He coached the Niagara University program from 2001 to 2017, taking over from Blaise MacDonald, a former teammate of his with the RIT Tigers.

Burkholder played college ice hockey as a goaltender with the RIT Tigers, winning the 1983 Division II National Championship and being selected tournament MVP.

[2] Burkholder built in the success that his former teammate started, winning two conference tournaments, a pair of league title and consistently finishing near the top of the CHA standings over the next nine seasons.

[4] Burkholder's team played well the first several seasons, including a league title in his third year, but afterwards the program fell on hard times.

For three straight years the team finished with only single-digit win totals and it was announced in the spring of 2017 that Niagara would not be bringing Burkholder back.