By Garrett Fabris

With the season approaching the winter break, some players are beginning to look across the horizon for their next hockey opportunity. Nick Gay, a 20-year old who is playing in his second season in the Northern Pacific Hockey League, is not only looking across the horizon, but he also has his destination set for next season.

To progress from one level to the next in hockey, there has to be a significant amount of individual and team improvement. Gay notes his improvement over this season – thus far – and says, “I can see my improvement from last year to this year, both from a team and personal perspective. From a personal perspective, I feel that I have improved the most on my skating and shot release. I can tell my shots have been getting a lot quicker from last year.”

Gay isn’t the only person who has noticed his personal growth. When he laces up his skates next season, he will be doing so as a McKendree University Bearcat.

“During mid-October, coach McCue [who is the Tri-City Outlaws head coach] received a recruitment letter from McKendree University. This recruitment letter specifically mentioned that the school was looking for a defenseman. Since that is my position, and I wanted to play hockey in college, coach McCue and I both started to look into the program,” said Gay.

This letter then opened up communications between Gay, coach McCue, and Garry Henson, who is the head ice hockey coach at McKendree University. Once this happened, “coach McCue wrote a letter to coach Henson about me. Then, within a couple hours, coach Henson was writing a letter to coach McCue about how he was interested in me, and my potential moving forward,” said Gay.

After some back-and-forth communication about what the school is like, how the team operates, and other aspects about the team and school, Gay felt that “it would be the perfect fit.”

He continued to say, “This is a perfect fit for me because coach Henson is big on power skating. As a hockey player, that would be something great for my development. Then the school isn’t a big school in terms of population, but it is big enough to still have fun.”

There is still some time before Gay starts school in the fall of 2016. But until then, he’s going to keep sharping his skills, both on and off the ice. He says, “right now, I’m getting the game experience, which is great. Game experience is absolutely necessary if you want to go anywhere within hockey. I am also getting a lot of individual time with coach McCue, and he is doing really well in preparing me for the next level.”

McCue commented on Gay, and his future career playing college hockey. He said, “I feel like Nick’s door to hockey is just opening. Since he is six foot eight inches, it takes a long time for coordination to build, and I can see that coming along in Nick. He has a lot of potential as a hockey player, and I look forward to watching his game grow while in college.”

Going to college to play hockey is a great opportunity, but so is the education that comes along with it. As Gay heads to college next season, he has already picked both his major and minor that he wants to pursue. He says, “I’m going to major in sports management and minor in business administration.”

With this specific major and minor combination, Gay has every intention to, “get a job as a general manager with a tier III hockey team. Then I would like to slowly move my way up the ranks as I go,” said Gay.

Congratulations, Nick!

Heading into this weekend, Gay and the Outlaws will take on the Wenatchee Wolves in a two-game, home-and-home, series. That series will start on Friday, December 11th, and conclude on Saturday, December 12th. Those games are scheduled to start at 7:05 pm and 7:35 pm respectively.

For updates from around the league, tune in to the NPHL’s website.