Jack Ceglarski, head coach of Middlebury men’s hockey, joins Puck Academy to talk about building players — and building a program — in today’s evolving hockey world. A former SUNY Geneseo national champion and pro (Reading, Indy, Huntsville), Jack shares his path from player to coach, including lessons learned from growing up in a deeply rooted hockey family and navigating expectations along the way. We cover: • Why he believes multi-sport athletes develop better long term • What’s broken in modern youth hockey (over-specialization, money, drill culture) • Why cross-ice and small-area play matter more than ever • What he actually looks for in recruiting (hint: it’s not just points) • How academics factor into roster building at a place like Middlebury • His philosophy on the transfer portal and NIL • Practice structure, video usage, and the balance between analytics and the eye test • Why players should dominate a level before moving up • The importance of trust, relationships, and enjoying the college experience Jack also shares his vision for Middlebury: competing annually for NESCAC and national championships while developing complete people, not just hockey players. A thoughtful conversation about development, patience, and choosing your own path in an increasingly complicated hockey ecosystem.
Host Jason Jacobs welcomes Jack Ceglarski, head coach of Middlebury men’s hockey, for a wide-ranging conversation on development, recruiting, and leading a program in today’s changing hockey landscape.
A former SUNY Geneseo national champion and pro (Reading Royals, Indy Fuel, Huntsville Havoc), Jack shares his path from player to coach — including stops at New England College, Notre Dame, and ultimately Middlebury, where he became head coach in 2024.
Jack reflects on growing up at Governor’s Academy in a prominent hockey family and why expectations around his last name felt more motivating than burdensome. He credits multi-sport development and patience in juniors for shaping his long-term growth — and critiques today’s youth hockey culture as overly specialized, travel-heavy, and increasingly money-driven.
We discuss:
Why early specialization may hurt long-term development
The tradeoffs of modern “skills” training vs hockey IQ
Why cross-ice and small-area games matter
How he transitioned from playing to coaching
The importance of borrowing ideas and learning from mentors
As a head coach, Jack emphasizes relationships, trust, and culture. He looks for “thumb guys” — players who respond to adversity — and prioritizes character, academic fit, compete level, and winning traits over raw point totals. On Middlebury’s larger ice surface, skating and puck skill are essential.
He also shares:
Practice structure: systems early, more adaptive later
How he balances video, data, and the eye test
Why players should dominate a level before moving up
His cautious approach to the transfer portal
How NIL, the portal, and major junior shifts are reshaping the college path
Jack closes by outlining his vision for Middlebury: competing annually for NESCAC and national championships while developing complete people — not just hockey players — and encouraging families to trust their own path rather than chasing someone else’s.
Show notes:
00:00 Welcome to Puck Academy + Meet Middlebury HC Jack Ceglarski
02:36 Hockey family roots: Grandfather, dad, and early influences
04:48 Jack’s playing journey: Governors Academy to juniors, college, and pro
07:49 Pressure, expectations, and building your own name
08:58 Multi-sport development vs early specialization
12:35 State of youth hockey today: money, travel, and the Minnesota model
15:44 Skill camps vs hockey IQ: why small-area games matter
19:10 When coaching took over: deciding to hang up the skates
21:14 Coaching development: mentors, “borrowing” ideas, and learning fast
24:36 Taking the Middlebury job: culture, buy-in, and leading with care
29:52 Academics vs athletics: what it takes to get recruited at Middlebury
33:12 Choosing the right level: reclassing, juniors, patience, and dominating your league
36:08 When to Make the Jump: Timing Your Next Step
36:38 Recruiting Non‑Negotiables: Character, Community & Compete Level
37:29 Building a Balanced Roster: Different Player Types, One Team
39:22 Winning Traits Over Points: What Actually Translates
42:44 Coachability & Details: Teaching ‘Stick on Puck’ and Other Habits
44:23 Transfer Portal Strategy: Add Pieces Without Breaking Culture
48:24 The New Hockey Landscape: Major Junior, Prep Paths & Tough Tradeoffs
51:08 Practice Planning Like a DJ: Systems Early, Adjustments Later
52:59 Consistency, Accountability & Responding to Adversity
55:27 Video, Data & the Eye Test: What Tech Can’t Replace
57:22 Developing Players In-Season vs Off-Season: Who Owns What
59:23 Parents, Advisors & Communication: Recruiting the Player, Not the Handler
01:01:28 Who Gets Scouted In Person: Showcases, Shortlists & Final Eye Tests
01:02:30 Selling Middlebury & the NESCAC ‘Best Package’ Pitch
01:03:56 Where the Program—and the Coach—Go Next (and Final Advice)
[Jason Jacobs] (0:00 - 2:26)
Welcome to Puck Academy, a show about how hockey players grow on and off the ice. I'm Jason Jacobs, the host. And each week I talk with players, coaches, and experts shaping the future of player development.
Today's guest is Jack Ceglarski. Jack is the head coach at Middlebury College. And his playing career, he was a four-year member of SUNY Geneseo's men's ice hockey team.
He was a member of the 2016 championship team, a two-time NCAA semifinalist, and played professional hockey with the Reading Royals, the Indy Fuel, and Huntsville Havoc. From a coaching standpoint, he was an assistant coach at New England College, then he was an assistant coach at Notre Dame, joined Middlebury as assistant coach, and then became interim heads coach, and then has been the head coach since 2024. I should also say, Jack comes from a huge hockey family.
His father is a longtime girls coach at Governors Academy, and his grandfather, Len Ceglarski, is one of the winningest college coaches in history, spending a number of years at Clarkson and then at Boston College. We have a great discussion in this episode about Jack's path in the game, what it was like growing up in such a prominent hockey family, how that influenced his own development path, what kind of pressure he got externally, and what was self-directed, and how he thought about that along the way. Talk about his transition to coaching and how much of that was nature versus nurture.
We talk about his coaching philosophy, what it's been like being a head coach at Middlebury, how much he listened and held off on making changes before he came in, versus when he started to make the changes that have helped the program get continually stronger every year since he's been at the helm. We also talk about how the game has been evolving, the state of the youth game, the state of juniors, the state of college hockey and pros, and what kind of impact some of the recent changes around NIL and the portal and Canadian major juniors have had on college hockey, on prep hockey, and on the development path overall. I really enjoyed this one, and I hope you do as well.
Jack Zaglarski, welcome to the show. Yeah, I appreciate it. Thanks for having me.
Thanks.
[Jack Ceglarski] (2:26 - 2:36)
Podcast number one for you, I'm told. Yeah. First time ever, so I'm obviously pretty excited, a little nervous, all mixed bag of the emotions, you know?
[Jason Jacobs] (2:36 - 2:53)
Yeah. Well, I'm super excited to have you. So in prep for this discussion, it's funny.
I mean, you obviously come from a legendary hockey family. I mean, your grandfather, is he still the winningest college coach in history?
[Jack Ceglarski] (2:53 - 3:05)
No, I think Jerry took that title over. I think when he retired, he was the winningest, but obviously, I think Jerry coached for a long time, so I think he took that over.
[Jason Jacobs] (3:06 - 3:46)
But he was, of course, a legendary coach. And then, you know, your dad, who might not be talked about as much in hockey circles, I listened to a podcast that he did from a couple of his students at Governors, and what an awesome guy! And also a longtime coach in his own right, just at a different level.
And now look at you, coaching a program that, when I graduated college in the late 90s, was a juggernaut. And, you know, went through some slower days, and you've come in in the last few years. You know, young, new coach, first-time head coach, and you've done an amazing job.
So there's just, I mean, gosh, there's probably way more to talk about than we have time to do.
[Jack Ceglarski] (3:47 - 4:40)
Yeah, no, I think, I mean, if you looked around and you were shocked that I was going to be a hockey coach, I'd say you're probably joking around, because it obviously runs in the family a bit, and obviously my grandfather had a pretty good career doing that, but I'd say my dad had a pretty good one for himself, too. Actually, Alex Carpenter, who's on the women's US Olympic team, he coached for four years, and she probably was one of the best hockey players I've ever seen play at the high school level, and they went four for four, winning the prep tournament when she was there, and they had some good teams. So a lot of the qualities as a coach that I have are probably, I'd say, from my dad and my grandfather, and just ultimately I can't not shout out my mom, too, so I have to give her a shout out as well.
[Jason Jacobs] (4:41 - 5:01)
Awesome, and we're certainly going to get into that, the whole nature versus nurture and all that for coaching and for players, but before we do any of that, just maybe talk a bit about your journey in the sport. I mean, obviously hockey was everywhere, but how did you find it, and what was your path?
[Jack Ceglarski] (5:02 - 6:20)
Yeah, so obviously runs in the family, as I mentioned earlier, but I think for me personally, I was pretty spoiled, lucky to grow up at Governor's Academy on the campus there. My dad and mom have both worked there for a while, so I was able to go to the rink there growing up all the time whenever the ice was in and practice there and go on the ice with my brothers, my friends, so it kind of just all was natural. We had a lake house growing up, and we were on the lake a lot, so I do miss playing outside.
That was a lot of fun growing up, but I went to Governor's in high school, played some junior hockey, went to Geneseo, played a year pro after, and I'd say I knew at a pretty young age that I wanted to coach, and I just decided to stay in the game, and I'd say some people want to get away and do the business world, the corporate world, but I knew at a pretty young age that I knew I was going to stay in hockey and most likely coach, but obviously I'm pretty happy to be where I'm at and pretty humbled, but I'd say I'm probably in a pretty good spot compared to some of the other people going 9-5 or 8-5 and probably would love to have this job, you know?
[Jason Jacobs] (6:21 - 7:12)
Yeah, well, I mean, that's the thing. When I was growing up, my image of working, like I thought after college work was just where you went to die, and I had this image of a trench coat and a briefcase and those rubber things over your dress shoes in the rain and a folded-up newspaper, like sitting on the train just being a miserable bastard, right? And actually, if you do it right, you can love your work as much as you love other things that you love, but you just need to be intentional about it and fortunate, and yeah, I mean, certainly I don't underestimate that people need to survive to pay the bills and pay them however they can, but yeah, being miserable 9-5 isn't a requirement.
[Jack Ceglarski] (7:12 - 7:49)
No, I think definitely happiness is a big thing that I like to talk about, whether it's with my players, with myself, with my wife, with my brothers, whoever it might be. I think making sure you're waking up and smiling is a very important thing that I'm lucky enough to do with what I do for work, and I have great kids around me, great people around me, so it makes those days a lot more fun, especially when the days maybe are long or tough days, tough time at home, tough time at work, whatever it might be. Being able to call a rink work is obviously pretty special.
[Jason Jacobs] (7:49 - 7:59)
So growing up with such a strong hockey lineage, what role did pressure and expectations play in your path in the game, if any?
[Jack Ceglarski] (8:00 - 8:57)
Yeah, I mean, it's a really good question. I would say just the pressure in the sense of having the last name I do in the sense of, oh, are you related to him? Are you related to this guy?
Are you related to that? I'd say that's really the only pressure I think I was able to realize or not accept, but just understand that that was pressure to have that last name, but I guess at a young age, I didn't really take it as pressure. I took it more of like a compliment-slash-lucky to be in that family tree, but I'd say now it's a little different because obviously my family has some pretty, pretty good coaches in it, and I would love to live up to at least bits and pieces of it, but also I want to, on my side of things, just create my own name and make them proud, right?
It's just trying to create my own path.
[Jason Jacobs] (8:58 - 9:10)
And when you were coming up as a player, how much pressure did you put on yourself to perform, and how did you think about development, if at all?
[Jack Ceglarski] (9:11 - 11:18)
I'd say growing up at Governors gave me the best access to be an athlete, not just a hockey player, but an athlete. I played outside a lot. I was on a court, I was on a field, I was on a rink, you name it.
I was playing all sports with friends, other people that lived at the campus, friends that would come over, play with my brothers, their friends, my friends, all that, right? I think, to be honest with you, hockey didn't really take a big... Hockey was obviously my number one sport that I loved the most.
I'd say lacrosse I was probably best at for a while, and then eventually I just picked hockey, and that was my senior year of high school, and I knew I wanted to play college hockey, didn't have many offers, so I went to junior hockey, which obviously a lot of people are way more familiar with nowadays compared to back when I played, which obviously wasn't a long time ago, but that's just kind of where the game's at now.
But I wouldn't necessarily say developing in hockey and that pressure was what it is now for some families and kids. I'd say my big thing was I wanted to be the best athlete I could, whether I was playing baseball, hockey, or lacrosse, basketball, football, I wanted to be the best I could at that, and that was just more so a personal thing, and I put a lot of the competitiveness and the drive to want to be good at all sports to my upbringing of being on that campus and being around all those sports and all those athletes at the school around my brothers or just how our parents brought us up. I don't think being the siloed athlete that is a lot more specific these days, I just think that really is a negative because I just think kids lose so many touches at different sports that would help them on the ice or would help them on the lacrosse field or the baseball field.
So for me personally, it was more so just a pressure if I wanted to be a good athlete than rather just a good hockey player.
[Jason Jacobs] (11:19 - 12:43)
I'm right in the thick of it that with my kids, my kids are almost 14 and almost 11, and it's one thing that I really wrestle with that makes me sad is that I think a lot of parents who are right in the thick of that and are kind of on the club train, and even coaches, they don't like the state of the state, especially here in New England, and yet the system is what the system is, and you need to play the cards you're dealt, and everything in the system is so much about you need to be here by this point, and that's the only way you can get to there by that point, and then if you want to get there, there's no room for patience.
There's no room for exploration. It's all called inefficiency or laziness or lack of grind instead of tunnel vision too early, which actually is detrimental, and it strips the love out of the game. I don't know what the answer is because I'm in it, and I'm guilty, because you want your kids to have the opportunity to play if they love the game, but it not only strips the joy out of it, but I think it might even hurt long-term development as well in terms of what their potential is in the sport, so what do you think about the state of the game today, and do you wrestle with any of the same?
[Jack Ceglarski] (12:44 - 15:44)
The state of the game, there's a couple different buckets for me in that. I'd say the hockey is obviously very good, very skilled, fast, a lot of good players. In my position, we have a lot of people to recruit and a lot of places to recruit from.
I'd say youth hockey to me I think is a disaster. I'm not as in tune with it as much as some other families, but just from being more of an outside view to it, I just think it's so money-driven. It's so siloed, and I just talked about it.
I think kids just don't play the sports they used to growing up. I think it's so much these kids are turning into hockey players when they're 8 years old, 9 years old, and to me they're a 9-year-old. They have so much time to develop not just on the ice, but off the ice as kids, and they are stuck in cars all the time.
They're stuck in hotels, and they lose friends. They lose those moments that I had as a kid, that I'm sure you had as a kid that were so fun, and I'm not saying playing in tournaments all the time is not fun, but I just feel like you're just sheltering kids and putting them in a bubble at such a young age that I do think it affects them not just on the ice, but in their human skills and their personality and how they talk to people. I don't think it's in a disaster spot necessarily the whole game, but I do think bits and pieces of it are in a pretty tough spot, and as I said, I just think the money nowadays in the world, in the sport, in hockey has just kind of crept in at all levels, and good or bad, but as I said, I'd say youth hockey is probably not in the best spot.
I think if you look at Minnesota, to me Massachusetts should be Minnesota in the sense of you play for your town, you play for that pride, you play for all that, and I'm so jealous of how Minnesota does it because you don't spend a crazy amount of money driving everywhere. You play in your town, you play in your surrounding communities, and some club teams exist out there obviously, but I just think I have a couple kids from Edine on my team, and you listen to them talk about their experience at the Excel Center playing high school there, and it just sounds a lot of fun, right? And I just don't think high school hockey is really what it used to be back in the day in Massachusetts, and to me that's the model that all states should go after which would eliminate a lot of money for some unhappy campers because they obviously have made a pretty big killing on that, but it's a really touchy topic, but I'd say bits and pieces are definitely not in the best spot.
[Jason Jacobs] (15:44 - 16:05)
So, I mean, we talked about the professionalization and the early specialization. What about the rise of individual skill development? What impact has that had on the game, and what impact has it, if any, do you think that's had on IQ?
[Jack Ceglarski] (16:06 - 19:10)
Yeah, I would definitely say IQ's definitely gone down in the sense of, I mean, I could make a flyer and say Jack Sklarsky's skill camp, and you can come, and I can put a bunch of cones and sticks that I create in my garage, and anybody and everybody can come and put it under the stick, around the cone, you can skate around it, then go shoot in the net. I'd say that's why I think the game is so skilled now. Everybody's going to have good hands.
Everybody's going to have a good shot. Everybody can stick handle, right? But I do think when it comes to making plays in traffic or making plays off the rush or having creativity, I do think there's been a lack of that, and I think people spending hundreds and hundreds and even thousands of dollars on people to go put a puck under a pony or put a puck under a stick or around a cone and then shoot it, to be honest with you, what does that teach you?
Yeah, you're getting good hands, good skills, but I think when the game gets fast and the lights are bright, that's when the people who are good players really stick out, and a lot of those skilled players, whether they have the IQ or not or they compete, they're either tapering off and they're nonexistent or they might have a big moment to finish a goal, but I just think there's so much more to development than spending all that money to go stick handle and work on your hands. I think to me the biggest part of the earlier question of youth hockey, I think that has so much to do with it, and you look at whether it's a U8, U9, U10, U11 game, yes, they're 10, 11 years old.
To be honest with you, in my opinion, all those kids should be playing cross-ice games or half-ice games, not full ice. I went to my nephew's game a few weeks ago. He's 10 years old, and the amount of breakaways and 4-on-1s, 3-on-1s that you watch is, yes, it's exciting for the kids, but they should not be winning games 8-10 all the time.
If they're winning games 8-10 on a cross-ice, that's probably some fun hockey to watch. I think the size of the ice sheet has really also hurt the IQ and the growth of kids at a young age, to be honest with you, and there's a pretty good graphic I remember I saw on Twitter a few months ago of how Sweden does it. Sweden, I think from a young age, probably when they first get on the ice until, I think, youth 13 or 14 play half-ice or down, and then once you get to high school, they start to play full ice and they start to get that game, and you look at those European players, how skilled, but their IQ is just so good.
I'm not saying that Canadians and Americans aren't great, but I just think if you look over in Europe of all the full package, to be honest with you, I think they do it right.
[Jason Jacobs] (19:11 - 19:38)
Well, I mean, I don't want to lose this track because there's a bunch of fertile ground here in terms of topics, but I'm realizing that on your own journey, there's an area that we can't neglect, which is we talked about the playing path, but at what point on your playing path did coaching seep in and when did the ambition start to shift from how far I can get as a player to thinking about what you might actually be able to do with a coaching hat on?
[Jack Ceglarski] (19:39 - 21:14)
Yeah, I'd say everybody who's in junior hockey or plays college hockey is, I'm going to play until my legs fall off, or I'm going to play this, I'm going to play that. I knew I wanted to play after college because I wanted to play for myself because I wanted to prove that to myself, prove it to a lot of people, but also I think my thought of it was if I played professionally after college, that was also good for my resume to coach and help on that side of things, but I was lucky enough to have a pretty good first-year pro and I ended up winning a championship, so that was a lot of fun, but I think that summer talking to one of my buddies who got into coaching that same time, and for me, if I was going to make no money, I wanted to at least make no money with a future to it, and I knew at that point my hockey career was at the final stage, not saying I couldn't play longer, more so the growth of me personally in it, and I just felt like at that point it was like, okay, if I'm going to make no money, I'd rather make no money building to a career, building towards a future that's going to pay off down the line, so it was over the summer talking to my parents, my brothers, and a couple of buddies that I'm close with that I trained with and played with, and ultimately are in coaching now. I think at that point I knew I needed to make that switch just for my future as a young man. That was kind of where I was at.
[Jason Jacobs] (21:15 - 21:38)
What has your own coaching development path looked like, and what lessons can we glean in terms of for those players who aspire to ultimately coach? What do you wish you knew then that you know now or any advice that you have? Gosh, that's probably too big a question to lump into one, but here we are.
[Jack Ceglarski] (21:38 - 24:36)
I think it's a tough one to answer, but I'd say you always have to be a sponge whether you agree with that coach or not. You have to be a sponge and take the pros and cons from everything, and you're ultimately going to make your own coaching hat that you wear and how you do it and how you learn and how you steal the information. Obviously, I think all coaches don't call it stealing.
They call it borrowing. But for me personally, I was lucky enough to have a really good mentor system of coaches. I played for a lot of good coaches in high school, juniors, and then college, and then pro, obviously, and then when I got into coaching, I was surrounded by a lot of good hockey people.
Kevin Swallow at UNE has done a phenomenal job. To me, that guy is one of the best coaches I've ever been around. He knows what he's doing.
He's intense, but he's fair. He's good with the kids, and it's not a surprise that they're consistently in the top 15 every year in D3. Then I was lucky enough to go to Notre Dame after, and that was an experience that I'll never forget and probably has shaped me a lot of who I am as a coach and being on the inside there to borrow their stuff and learn from them.
That was a staff that was together for 15 to 20 years, which is very rare at that level to stay together for that long, but I think that showed the commitment they had to each other and the love they had for each other but also that school, too. Then I came to Middlebury as around Neil, and Neil was awesome. Coach Beeney was around a lot.
Then ultimately, to me, the thing that I'm most appreciative for for being at MID is not just the hockey coaches that I'm around with Bill and Mac down the hallway for the women's team, and then obviously Fitzy and Trent, my assistants. Being around all the other coaches in all the sports is phenomenal, and if you look at Middlebury, we win at a high rate in all sports, and to be able to borrow their knowledge and learn from them and how they see things and how they approach recruiting, how they approach team building, how they approach holding people accountable, how they approach handling their kids off the ice, or excuse me, off the field, off the court, off the ice, I'm very, very humbled to be in this spot because I have such a good surrounding cast that I'm able to lean on. So it's stealing from, or excuse me, borrowing from a lot of different coaches, whether it's on my hockey path or ultimately around the coaches I'm around every single day.
[Jason Jacobs] (24:37 - 25:05)
And so stepping in as a young coach, as a first-time coach, to a program that maybe hadn't been doing as well as in some earlier years, how did you balance maintaining status quo and building trust with putting your own stamp on it and making the changes needed to help the program get on a better path?
[Jack Ceglarski] (25:06 - 27:16)
I get this question a lot, whether it's on a phone call, off a call, whatever. I don't think the program was ever in a bad spot, truthfully. I really believe that.
Neil did a phenomenal job, and he had to deal with a lot of, truthfully, I think the school was changing when he was here in the sense of how they looked at transcripts, how they looked at everything academically. I think our school went through an identity change in the sense of how we approached the academic side of things. And he was a guy that had to shoulder that, and he did a phenomenal job.
And obviously, going after a guy like Coach Beeney, that's going to be really tough to handle. And Coach Beeney was, to be honest with you, one of the best coaches to ever coach hockey. And to be around him, he's the ultimate guy to make you think outside the box.
So to be honest with you, it was more so just getting kids to buy in and love each other and trust the process and want to work hard and want to win. And we're at a school that kids can come to and really fall into that 9-5, 8-5 trap that we were talking about earlier in the show of what's important in life. And to be honest with you, a lot of stuff that we talk about is be where your feet are at and enjoy, because I will tell you from experience, you will want this four years back, whether they're good four years or bad four years or up and down four years, you're going to want to be back in college again down the road, especially probably when you're sitting at your desk crunching numbers or doing whatever it is for your work.
So just getting kids to want to just accept where their feet are at and love it and enjoy it. And I'm obviously pretty lucky to have some good players that are working hard and take a lot of pride in their hockey and their academics too.
[Jason Jacobs] (27:16 - 28:04)
I mean, I know it's fairly early in your head coaching story, but if you look at the three years, I mean, every year the seed of Middlebury is getting better and better, right? I think you guys are projected, at least according to Chats GPT, you're projected to be the number three seed for the NESCAC, heading into the playoffs, which is better than the last two years, which were better than the several years before that. If you had a buddy who was about to become their first time head coach in a D3 program, what advice would you give them about how they should approach it and how to set themselves up for success?
[Jack Ceglarski] (28:05 - 29:52)
To be honest with you, it was one of the Notre Dame guys that said this, is you just got to let them know that you care. If you show them that you care and you love it and you're invested, they're going to be invested with you. And then that's going to allow you to put your stamp on things, right?
So I think kids these days crave relationships. That's a big thing for me. That's probably my number one thing is having a good relationship with kids.
And I'd say that has stemmed into how we're playing. And to be honest with you, I think at this level, if you can trust and enjoy who you're playing for or who you're coaching two-way street there, it's going to allow those moments when I have to get on their ass of working harder or make a better play. If we build that trust and have that strong relationship before those big moments, it's going to allow us to work better on the bench or on the ice during practice, however it may be.
But I'd say the improvement of the play and of the standings of however you want to look at it, I'd say you're not going to improve without good players. So I think our recruiting has done well in the sense of recruiting some good hockey players. But to be honest with you, it's the kids we have.
They're phenomenal kids. They work hard. They enjoy where they're at.
And it's obviously a pretty cool thing to be able to coach this group because I just think we have a really good group. But as I said, I think they trust what I'm doing. I trust what they're doing.
And they trust each other, which I think is the most important thing.
[Jason Jacobs] (29:53 - 30:41)
I've heard you say before that the funnel, the recruiting funnel or pipeline at an academically rigorous school like Middlebury is immediately much smaller than some other less stringent academically programs. For the players that aspire to play great hockey at great academic institutions, how should they balance academics versus athletics as they're coming up in the game given that those paths, I get that if done right, they feed each other and they're self-reinforcing, but oftentimes they feel like they're at odds. So, yeah.
What's your advice to try to keep the train on the tracks across all of those things given that natural tension between them?
[Jack Ceglarski] (30:42 - 33:12)
Yeah. I mean, I probably laughed at my mom when she said it. I'll be honest with you.
But if you think about it stats-wise, how many people turn into an NHL player? 1% or less probably. There's so much more to life and that's so much more important to life like having good people skills, being a hard worker, being a good son, being a good brother, being a good husband, being a good father.
There's so much more important to life than just being a good hockey player. And to be honest with you, making sure you're putting your kid in a good school and surrounded by good teachers and not making them go online and do their homework in a hotel every single week. That is not beneficial to that boy or girl's future and how they're going to live their life to be honest with you.
And I'd say to balance the two, I'll say how I say it. Say two recruits. You could be Connor McDavid, Cale McCarr, Andre Vazilevski, whoever you want to be.
But if you do not have the grades to get into Middlebury, you will not come here. I can't help you there, right? So that's why I think academics are very important and which hand up, I definitely didn't take full advantage of the situation I had and that's on me.
And I look back at that and I'll be able to hopefully be a better father for that. But I just think people think hockey is going to be their ticket everywhere, which it's going to be a ticket to some level or some point, but at one point academics are either going to help you or they're going to burn you. And that's why I always encourage kids to make sure they worry about their studies first because that's going to be your ticket, whether into this door or not, because hockey is going to be hockey, but you need to be able to have the grades here.
And whether it's for Middlebury or it's for Harvard, you're going to have to find a way in. And to be honest with you, the best thing you can do for yourself is have good grades and put yourself in a position academically to make the coaching staff make a hockey decision. And that's not just for college and D1 and D3, that's also for going to a prep school.
That's a huge, huge important thing for obviously kids at a young age in New England and on the outside that want to come to New England prep school.
[Jason Jacobs] (33:12 - 33:52)
There's different schools of thought that I hear as I kind of make the rounds talking to smart hockey people. And you hear sometimes it's steel sharpens steel and you want to play at the highest level that you can hang. And then other people might say, you know, until you're dominating at a level, don't go too early, it can be detrimental.
How do you think about that? And how do you think about things like age, reclassing, juniors, level of maturity? Like, is it case by case or do you have any biases in terms of general advice or that are, you know, Jack Zagorski specific or Middlebury specific?
[Jack Ceglarski] (33:52 - 36:37)
I'd say it's case by case. I think everybody's path is different. Everybody's peak is different.
Everybody's big summer, big step is different. I mean, my personal case was I'd say my junior year in high school gave me a little confidence. Senior year, I felt a lot better and I knew and I still didn't have any college interest.
So I had to go to junior hockey and junior hockey was the spot I took off. And that was a spot that I got a coach that really believed in me, pumped confidence in me and put me in positions that I wasn't really in before and I realized I could do them. And mentally that was the key that kind of opened all the doors for me on my hockey career.
Now is after high school. Everybody's path is different. People are going to be studs when they're in 6th, 7th, 8th grade.
They're not going to play college hockey. There's going to be kids who are on the B team, on the C team or on the D team with how teams are these days. There's four or five teams per age group, which is insane to me.
We could get back into that, but we don't have to. Those kids on the D team might eventually be one of the best college hockey players or the guys that went the farthest in hockey of that group. It's just patience and just loving the game and if you love it, you're going to work hard and you're going to play it and you're going to have fun with it and not worry about what team you're on.
Just go have fun, get better because you're a 13, 14, 15-year-old kid. You just don't know what puberty is going to do with you or your development or what's going to happen when you turn 18, 19. And I'd say when it comes to making decisions to reclass or go to juniors, when did you do this, when to do that, I always say too to parents of you only leave your league that you're in once you dominate it.
You can't be leaving a league that you're not very good in or you're middle of the pack. You need to dominate the league you're in first before you go to the next one. So if you're a point-of-game guy or more in high school, probably time to move on.
If you're a half a point-of-game guy in high school, wait for that point-of-game guy to leave. If you take his spot, that's your time right there. If you can do it, now you're proving to yourself you can and you're proving to others that you can.
So I always say make that jump when you're ready, not when you think the time's not right, but when you feel or are told the time's right by probably an advisor or coaches or parents or whoever it might be. You just got to go pretty much when the facts are there.
[Jason Jacobs] (36:38 - 36:48)
What was your philosophy coming in from a recruiting standpoint and where is it now? And to the extent that it's evolved over the first few years, how is it different?
[Jack Ceglarski] (36:49 - 39:21)
Number one is good person. You have to have really good people around you and good community members because I think when you come to a school like this, that's very important. So to me, it's just being around good people.
I think that's a non-negotiable. So that's off ice. Obviously, if you're coming here, you're a good student, so I don't really have to touch that.
On ice, I learned this at Notre Dame. The non-negotiable is you compete. If you don't compete, you're not going to play here.
And people compete in different ways. Like some people skate really hard or some people kind of bait you in and then take the puck away from you. There's a lot of different ways to compete, so that's our job to find that.
And then after that, I'm not a believer in just finding really good skaters or really big people or really small people. I need to find all different kinds of people. And if you look up and down my lineup, you're going to see a forward who's 6'3", you're going to see a forward who's 5'8", you're going to see a D-man who's 5'10", you're going to see a D-man who's 6'9".
I have a lot of different makeups of players. It's just finding the kids that you know are going to help you in different situations or if they're good in specific moments. I'd say probably everyone's thinking the 6'9 guy's probably pretty good on the penalty kill.
He is. He's very good on it. And then you have the little guy who's a pass good on the penalty kill but creates so much offense from his forechecking.
And then you have a 6'3 forward who's very physical who, as you can imagine, is probably pretty good down below the dot. So it's just finding a lot of different pieces to your team and recruiting all different kinds of styled players and not really just getting fixated on one or two things. But that's something that I've kind of always believed in but have really kind of narrowed in on.
I will say the one thing I've maybe misjudged a little bit coaching here is we have an Olympic-sized ice here just shy of Olympic. So you have to have kids who can either skate or kids who can really handle a puck. Because you have the time and space but you have to have kids that can make those plays and have good IQ.
So just trying to make sure those boxes are checked when we're committing kids.
[Jason Jacobs] (39:22 - 39:40)
When you think about these players coming up how much of what's in them is just in them and nature is just taking its course and how much of it can be influenced by environment and which things are innate and which things can be influenced by environment?
[Jack Ceglarski] (39:40 - 42:44)
I'd say a big thing that, not to share all my things, but a big thing that we want to find are kids that are playing at winning programs. And whether that's the prep schools or the juniors or over in Europe or U18. We want kids that are competing and want to win.
I think so much these days it's all about my G's, A's and my PTS, all my points. And it's so wrong. It's so wrong because at the end of the day some of my best players on my team now are guys that were middle of the road point guys on their teams.
And they're some of the most effective players on my team. And being effective doesn't mean you're scoring all the goals or getting all the assists. Being really effective might be winning a face-off with 30 seconds left in your own end up two to one in a playoff game.
Imagine being that guy to have that weight and pressure on your shoulders and being able to handle that and be successful in that moment is just as important as scoring that game-winning goal to make it 2-1. And people in my position are paid and are responsible for knowing that. And if coaches don't know that then that's obviously on them.
But I just think it's like so much of what we look for has to come from winning. And whether you're the point guy in that winning team or you're one of the roll guys on that winning team you have definitely a spot in my mind and you're a guy that you're going to be on our recruiting list. So we just try and find kids that are playing for winning programs or maybe they're not on a winning program but you can go see that they clearly are a competitor and have that drive and that itch to win.
I'd say I was definitely an emotional player. I'd say my college coach would laugh at that. But I'd say emotion shows a lot.
Having good body language is really important but I'd say being a former emotional player I have a little grace there. And that was a big thing for me is I was as competitive as they came when it came to wanting to win or being the best at something. And that just grew and grew and grew as I got older.
The number one thing we're trying to find in the recruits that we're trying to bring in are just winning qualities whether that's you're playing on a winning team and you're helping or you're on maybe the middle of the road team but you're trying your best and you're showing that trying to pull your team into the playoffs or pull them into a better spot in the standings. Winning is by far the number one thing that we tend to have as the starting point and then we'll go from there.
[Jason Jacobs] (42:44 - 42:53)
What's an example of something if there is something that it's not as important that a player has coming in because you're like, oh, if they don't have that I know I can work with them to develop it.
[Jack Ceglarski] (42:53 - 44:22)
I'd say just little details like a big thing that we talk about is stick on puck. I think that's something that is really important as a forward and a defenseman and whether you're on the penalty kill five on five trying to recover a puck on a power play like having a stick on puck is one of the best qualities that I think a player can have because some of the most from one of my best friends who's my roommate in college he had the best stick on puck I've ever seen. He was the most annoying guy to go against in practice because you couldn't, you couldn't I definitely would bully him around in the corners or off the rush, but like he would able to he'd be able to stay around every single situation cause he just had a really good stick on puck and it was annoying to have to make a play around or it forces you into bad areas of the ice.
So that's one quality that I think that we are always harping on and looking for but also talking about and also saying, all right this kid has really good feet as a defenseman skates really well, competes really hard but his sticks always, he's always two hands on a stick. We can help him and talk to him about that. And whether we're taping his hand behind his back or we're telling him to flip a stick around whatever it might be, just little coaching moments to help a kid gain a new piece in their development that ultimately might unlock their game to a whole other level.
[Jason Jacobs] (44:23 - 45:06)
I can't remember where I heard it but I heard you speak somewhere. And I think, and correct me if I'm wrong but I think what you were saying was that if talent was available to come in midstream like sophomore, junior, senior year through the portal that you don't really put much credence in the portal and that you want the players for four years so that they really buy into, you know falling in love with the program and being invested in it. I mean, I've heard some D1 coaches that have come on the show and talked about how transactional things are becoming with the portal.
How do you balance access to top talent with longevity and how do you balance I guess, same thing with like talent and like buying into the system?
[Jack Ceglarski] (45:07 - 48:23)
Yeah, I'd say that my view to that has I have to admit it's probably changed only because I do think as you just mentioned and where hockey's at, it's so different now that I think you have to have an open mind to it. I'd say to rebuild and restart a program or if you have a brand new program that you're in charge of building I don't think it's through the portal but I do think what you can do with the portal is find bits and pieces to add to your team that puts you in a really good position. My philosophy and my non-negotiables with the portal player is you had to be previously recruited by us and you have to know players in my locker room.
If I have that, I'll really consider it and if I feel like you're going to help us, I'll take you. But if I don't have those two things, then I'm not taking you. I'm not gonna just take Jason Jacobs who I've never seen before or never met or no one in my locker room has never met because you're just, to be honest with you, you're opening yourself up for some risk whether it's a good risk or bad risk.
I don't know. I don't have the ability to look into the future there but if I have, say, this past year, we took Eddie Moskowitz. He's from Holy Cross.
He's been a phenomenal add for us because, one, I recruited him previously at Middlebury as the assistant. Jack Fitzgerald, who was my assistant this past year, who's at St. Mike's now as a head coach, he recruited him when he was at Amherst. So that was two coaches that knew him previously and then Eddie is best friends with a couple of our guys that were returning.
So it was a no-brainer to take Eddie and once I had a few conversations with Eddie, I knew that he would fit well because you see a kid, he didn't score for, I don't think, the first 13, 14 games and he had probably two or three points so that's probably pretty big beating on his ego but I've never seen a kid in that situation just stick with it, keep working hard, come to skills every morning, approach it like he was still at a Division I program and now it's paying off and he's probably scored points.
He's probably a point-of-game player in the last eight games and, to be honest with you, it's a guy that just kept his head down, kept working hard and has put himself in a really good position. So that's my whole thing with the Portals. I just think you have to be very strategic with it.
You can't just take and take and take and take and assume that's going to make you better because, to be honest with you, Division I players are coming down here. Yes, sometimes it might be out of their own hands but a lot of it has to be because they're coming to where they belong, truthfully. And I think, at the end of the day, coming in as a true freshman, or not a true freshman but someone that's brand new to college, I think your hunger is a little bit more than maybe someone that's coming down who might have more of an ego, right?
But if I'm taking someone out of the Portal, I have to make sure I'm pretty dialed in on what they're made up of and where they're coming from.
[Jason Jacobs] (48:24 - 49:03)
One thing I've noticed is that if you ask people about the rule changes and the effect, it just depends on your perspective. If you're a coach, you're like, well, this is great because now I have all this access to additional talent, right? But if you're a player coming up, for example, who aspired to play D3, then your path might have just gotten a lot harder.
So, I mean, you're a player who played D3. Your path coming up today might be harder because of some of the rule changes and the Canadian major juniors and crap flowing downhill. How do you feel about it from that perspective?
Is it still a good thing?
[Jack Ceglarski] (49:04 - 51:08)
I don't know. I'm so torn in this. It's such a debate that I have with friends, even myself, too.
I think it's a good thing that people can take major junior players because it's a different path. It's a different route. I think, ultimately, it's good.
But I do have a sensitive spot in the sense of a guy like myself where if that was going on now, I'm probably playing lacrosse in college, truthfully. That's where I have the sensitive piece to those kids that are so close, but just nobody's looking at them just because the pool's so much bigger now. It's just tough to see.
And the big thing for me that I see a lot is it's like, okay, Jason Jacobs and his son, they want to come to Middlebury or go to the NESCAC or go to Babson or Skidmore or an Ivy League or a high academic school. They don't get what they want. And then, oh, I'm done.
I'm just going to go to school. I think that just such, I don't know, selfish thinking in the sense like, yes, you need a good education. You need to be put yourself in a really good spot.
And I might sound like a hypocrite, but at the end of the day, when you're 65 years old and you look back and you're like, oh, God, I quit hockey. It's like, what? What is going on?
What's more important in life? But I don't know. That's a really tough question.
I think, unfortunately, I do think it's a good thing is that it did open up selfishly for people in my chair. But I think of maybe my brother's chair who has kids at a young age that are going to be coming up. I do.
I feel for them because it's such a mess now. And there's just so much going on that no one knows truthfully. And everyone might tell you this is the right path.
No one knows the right path. I think all the paths are different. And to be honest with you, all paths ultimately lead to the same spot.
And that's on Monday, Tuesday nights. And we're having a beer after.
[Jason Jacobs] (51:09 - 51:22)
Jumping to tactics. So when it comes to scripting out the season from a practice and development standpoint, how much of it is scripted and planned out in advance? And how much are you, the DJ, kind of reading the room and adjusting and adapting along the way?
[Jack Ceglarski] (51:22 - 52:59)
I'd say the first half of the year is definitely pretty scripted, is very heavy systems based, getting our guys up to speed there. And then usually once I'd say January hits, middle of January, it's pretty much more of a DJ, what we think we need, what we need to tweak, what we need to work on. And then there's a lot of skill development in there as well.
And to be honest with you, a lot of the skill development we do is some broken down situations of Forge collecting a rim off the wall, making a move, attacking the net. But I also think a lot of skill development comes in small ice games, small area games. And that's something I learned a lot about from Neil, of my time here as the assistant, and then obviously learning from Coach Beany too and getting in that side of things.
And that's why I'm... And it all comes back to my point earlier, kids at a young age should only be playing cross ice, small area games for their season. You nine kids should be playing a 50 games schedule of cross ice games because you touch the puck more, you make plays more, you shoot the puck more, you pass the puck more, you have to make decisions more.
And it's all quicker. So a lot of our skill development is broken down situations, whether it's within practice or in the mornings before class or within practice with small ice games and different rules involved or really all the different games we like to do. I think a lot of those situations are brought up then.
[Jason Jacobs] (53:00 - 53:10)
Which elements of a Middlebury practice are consistent from practice to practice and which elements do you shift it up? So is it like 80% consistent or 10% consistent?
[Jack Ceglarski] (53:11 - 55:25)
Which is which? The only consistent thing I'll tell you is Mondays we do a seven-game series of small ice games. And I like to do either upperclassmen versus the underclassmen or USA versus Canada.
That gets pretty heated, especially around now and the world junior time. But qualities that I want consistent are you're going to have an off practice. You're not going to be very good one day a week or one day every other week, but it's just making sure you're working hard and you're getting better at something.
You see it. We have kids that go to class all day and are on that grind on that side of campus. Then when they come over, it's really tough.
And I give them a lot of credit with how they handle it. But as I always say, if you don't have your legs, your hands, or even your brain, go have a good defensive stick. Go have a good stick on puck or make sure you're hitting the net.
Little things like that that I always talk about is if you're not going to have your best day, find something to build off and get ready. And how we like to say is if you have a bad practice on Tuesday, it's just like having a bad game on Friday. How do you respond and have a good practice on Wednesday?
And how do you have a good game on Saturday? So to me, and I know I'm not going to be some philosopher here, but it's all about life too. And if you get knocked down in something you had, how do you get back up?
Do you complain about it? Do you cry about it? Do you go ask mom and dad for something?
Do you go tell the coach this and that? Or is it I look in the mirror, be a thumb guy. What we say, don't be a pointer guy, be a thumb guy.
Take it in. How do you respond? How do you deal with that adversity?
How do you get better from it? And that's just something we talk about a lot because a lot of these kids here, they're going to be, you're not going to get a job offer you want. You're not going to get an internship you want, but how do you respond to that?
How do you get better at your interviews? How do you get better on the half wall? How do you get better at the face-off dot?
How do you get better at coding? Whatever it might be for these kids, you just have to find a way to respond and get better and take the failure as a learning thing.
[Jason Jacobs] (55:27 - 55:51)
As cameras become more pervasive, as access to data gets better and AI and automation and stuff like that, how are you using video and data today? How do you hope to use it in the future? And how is technology changing the role that the eye test plays, if at all?
[Jack Ceglarski] (55:52 - 57:21)
To be honest with you, the video only helps us here at Mid, and I'd argue everywhere. Video only really helps you for improving your team or improving individually or seeing something as a coach that you messed with in game. But when it comes to recruiting, it helps me watch kids more and be able to stay in tune more because obviously having to get in the car and drive everywhere is tough and you can't do all the time.
But nothing will ever take away from the eye test, ever, ever. You can't look at a player and just be like, okay, just because he has 50 points in 30 games, you can obviously tell what he's probably pretty good at and that's scoring or making plays and all that, but you don't know what he's like in crucial moments at each blue line making a decision with the puck. You don't see that within stats.
And maybe at the highest level of being able to afford every single thing, whether it's the D1 or NHL, you're able to see every single metric going. Maybe that's where it'll help. But for me personally, eye test, you're not coming to play for me without the eye test.
It's just simple as that. I have to be able to watch you and watch your 60-minute game in multiple games, whether it's in person or on film. But I always say if I'm going to commit you, I will be watching you in person because watching someone in person rather than over a camera is completely different.
[Jason Jacobs] (57:22 - 57:53)
What about on the development side? Philosophically, how much of your bandwidth is going towards helping the group of players that you have play better together and how much of it is on helping players develop individually? And how should it be?
Is the development path for an individual player something they should take upon themselves and seek out external to the program? Or should the program be self-sufficient to get them everything that they need if they're dialed in and bought in?
[Jack Ceglarski] (57:53 - 59:22)
At our level, it's definitely both because we don't have the access to the kids as much as a Division 1 team does. At Notre Dame, kids, they got there in September. We had touch points with them all the way until pretty much the end of the school year.
Then they had a month off. Then they came back for all of June and half of July. We were able to work with them.
So at D1, it's a completely different thing. That, to me, is all on the program. But at D3 and all of the other levels, I think within the season, that's on the program.
And then out of season, I think the program can only do so much. We can stay on them, texting them, calling them, giving them plans. But to me, a lot of that has to come from within.
And within, you have to have that internal drive, whether it's on ice, off ice, mentally, physically, however it might be. But that's where you might have to go find some coaches in different areas out of season to help you in that side of things. But it's also still our job to make sure they're doing the right things.
But as I said, I could call Jason, who's my first-line center. He can say, yeah, coach, I'm working really hard. Meanwhile, he's on the couch watching Netflix or playing Fortnite every single day.
So you just don't really know what they're up to at our level the best, as maybe the D1 guys do.
[Jason Jacobs] (59:23 - 59:43)
And when it comes to all the handlers that are around these players increasingly coming up, whether it's the player development coach, whether it's the agent or advisor, whether it's their strength guy at home or whatever, how much interface do you have with the player versus the handlers versus mom and dad? And how should it be?
[Jack Ceglarski] (59:43 - 1:01:28)
I think at my level, there's not much connection really anywhere when it comes to a strength coach or skills coach or even mom and dad. On the hockey side of things, when it comes to mom and dad, I love to have a beer with them. I love to talk to them.
When I see them and see them after games, pregame, I'm always gonna talk to them and get to know them and see how they're doing. But I think when it comes to somebody's power play time or their ice time, it's obviously at this level. To me, it's between the coach and the player.
I'd say when it comes to junior hockey, I'd say the advisors obviously come into play or in high school, obviously advisors come into play. But I appreciate advisors. They work hard.
But I will say is I'm not recruiting the advisor. I'm recruiting the player. I want to talk to the player.
And then I'd rather talk to the parents before the advisor as well because if you talk to the parents, you can sense a good quality family, a good quality set of parents or mom or dad. And then most likely they're gonna run their household the proper way and develop their kids in the right way or what they seem right. But that's our job as coaches is to get that read from the parents and then ultimately from the kids as well.
But I think the advisors, that's a whole other topic. And we can obviously jump in, but I think the advisors pre-college to be are very good to get them to junior hockey or find them those homes. But I just think getting them to college, they can only do so much because at one point, it has to be between the coach and the player and the coach and the family too.
[Jason Jacobs] (1:01:29 - 1:01:43)
Given how important the eye test is to you and given how stats can be deceiving and that you really have to see the eye test and given that there's only so much time in the day and so many miles you can put on your car or on a plane, how do you determine who gets the eye test?
[Jack Ceglarski] (1:01:44 - 1:02:30)
Showcases are important. We see a lot of people at showcases. And then once we have our list from that, our list has started for a long time, we start to narrow down and we start to have our one, two, or three guys at each position.
If we need, say, 2D, probably gonna have four or five guys. All four or five guys are gonna get the eye test. So if we have four forwards that we need to replace and we have probably 10 to 12, most likely we're gonna be able to watch all 12.
So if you're in that list and you're in maybe that final camp of guys, then every single person in that camp's gonna get the eye test, whether that's at the beginning of the year or at the end or in the middle.
[Jason Jacobs] (1:02:31 - 1:02:41)
How much of it is convincing people that might not be sold on Middlebury or might not be looking at Middlebury versus screening from the reams of interest that you inevitably get every year?
[Jack Ceglarski] (1:02:42 - 1:03:55)
I don't think Middlebury needs much convincing, truthfully. Just Google Middlebury College and that'll do a lot for you. But I just think when we get to say we're the Ivy League of Division III for the NESCAC, like I'm not just a Middlebury guy, I'm a NESCAC guy, push her big time.
Because at the end of the day, when you're going Division III, every family's going to say, I want the best package possible. Everyone's going to say that. There's not many people that, even though I was one of them, I wanted the best hockey, right?
I wanted the best hockey. I wanted the best hockey. But being on this side of things and older and more prospective, more miles on my body now, it's more so it's like, okay, each family's going to want the best package.
To be honest with you, there's no better league for schools that provide a better package for families. And selfishly, I think Middlebury's the best at it because I think we have some of the best facilities, top three or four education in league, and then ultimately the hockey side of things to have our facilities and the history we have as a program and the connections we have as an alumni network. I don't think our school really needs much selling.
[Jason Jacobs] (1:03:56 - 1:04:15)
So maybe final two questions. And I'll ask them both at once, so you can either answer them all at once or separately. When you self-assess the Middlebury program as it stands today and you look directionally, what do you most need to work on and where do you want it to go?
And then same question, when you self-assess yourself as a head coach.
[Jack Ceglarski] (1:04:16 - 1:07:31)
I'd say we're very competitive as a program. I think we're scratching the surface. I think there's a lot more runway in front of us to go, but I do think we're competitive.
We're in games. We're able to compete really with anyone. I would have liked a better result against Hobart.
I feel like that would have been a really good, not coming out party for us, but more so inside our locker room mentally to know that it's like, okay, if you can compete with a team like that, then we can compete with anyone. But I think we're scratching the surface of being a very competitive team and hopefully a team that's within the running for the NESCAC championship every year. That's the drive.
That's the goal. And then ultimately going for a national championship. And that's something that we're searching for and trying to find.
And to be honest with you, I think it might seem maybe within the locker room or to some that it might be farther than it is, but I think it's closer really than people might give it credit for. And that's even to myself and even to our players too. We're very close, but it's just finding that right mix of everything and just bottling that up and keeping it together.
And Coach Taylor at Hobart is a really good friend, really good mentor for me and someone I look up to. And you look at what they're doing. It's pretty special and took him some time to do that, but now he has something clearly bottled up and that cork's pretty in tight.
So just finding that and doing that. But me personally, I think to be honest with you, it was kind of your question earlier. If someone's going to be a head coach, I think everybody just has to learn on the fly and jump into the fire.
And for me, that was the only way I was going to learn how to be a head coach is by doing, learning by doing. And it's not like there's this manual of what to do. You're going to create your own manual.
And I think learning on the fly has been the best thing for me. And year by year as I get older, I think it's also helping me mature in this role. I'd say my players would also agree that I'm probably a lot more different this year than I was my first year.
And that's just natural. And that's just natural as a father, as a student, as a hockey player. I just think as you go, you're only going to get better and learn more.
And to be honest with you, I think for me personally, I think it's more so just maintaining my core values. And those are number one is trust. That's something I have in my life off the ice, but also in my program.
Having good trust is the most important thing that I hold very, very close to me. And just keeping those values at the front and being a good person, I think is ultimately what parents are going to want to send their kid to Middlebury for is if they can trust in what I'm doing and making sure I'm putting their kid in a really good spot once they leave here. Because the four years here are building you for the next 40 years.
And that's the most important thing is where is their kid going or where is their kid at once they leave here?
[Jason Jacobs] (1:07:31 - 1:07:39)
Well, this has been such an awesome discussion. I've learned a ton. Is there anything I didn't ask that you wish I did or any parting words for listeners?
[Jack Ceglarski] (1:07:40 - 1:08:44)
No, I just think it's, to be honest with you, I obviously appreciate the opportunity to come on and maybe voice where my head's at on a lot of different topics, obviously. But I guess my parting piece would just be, whether it's you're the player, you're the parent, is just trust the path that you guys are on. You're going to look at your neighbor next door and see their path.
You do not need to jump on that path. You just trust what you're doing. You trust your values as a household and you trust your values as a person.
Because I think if you do that, stuff pays off for good people and good things come to those who wait and are more patient and trust the process than really those that are jumping around trying to find the next best thing. So whether that works out in hockey or not, it'll eventually pay off for you in life, whether that you hit the lottery or you hit something. So just trust your crosses.
Don't try and steal all from other people too.
[Jason Jacobs] (1:08:45 - 1:08:58)
Well, that's a fantastic point to end on. So thanks again, Coach Ceglarski, for coming on the show and best of luck heading into the playoffs and with a long career ahead of you that I look forward to watching and cheering on from a distance.
[Jack Ceglarski] (1:08:58 - 1:09:00)
Great. Thanks, Jason. Really appreciate it.
[Jason Jacobs] (1:09:01 - 1:09:12)
Thanks for listening to Puck Academy. If you enjoyed this episode, follow or subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and share it with someone serious about their game. See you next week.