Cachey Getting Inducted into The Illinois Hockey Hall of Fame
Congratulation to Mission’s former Director of Girls Hockey TONY CACHEY on being selected with the 17th class of inductees into the Illinois Hockey Hall of Fame.
Tony grew up in Oak Lawn IL one of five children to Felix and Doris Cachey. His love of hockey was cultivated by his father who supported him and drove him everywhere. He attended Brother Rice High School played 3 sports but hockey was always his first love . In addition to playing at Brother Rice he played with the Chicago Saints and former Blackhawk Lou Angotti . In 1980 he was in the net when the Saints won the AAA Midget USA National Championship. While playing for Coach Angotti, Tony learned about passion and about playing for a coach that was very demanding but also cared deeply about his players . It was Coach Angotti who showed Tony the model he would years later implement .
Tony married his wife of 37 years Chris in 1985 and they started their family in Orland Park IL. After a 10 year hiatus from the game, he began coaching his son Andrew and later his daughter Katie at the St Jude Knights. After a few years of playing boys hockey, Katie entered girls hockey with Team Illinois . Tony eventually would join the Team Illinois coaching staff . It was here for the first time he ventured into the role of advocating for players with colleges and universities . After three seasons with TI , three straight State Championships and two trips to the final four at the USA Hockey National Championships he decided to move to the Chicago Mission .
With the help of Steve Jakubowski and Andrea Hahn they started a brand new girls program. He quickly implemented “The Mission Way”. It was the Lou Angotti model focused on the players first! It held players accountable and mandated hard work while always insisting players comported themselves the right way. The model worked. Over the next 12 years Tony coached 14 teams at the Mission, eleven 19U teams and three 14U teams. All those teams won State Championships. 14 state championships consecutively, 13th district championships and 2 National Championships.
More importantly, over his 15 years of coaching, hundreds of players went on to play NCAA college hockey. Astonishingly, almost two thirds went on to play D1 earning tens of millions of dollars in scholarships. While an incredibly successful coach on the ice perhaps his greatest gift was the ability to inspire others to be their individual best and to use hockey as a vehicle to teach, mentor and guide young people to heights they couldn’t imagine for themselves .