UNO Hockey Well Represented in Beijing Games

The University of Nebraska at Omaha men’s hockey program has connections to players and coaches competing in this year’s Winter Olympic Games.

Former UNO hockey assistant, David Quinn, is the head coach for the United States. Quinn was the first assistant under the Omaha Mavericks program starting from 1996 to 2002. Mike Kemp was the head coach who hired Quinn at UNO and is currently executive association athletic director at the school. Kemp says he saw Quinn’s potential as coach when he first hired him.

“It’s very, very gratifying and I’m very excited for David,” Quinn said. “You know, he was my first hire here. Obviously I saw at that time the tremendous potential that he had as a coach and it’s great to see him having this opportunity to really show his skill on a world stage.”

Mike Hastings was an assistant with Omaha’s hockey program from 2009 to 2012 and will assist Quinn’s staff in Beijing. Also, Hastings was head coach and general manager of the Omaha Lancers hockey team for 15 years.

There are three former UNO Maverick hockey players competing on the ice in Beijing. Brian Cooper played for the Mavericks from 2012 to 2016 and is playing for Team USA this Olympics. Fredrik Olofsson played at UNO from 2015 to 2019 and is representing Sweden. Matej Tomek was the goalie for the Mavericks in 2018 and 2019. He’s playing for his home nation of Slovakia.