Chad Kolarik, an Abington resident, has been named an assistant coach for the U.S. Under-18 Men’s Select Team, USA Hockey announced today.
Previously, Kolarik served as an assistant coach of the gold-medal winning 2023 U.S Under-18 Men’s National Team.
An alum of USA Hockey’s National Team Development Program (2002-04), Kolarik is entering his third season as an assistant coach of the NTDP’s Under-18 Team. He also served on staff for the 2023 Under-18 Four Nations and 2022 Under-18 Five Nations Championship, where he helped the team to a first-place finish in both tournaments.
The Abington native began his coaching career with the USHL’s Waterloo Black Hawks as an assistant coach in 2021, helping the team to the Clark Cup Playoffs during the 2021-22 campaign.
As a player, Kolarik represented the U.S. on multiple occasions, most recently as a member of the 2018 U.S. Olympic Men’s Ice Hockey Team that competed in PyeongChang, South Korea. He also skated in two Deutschland Cups, helping Team USA earn a first-place finish in 2013, and was a member of the 2004 silver-medal winning U.S. Under-18 Men’s National Team.
Kolarik played 12 seasons of professional hockey, spending time with both the New York Rangers and Columbus Blue Jackets at the game’s highest level, in addition to five stops in the AHL. He also spent time overseas, finishing his career with seven seasons in Europe throughout Sweden, France, Switzerland, Germany and Austria. He skated collegiately at the University of Michigan, where he produced 174 points (78G-96A) in 163 games for the Wolverines.
The U.S. opens play in the tournament on August 5 against Czechia at 5:30pm.
AAU Junior Olympics
Ayla and Case Cromedy of Abington and Nathan Hoffman of Cheltenham completed Day 2 of the 2024 AAU Junior Olympics, according to results posted on FloTrack.org.
Ayla racked up a score of 2699 in the 12 Year Old Girls Pentathlon. Case scored 295 in the 9 Year Old Boys Triathlon.
Hoffman finished with a score of 5364 in the 17-18 Year Old Boys Decathlon.
The games are being held in Greensboro, North Carolina from July 27 to August 3 and include over 13,000 athletes ranging from ages 8 to 18. Recent Olympians like Sha’Carri Richardson, Grant Holloway, Erriyon Knighton, Quincy Hall and Grace Stark have all competed at the AAU Junior Olympic Games.
The full schedule can be found here. Day 3 results are here.
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Photo: USA Hockey