All Access: Nick Olczyk

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Hockey has always been a part of Nick Olczyk’s life. Hailing from Long Grove, IL, the Steel forward spent his early years playing hockey for local teams before suiting up for Team Illinois U16s. Selected in the 2013 USHL Phase II Draft, Olczyk began his USHL tenure with the Waterloo Black Hawks, appearing in 43 games over the last year and a half. Shortly after the New Year, the Chicago Steel acquired Olczyk through a trade. Olczyk expressed his appreciation for the Steel and is happy to again be playing hockey in the Chicago-land area, near his family. We sat down with #29 to discuss his hockey background, his USHL career and the second half of this season. 

Q: You’re a second year player in the USHL, having played for the Waterloo Black Hawks over the last year and a half. You were recently acquired by the Steel and have been here for almost one month now. What has the transition been like for you?

A: It’s been relatively smooth, especially with the support of family, teammates and coaches. I went on a pretty good run last year with Waterloo to the Clark Cup Finals, and ended up losing in game five. But I learned a lot about myself and gained experience in the playoffs and the championship, and definitely grew a lot as a player and as a person. I think it was time for a change though and Chicago was the best place for me to come, team-wise, coaching-wise and obviously I’m home now. Home-cooked meals and sleeping in my own bed is pretty nice. My family was really happy. Tears of joy were shed when I called them and let them know that I was coming home to play for the Chicago Steel. But the transition has been really good so far and it’s been easy with the help of everyone here in Chicago.

Q: You obviously come from a hockey family and have two brothers with previous USHL experience. Can you talk about your background with hockey and when you started playing?

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A: Yeah, ever since I was young, I was thrown into the spotlight of hockey. I know my parents would have supported me if I didn’t want to play hockey or have anything to do with it, but luckily enough I was passionate about it right away. My mom always says that I was born with a stick in my hands. Like you said I have two brothers that came through the USHL, Eddie and Tommy. Now Tommy plays at Penn State and Eddie graduated from UMass after playing hockey there for four years and is now a coach for Utica College in New York. We’re definitely a hockey family; we have a plaque in our house that says, “We interrupt this family for hockey,” and it’s very true. I am fortunate to have a father that knows the game as much as he does and has been around it for what seems like forever. Just having a guy like that to talk to whenever is tremendous. I have a very supportive family, with my brothers giving me advice and my sister, who goes to the University of Alabama, always coming to games when she can. It’s a real family effort and at the end of the day, hockey aside, it’s family that drives us and we are very fortunate to be as close as we are.

Q: What do you enjoy most about playing for the Chicago Steel?

A: For the short time that I’ve been here, it’s that I’m learning new stuff every day. The systematic things on the ice, how to improve your game, the off-ice lifting, I think it’s a lot of the little things that go on behind-the-scenes. From the front office to the trainers to the coaches to the team in the locker room, I am learning new stuff every day. My first impression of the Steel was a very professional, first-class organization. Now that I’ve been here a little while, I’m getting adjusted to everything and getting to know everyone’s name. It’s been a really nice fit so far and I’m looking forward to future success.

Q: Do you have any goals for the remainder of the season?

A: I think every guy in that locker room wants to win a Clark Cup Championship. Obviously everyone in the league feels the same way but I think the thing that separates us is the work ethic. We are going to work, we have skill, and if we put skill and will together then we are going to have success. I think individually I just want to get better; I never want to be satisfied and I always want to improve to help the team win. But collectively, we want to have success and success means a championship. 

Q: Tell us a little about the different community programs that you have participated in with the Steel and the Black Hawks.

A: I think here, you get to deal with a lot more people, where as Waterloo, being a smaller town, it’s a lot of the same people over and over again. A lot of great things in Waterloo though, we would go during Thanksgiving and serve meals to elementary kids and the community. Doing that, and going to the elderly home and playing Bingo with the folks there, it was great. Anything you can do to help out the community is a plus. I’ve been to Hockey 101 here in Chicago at Rupley Elementary, and it was great to help the kids. We’re here to teach the kids about the sport of hockey and the Chicago Steel, and help the community as much as we possibly can. 

Q: You’ve committed to Colorado College. What led you to that decision and what is it like knowing that several of your Steel teammates will be playing there as well?

A: It was a pretty intense but very exciting process that I went through. I went out on a visit there in early October and I ended up committing just a few weeks later. The coaching staff is unbelievable there, Coach Mike Haviland and Assistant Coaches R.J. Enga, who you guys know very well, and Gene Reilly. The Director of Hockey Operations, Chris Kawano, has been really unbelievable too. When I went on a visit there, I felt that it was the place for me and on the plane ride home I knew I was going there. It was my first college visit other than visiting my brothers and walking around their campuses. It was just a breathtaking experience though, every day in Colorado Springs is a postcard. Obviously we have a couple other guys going there and it’s good to get to know them so that I know some teammates when I go there because I’ll be in the USHL for another year or two. But definitely to know some guys is good, and it will help with the acclimation process when I get to Colorado College. 

Q: This weekend the Steel head to Wisconsin to compete against the Madison Capitols and the Green Bay Gamblers. What is the team’s mindset for these two road games?

A: Yeah, Madison and Green Bay are really good teams. We played against Madison when I was in Waterloo earlier this year and they’re really well coached under Luke Strand. I know him very well and he’s a hard-nosed coach. They’re going to play hard but we have that mindset too, so it will be a really good game. And Green Bay is struggling a little bit this year, but they are still a good team. There are no teams in this league that you can take a night off with. This will be a really big weekend for us. I think we took a great step in the win against Dubuque. We have to have continued success because to a certain extent, our backs are up against the wall for the playoffs, but if we go on a run here, we will be just fine. So it starts this weekend and it will be a big two games for us.

Photo By: MJB Images