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About Coach
Oly Hicks
Oly is in his 6th season
as the Assistant Ice Hockey coach for the Manhattanville
Valiants Hockey Team (NCAA Division III), and has helped
the Valiants become a perennial national championship
contender. He is one of the most creative hockey minds
in the college coaching ranks and spends significant
time working with the team’s power play units. Under
his guidance, the Valiants power play have been ranked
in the Top 10 four of the past five seasons. During
the 2005-06 season, Hicks and the Valiants went 20-5-1
overall and won the ECAC West regular season
championship for the first time in the program’s
history. Hicks also works closely with the Valiants
forecheck and neutral zone systems in addition to
helping with the teams defencemen. Off the ice, Hicks
shares in the recruiting and academic monitoring among
other duties.
Hicks arrived from the Banff Hockey Academy (Canadian
Prep School) where he was the Director of Hockey
Operations and Head Coach of the under 18 team. The
Icemen enjoyed a successful campaign, including two
tournament wins. Prior to Banff, Coach Hicks played and
coached professionally in Austria for four seasons. He
compiled an impressive 44-12-4 record in Austria and won
one Regional League Championship. The Kelowna, B.C.,
native played junior hockey in the BCHL where he was an
All-Star. Oly holds a Bachelor of Education and a
Masters of Arts from the University of Victoria.
Interview
with Coach Hicks (August 2005)
Question: Thanks for talking to DP Hockey Oly, it
must be busy this time of year at Manhattanville?
Answer: No problem Dave. It is a busy time with
our hockey program as we ramp up to the start of the
season.
Question: Tell me about the scouting process you
use to recruit potential players for Manhattanville?
What kind of athletic qualities are you looking for when
you scout a player for NCAA hockey? (examples: height,
weight, agility, conditioning, speed, etc.)
Answer: We look at a players height first, followed
closely by speed and fitness for our program.
Question: Do
you like to interview players you scout to play for
Manhattanville, or do the numbers speak for themselves?
Answer: At
Manhattanville we always interview each of our prospect
players and often several times. This carries a lot of
weight as we are able to determine many things from
these interviews.
Question: Do
you talk to previous coaches to find out what the player
is like before sign him play for your program?
Answer: A
coaches input plays the largest role in our
recruiting.
Question: How
important is the academic side of a hockey player?
Answer: VERY
IMPORTANT! To even get in to Manhattanville our average
SAT score is just over 1100. Therefore players must do
the work in high school to even get in the door with our
program. This is just how it is in most of the
Universities these days.
Question:
Should a player use strength training before they play
at Manhattanville such as in the junior ranks or is this
important?
Answer: This
is very important. We are finding now that guys who are
"fat" in the junior ranks are getting less and less
interest from our program. Players have to see
themselves as athletes before college and work hard
before we even consider them.
Question:
What type of player do you like to work with?
(example: a motivated player, strong work ethic, highly
coach-able, etc.)
Answer: First
the player must have a strong work ethic. Second they
have to be coach-able and open to criticism.
Question:
When you bring in a new recruit to Manhattanville what
type of strength and conditioning program do you use to
bring that person up to speed?
Answer: Our
strength and conditioning coach uses a lot of Olympic
lifts which is very similar to your programs (Coach
Pollitt's) from 2002. Our main focus is to make our
players strong at the bodyweight they play best at.
Question:
When do you send the offseason training program out to
the players?
Answer: Upon
acceptance to Manhattanville. Sometimes we send this
out during the recruiting if it will help the player
with training direction.
Question: How
often do you practice at Manhattanville?
Answer: We
practice 5 times a week during the season.
Question:
What can a player expect? (example: high tempo, long
practices, plenty of skating, intervals, lots of drills,
focusing on the fundamentals, etc.).
Answer:
Practices tend to be longer with lots of teaching
(fundamentals, drills, skills and conditioning).
Question: Do
the coaching staff look at video of games and practices
with the players, and if so, what do you look for and
coach players on?
Answer: We do
look at videos of games. Mostly we look for ways to
improve the systems (forecheck, powerplay and penalty
kill).
Question: How
many games do you play a year at Manhattanville and what
is your travel schedule like?
Answer: We
play 30 games a year (more if we make the playoffs and
such).
Question:
What is your average travel schedule like?
Answer: Not
too bad, usually we have trips with 5 to 8 nights in
hotels with bus rides of 4 to 6 hours.
Question:
Does Manhattanville provide any nutritional supplements
for their players like most D-1 colleges?
Answer: No,
we don't provide anything like that.
Question:
When a student graduates from Manhattanville what
opportunities do they have to play professional hockey
and are they ready for that level?
Answer: There
are certainly opportunities to play somewhere. Our best
seniors can and will play in the minor professional
leagues. Over the past 3 seasons we have had one player
each year move on to the next level. In 2005-06 we
should have 5 to 6 players move on.
Question:
What do you think is the most important things that a
junior hockey player can work on to make it to the NCAA
level and perhaps even to the pros?
Answer:
Number one is to work on your academic standards.
Second is skating ability (speed and agility) are most
important. Third players should improve over-all
conditioning. Usually poor conditioning is a symptom of
other commitment problems.
David Pollitt:
Thanks Oly for your time. We look forward to seeing
more of your advice and work here on DP Hockey!
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