” said Labrie, who is 28. “… There are a lot of guys that, you know, these kids watch (them) play when (they) were in high school, just because the age gap isn’t too far spread right now. And then they’ve watched some of the guys in the last five years that have had really great high school careers.”

Guay’s and Labrie’s coaching is especially important in the spring. The Gladiators are split-season squads, meaning they play their regular season and state playoffs in the fall before the players join their high school or prep school teams, then they reconvene in March for practices ahead of nationals. Some of the teams they’ll face at nationals are full-season teams and have been playing all winter.

“We had our 16-team and 18-team on all cylinders (in the fall),” Guay said. “… So we’re trying to get them all back when we do leave … for Jersey and Utica.”