After 16 years behind of the bench of the men’s ice hockey team at Colby College, Jim Tortorella has decided it was time to move on.

Better yet, it was an opportunity he couldn’t refuse.

Tortorella stepped down as coach of the men’s ice hockey team in order to take an assistant coaching position with Dick Umile’s staff with the University of New Hampshire Wildcats.

“This was the culmination of a level of mutual interest on both parts,” Tortorella said in an interview with the Morning Sentinel. “This was an opportunity that may not be available at a point in the future. (UNH) is a program you aspire to be a part of.”

“(Dick) Umile is one of the finest human beings I’ve met, and he does it the right way. He cares about people, he cares about his university, and it’s like a family,” added Tortorella in the Morning Sentinel interview.

This is Tortorella’s second stint with UNH as he spent two years with the Wildcats’ coaching staff before taking the head coaching job with Colby.

During his tenure with the Mules, Tortorella recorded a 230-138-33 record, winning the 1997 ECAC title in becoming the winningest head coach in the school’s history. He was also named NESCAC Coach of the Year in 2006 and 2008.

A search for a replacement head coach is underway according to Colby Athletic Director Marcella Zalot with the hopes of having one in place by early October. Unlike NCAA Division-I schools, Division-III schools don’t begin practicing until November with first countable games beginning in mid-November.

Colby opens the season at Middlebury College on Nov. 18. The Mules will play their first home game at the Alfond Athletic Complex without Tortorella on Nov. 22 against the University of Southern Maine.