Chris Durso will lead Affton Hockey’s Midget U18 CSDHL team for the 2024-25 season. Durso has coached at all levels of youth and high school hockey in the St. Louis area for the last 16 seasons. During the 2023-24 season, Durso served as assistant coach and video coach for the NA3HL St. Louis Jr. Blues.
Prior to joining the Jr. Blues, Durso coached in the St. Louis AAA Blues organization. For the 2022-23 season, he was the head coach for the U16 AAA Blues team that earned a Missouri State Championship and a third-place finish in the Central District. During the 2021-22 season, Durso and his U15 AAA Blues team won a Missouri State Championship, a Central District Tournament Championship, and finished as a quarterfinalist in the USA Hockey Tier I National Tournament. In 2020-21 during COVID, Durso led the U16 AAA Blues team to a Missouri Hockey State Championship and a second-place finish in the Central District Tournament. Durso was an assistant coach of the U16 AAA Blues team for the 2019-20 season and an assistant coach for the U18 AAA Blues team during the 2018-19 campaign. Both teams won the Missouri Hockey State Championship.
From 2017 until 2022, in addition to coaching in the AAA Blues organization, Durso was the Varsity Head Coach and Director of Hockey Operations for De Smet Jesuit High School and helped lead the varsity team to three Mid-States Challenge Cup Championship games during his five years at the helm.
Prior to taking over at De Smet, from 2015-17, Durso was the head coach of the 2005 birth year AAA Blues team during their Squirt Major and Pee Wee Minor seasons. From 2012 to 2015 he was the Peewee AA Coach in the Meramec Sharks Hockey Club, and his teams won Missouri Hockey State Championships in 2013 and 2015.
Durso has held various roles on the Missouri Hockey, Inc. Board of Directors and on the Missouri Hockey Youth Division Board of Directors. He currently is the President of Missouri Hockey, Inc. Since 2018 he has served as Missouri Hockey Director of Player Development, helping to organize and run the local USA Hockey player development festival and serving as an evaluator at the Central District player development festival. He also assists with the Central District High Performance Bantam Camp in Ames, Iowa.
During his coaching career, Durso coached numerous players who have gone on to play at all levels of professional, junior, and college hockey including the NAHL, USHL, NCDC, NA3HL, NCAA Division I and Division III, and ACHA.
In addition to coaching, Durso is a lawyer and partner at the law firm of Evans & Dixon LLC. He resides in South St. Louis City with his wife, Lauren, and dog, Widget.
About his new opportunity with the Affton Americans Durso said, “I am grateful for the opportunity to execute my passion for player development on a daily basis and help players who come here achieve their goals and dreams. I cannot wait to get started.”