January 15, 2008

By John Raffel
Special to USAHockey.com

Josh Nichols has been playing a key role with the Phoenix Force program in Milwaukee that came within one game of winning the U-18 Tier II national championship in April 2007.

But the future looks bright for the hockey program that Nichols helped to start only five years ago. He’s been with his team and the program all five years.

“It was a good group of players I had on the team that went to nationals. Some of them play high school hockey,” he said. “What they accomplished in getting to the nationals and taking second was more than we could have anticipated. For us to go as far as we did was a major highlight for the program.”

It didn’t surprise Nichols that the Force accomplished so much so soon.

“It’s probably the best group of kids we’ve had. Everyone wanted to play hard all the time,” he said.

Phoenix lost to the Michigan Jaguars of Troy, Mich., 2-1 and ended the season at 25-3-4 after going 3-2-1-0 for the tournament.

“For us, we didn’t come out physical enough,” Nichols said. “They got to the puck and made plays count.”

The Force trailed 2-0 but came back in the third period with 4:21 to play when Gavin Hartzog scored, assisted by Evan Jeszka and Chris Rausch.

Nichols said he was confident that when it was 2-1, his team could tie Troy, which was playing the game in the Great Lakes Sports City in nearby Fraser. The facility was the site of three other national championship games during the weekend.

“A couple of shots on net and a rebound would have helped, but we couldn’t bring it home,” he said.

The Force boasted several all-state high school players, including Cody Lettau and Randy Willis from Fond Du Lac; Evan Jeszka, J.D. Frank and Andy Michels from Kettle Moraine/Mukwonago and Gavin Hartzog from Marquette.

Other players on the team were elite high school players from the southeast Wisconsin area.

The Force had an impressive performance in the Tier II Central District championship to advance to the nationals.

Nichols’ team won four straight games in the tourney at St. Louis for first-place honors.

Nichols, a 30-year-old engineering consultant, has also had Division III coaching experience at the Milwaukee School of Engineering.

“I played there and I’ve been coaching there for the last eight years,” said Nichols, who graduated from McFarland (Wis.) High School. “Playing Division III hockey, that’s a highlight.”

He likes what the future holds for the Force program.

“We tried to play our way through Tier II as long as possible. Now we’re up to Tier I,” Nichols said.

Since he helped start it from scratch, the program has been growing in numbers and success.

“Right now, we have the highest number of individuals trying out for the program,” he said. “We’re making adjustments to put each kid with the opportunity to get on the ice and work with their skills. On the games we schedule, we try to keep them as close to home as possible. But it’s also a commitment. If you want to play hockey after high school, you have to be committed to this.” 

As a coach, Nichols has a strong commitment to the program.

“I’ll stay involved with this as long as I can,” he said. 

Story courtesy of Red Line Editorial, Inc.