Hogan to serve as assistant coach while Breslin, Harris and Benson make debut on Team USA
For most players in the American Collegiate Hockey Association, the highest possible goal for the season could be a divisional — or possibly even national — title for their respective teams.
For a lucky few, however, those goals have been expanded much further, into much higher territory.
Ohio forwards Michael Harris and Joe Breslin, defenseman Tyler Benson and coach Sean Hogan will all represent the Bobcats for Team USA at the 2015 World University Games in Granada, Spain. Right now, Harris and Breslin are the team’s top two scorers, and Benson has been one of the best defenders in the country this season.
“It’s just a huge honor to be one of the few selected,” Breslin said. “I went and told my family right away. I’ve still got a lot of time left at this university, so there’s still a lot of work to be done, but this is a really cool moment.”
Breslin, a sophomore, is the youngest of the three players selected to represent the Bobcats on the international stage. He, along with Harris, a junior, and Benson, a senior, will be making their first appearances on Team USA. This will be Hogan’s second trip as an assistant coach for Team USA.
Hogan was selected last year when he was the head coach at Arizona. This will be the first time, however, that he gets to take a couple of his own players with him.
“There’s definitely an extra sense of pride getting to take a few guys over with me,” Hogan said. “But they’re going to see me in a different role, as an assistant coach, and they’re going to be hearing from a different voice from a high level of hockey, which is good.”
Benson, at 24, will be the oldest defenseman on the Team USA roster. The Central Oklahoma transfer had an emotional moment on the ice after Saturday’s win over Iowa State, Benson’s final home game as a Bobcat.
“It just kind of encompasses everything I’ve gone through since transferring here,” Benson said. “Playing for Team USA is an incredible honor and I’m extremely humbled by the opportunity, but I’m also lucky to have had the once-in-a-lifetime privilege of playing in front of the fans here at Bird Arena.”
The games are played from Feb. 4 to Feb. 14, and the team begins practice in Chicago before the 30th. This means the team’s upcoming road trip to Liberty University will be the last series the team plays at full strength before the Central States Collegiate Hockey Tournament begins on Feb. 20.
But even with a division race going down to the wire and ACHA Nationals approaching on top of the World University Games, players haven’t had any issue keeping this accomplishment in perspective.
“It’s an honor to play for your country and wear the sweater,” Harris said. “Whether it’s the College University Games or the Olympics, not many people can say that they’ve ever done that before. And that’s something we all cherish and will remember forever.”
Team USA will begin competition Feb. 5 against Japan at 2:30 p.m. EST, followed by a game on Feb. 7 against Kazakhstan at the same time. After those games, the team will enter the elimination rounds.
If the team plays out the duration of the games, the players will have played six games in 10 days.
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