Hockey Staff

James Henry was the assistant coach of the Fayetteville Marksmen of the SPHL in the 2020-21 season but never got the chance to work in-game due to COVID-19. His move up to the ECHL comes one year after retiring from playing. Henry is the all-time leader in points for the Adirondack Thunder with 69 goals and 161 assists in 303 games played. He scored 86 more points than second place in the all-time list, Pete MacArthur. He also played 110 games more than Conor Riley, who is second on the all-time games played list.

Across his ECHL career, he scored 14 goals and 23 assists (37 points) in 51 games against the Royals. He also captained the Thunder through the 2018-19 and 2019-20 seasons. He was awarded in 2019 with the ECHL Community Service Award, was named to the ECHL All-Star Game in 2017, and captained the Vancouver Giants of the WHL in 2011-12. Internationally, the Winnipeg, Manitoba native represented the Western part of Canada in the 2008 World U-17 Hockey Challenge and won the bronze medal. In the Summer of 2022, he was selected as the next head coach of the Reading Royals.

Binkley, 30, is the twenty-second assistant coach in the twenty-one year team history of the Royals. He joins the coaching staff under head coach James Henry ahead of his first year as the team’s head coach. The Powell, Ohio native concluded his first season of coaching this past season as an assistant coach for the Fayetteville Marksmen in the Southern Professional Hockey League (SPHL). Binkley, under head coach Cory Melkert, led the Marksmen to their winningest season in the franchise’s twenty-year history. With Binkley behind the player’s bench, the Marksmen compiled a record of 40-14 in the regular season and made it to the Quarterfinal round of the President's Cup playoffs.

Before coaching, Binkley played NCAA Division-I hockey at Ferris State University. In his freshman season, Binkley competed in the 2012 Frozen Four championship game as a defenseman for the Bulldogs. Binkley scored 68 points (6 G, 62 A) across his collegiate career. He won the Ferris State President's award for the top Bulldog student athlete his Sophomore year and was selected to the NCAA All-Academic team his Senior year.

Lukas Samuelsson is the Royals Assistant Coach and Video Coach for all 72 regular season games and playoff games. Samuelsson is from Voorhees, New Jersey, and played four years at Western Michigan University (NCAA DI) while graduating with a Bachelor’s Degree in Sports Management and a Minor in General Business. Samuelsson is also an assistant director of the Reading Royals Youth Hockey Association where he assists with organizing and orchestrating youth hockey lessons, clinics the Learn to Play program, Summer Camp and in-house leagues.

Prior to working for the Royals, MacDonald served as Assistant Equipment Manager for the NHL’s Florida Panthers from 2009-14. The Detroit, MI native has worked in the ECHL for seven seasons and spent time with the ECHL’s Florida Everblades (2006-09) before receiving his call-up to the Panthers. He has worked as an equipment manager since 2000-01, when he started as an assistant for the USA Hockey’s National Team Development Program. In 2001-02, MacDonald was an assistant equipment manager for the AHL’s Chicago Wolves and the team won the Calder Cup. Jason won Equipment Manager of the Year for the Royals in the 2018-2019 season.

Sean Berberich, who graduated from Longwood University (Farmville, Virginia) in 2013, served as the athletic trainer for the Evansville Icemen of the ECHL. While working towards his undergraduate degree, Berberich served several stints as a member of the athletic training staffs of the Washington Capitals of the NHL and the Charlotte Checkers of the American Hockey League. He also worked with a number of the NCAA athletic teams at Longwood, where he received the school’s Citizen Leader Athletic Training student award for his performance. Prior to taking over in Evansville, Berberich spent two years at Presbyterian College in Clinton, South Carolina, where he worked with a number of the school’s athletic programs including football, baseball, and soccer.