Dave Baun, who coached Central Bucks West ice hockey for 20 seasons, died Sunday, Oct. 11, after a long battle with cancer, as first reported by Hockey Happenings. He was 66.
Baun was still shaping the sport at the time of his death, serving as first vice president of the Suburban High School Hockey League (SHSHL). He also coached club teams for the Warwick Wildcats.
CB West Ice Hockey announced Baun's death in a Facebook post Monday, Oct. 12, calling his impact on the program, the local hockey community and his former players lasting. The program said his contributions to the game, the league and the program would not soon be forgotten.
Current CB West head coach Frank Blust told Hockey Happenings that alumni and longtime league members remember Baun fondly.
"In speaking with alumni and other, more-tenured members of our league, so many speak fondly about Dave," Blust said. "He will certainly be missed, but his contributions to the game will carry on."
Baun's best on-ice result at CB West came in 2017, when his team reached the semifinal round of the Class AA Flyers Cup. CB West has competed in the SHSHL since the league's founding in the 1973-74 season and finished as Varsity A runner-up in 2004-05, according to league records.
Off the ice, Baun built a parallel career in hockey governance. A lawyer by profession, he served as a legal advisor to the Atlantic Amateur Hockey Association and sat on USA Hockey's Legal Council, according to Central Bucks News. He helped administer USA Hockey's Coaching Education Program and served as a parent representative on the PIAA Board of Control and the PIAA District One Executive Committee.
Rick Woelfel, a Bucks County Courier Times correspondent who covers local hockey, described Baun on X as someone who devoted countless hours to the sport as a coach, administrator and guardian of the game.
No memorial service details had been announced as of Tuesday, Oct. 13.
