Mark Osiecki Brings Important Experience To The Ohio State Hockey Program

Mark Osiecki hasn't been talking to his team about how to beat their opponents and hasn't been giving history lessons to his players about past Ohio State hockey teams.

Instead, he and the new Ohio State hockey coaching staff have ignored the past and have spent all off season preaching the importance of developing a winning culture at Ohio State.

Osiecki, a University of Wisconsin graduate, took over as the OSU men’s hockey coach in April after the team fired John Markell, its leader since 1995.

“I was happy about this opportunity,” Osiecki said. “Hopefully the new coaching staff and I can relate to past experiences in order to bring success here.”  

Osiecki, however, is not trying to dwell on the past seasons of Ohio State hockey.

“I’m not gonna look at what was done, and say we’re changing this, this and this. We’re coming in with our philosophy so we don’t have to look back,” Osiecki said. “We’re just taking what we see here, and going by our philosophy as a staff.”

That philosophy has been ingrained in him by years of playing and coaching hockey, and by his grandfather and father, who both coached hockey. His grandfather was a Hall of Fame coach in Minnesota, and his father is still coaching and is a scout for the U.S. Women’s National Team.

As a player, Osiecki won three Minnesota high school state championships, two championships while playing as a minor professional in the International Hockey League, and an NCAA title with Wisconsin.

After playing five seasons in the NHL, Osiecki began his coaching career. His first coaching job was at his high school alma mater in Minnesota for two years before he was hired as an assistant coaching at the University of North Dakota.

Since acquiring the job at North Dakota, Osiecki has achieved success at every stop.

He won an NCAA championship in 1997 at North Dakota, the Clark Cup as head coach and general manager of the Green Bay Gamblers of the United States Hockey League in 2000, another NCAA title as assistant coach at the University of Wisconsin in 2006 and a gold medal as part of the coaching staff of the USA Hockey team at the World Junior Championships earlier this year.

Osiecki knew from a young age that he wanted to be a coach, but he went through college with no knowledge of how he would get there.

“I used one of those little black books that I carried around my whole playing career and kept notes on coaches where I’d say, ‘I like this, I don’t like this,’ different ideas because I knew I was gonna go into coaching,” Osiecki said.

Osiecki cites four people who influenced him to become a coach.

“My dad has a huge influence on me, my grandpa had an influence at a young age. Also, Dean Blais, the head coach at Nebraska-Omaha, I coached with him at North Dakota for a year and last year with the World Junior Team. He’s like a second father to me,” Osiecki said. “I can bounce ideas off of him, pick his brain and I like his coaching philosophy. He’s a big reason why I’m here today.”

Lastly, Osiecki acknowledged Mike Eaves, the head coach at Wisconsin who Osiecki coached under for six years, leading the Badgers to a national championship in 2006 and a finals appearance last season.

After the Buckeyes won just 15 of 39 games last season, the athletic department decided that it needed a change. Osiecki was offered the head coaching position at OSU following his successful season at Wisconsin, and he was hired on April 24.

Since his hiring, Osiecki has been busy meeting with recruits, scheduling workouts, and meeting with his team. However, the Buckeyes have not been on the ice practicing.

NCAA rules prohibited hockey teams from holding full practices before October 2, and the Buckeyes’ first regular season game was scheduled for less than a week later.

The team, however, did hold their annual Scarlet and Gray intrasquad scrimmage on Saturday. Osiecki said the coaching staff used the game to figure out the pieces they have and how the team can take those pieces and continue to improve.

“The game just shed more light on some of the strengths that we have and some of the holes that we have,” Osiecki said. “There was definitely some positives there, and we try not to dwell on our deficiencies.”

Osiecki said that it is important to develop a winning culture before the team can get better on the ice.

“Are we, as a team, respectful, do we look right, are we thanking people, are we doing the right things away from the rink?” Osiecki said. “We’ll get better as a group hockey-wise, if we’re taking care of things away from the rink.

“Success is a combination of many things,” he said. “You have to work for success, especially as a player. You have to surround yourself with good people. If there is bad people in your locker room, you have to find a way to run them out, even as a player. There is also a belief, and God-given talent, and also a bit of luck involved.”

Osiecki said he believes that “winning breeds winning,” a statement that is very important to his new team. He knows that with every success story, there is a disappointment, but he said he believes that a person learns the most in failure, not success.

“I just think we’ll be able to share our experiences with the team," he said. "things may be tough here the first couple years, and we may have some heartbreaks, but we’ll be developing our culture and making strides toward being the best we can be.”