Dan Nycholat’s Gamble Pays Off:

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Dan Nycholat’s gamble pays off

by viper staff Added 2010-06-17

“On balance, coming to Vernon this year has been the best decision of my life.”

Those are the words of Dan Nycholat, a two-year veteran of NCAA hockey who chose to leave Northeastern University this past summer and go back to Jr. “A” hockey. When he left the Boston-area college, he was well on his way to earning a business degree and he had played 48 games in two years with the Huskies, one of the best known programs in U.S. college hockey. However, he wasn’t happy with his role there, and he felt he wasn’t developing his game as much as he wanted.

So, he took a plunge, gambling first that he could find a Jr. “A” program that could help him meet his twin goals of building his game and moving his academic career forward. The other gamble was whether another U.S. school would commit to him for the remaining two years of his NCAA eligibility, especially after he had jumped from Northeastern.

To make matters more difficult, the NCAA puts up formidable barriers for any athlete who tries to move from one school to another. He had to satisfy the requirements of the NCAA’s 4-2-4 rule. First, he had to enrol in a two-year school and take a minimum of four classes per semester. Then, he had to use those classes to graduate with an associate degree. There were other requirements, too, but we won’t get into all of that.

He picked the Vipers, who were looking for a 20-year defenceman and who were happy to help Dan reach his goals. With a lot of help from the Dean’s Office at the Vernon Campus of Okanagan College, Dan put together a program of studies, only to be told by the NCAA that Okanagan College didn’t qualify because it’s not a U.S.A. based school. So, he had to start all over again.

After an arduous, frustrating search, Dan and his advisors were finally able to find an online college that would satisfy the NCAA requirements. Then, the fun began because it was early October by this time. Dan would have to cram four university courses into 2.5 months of study. He managed that task, and then took four more courses after Christmas. He finished with a grade point average of 3.5, which means that most of his marks were A’s. And he earned an Associate Degree in General Studies.

Doing a degree online has its challenges, says Dan. “It takes dedication and time management. There’s no time for anything but the studies and the hockey, if you want to succeed in both. I’m glad I’d spent two previous years at university.”

Seeing his achievements, the prestigious Dartmouth College offered Dan an athletic scholarship in March. It didn’t hurt that Dan was leading Viper defencemen in scoring at the time, and that the team had named Dan its top defenceman at its awards night.

He says he’s excited about going to Dartmouth. “It’s a really good school, and I’ll finish my degree in two years there. I’ll see where that takes me, whether it’s hockey or using my degree to make a career. Also, I think I’m now ready to fully contribute to a college team.”

One of the reasons why he feels confident about his game stems from what he has learned from his coaches here: “a lot about playing defence, but more than that, they’ve taught us a lot about hockey in general. Yes, Mark and Jason have passed along on-ice skills and hockey sense, but also off-ice stuff. Mark excels in the mental game, and in how to prepare yourself to perform.”

Dan’s accurate passing, poise with the puck, and shooting ability earned him lots of power play time, and he contributed. Nine of his 11 goals this year came on the power play, and many other goals came from rebounds or deflections of his hard, low accurate point shots. He finished the season with 58 points, including two power play goals that set the tone for the Vipers’ playoff series win over the Penticton Vees.

He says that the long playoff series leading up to the RBC Cup helped prepare the team for the elimination games in the national championship tournament. “You can look at it as self-inflicted pain, being up in those series against Powell River and Spruce Grove, and then being forced to a seventh game. But it was a good growing experience. I think it made us better players and a better team in the end.”

“The previous game sevens really helped us be ready for the RBC final game. Unless you’ve had that elimination-game experience, you don’t know what to expect from the fans, or how you will handle your nerves. On May 9, we were all ready. We were focused and calm. I think that’s the most important thing.”

His words echo what Mark Ferner had said about an hour before that final game: “That’s a calm, confident group in there. I’m not worried at all.”