After six years as assistant coach of the Badger men's hockey team Mark Osiecki will move on to the head coaching role at Ohio State next season, the Buckeyes announced Saturday.
Osiecki was a top recruiter and defensive coach at Wisconsin, where he was crucial in helping the Badgers earn a national championship in 2006 and a trip to the NCAA title game earlier this month. He was also an assistant coach at North Dakota before coming to Wisconsin, where he was a part of the Sioux team that won the 1997 national championship.
Osiecki is the latest Badger to leave the team following their run to the national title game.
Wisconsin has already lost assistant coach Kevin Patrick, who was picked for the head coaching job at an expansion team in the USHL. Patrick finished his season with the Badgers after being named head coach for the Muskegon, Mich., team in March.
Wisconsin will see seven senior forwards graduate this year, including two of the team's three captains, and could lose more skaters if younger players decide to go pro, such as junior defenseman and Hobey Baker finalist Brendan Smith.
Ohio State picked Osiecki from a large pool of candidates to replace former head coach John Markell, who the Buckeyes decided not to bring back after a disappointing 15-18-6 season. Unlike the UW team he is leaving, Osiecki will inherit a veteran Ohio State squad with 11 seniors.
The Buckeyes play in the Central Collegiate Hockey Association, meaning Osiecki will take on NCAA tournament participants such as Michigan and Alaska-Fairbanks as well as Miami (Ohio), who made it to the Frozen Four this season before losing to eventual national champion Boston College.
Osiecki played at Wisconsin from 1987 until 1990, earning a national title as assistant captain in 1990, before playing with a number of professional teams and in the NHL before an injury ended his six-year playing career. He began coaching at North Dakota soon after his retirement before moving on to the Green Bay Gamblers of the USHL, where he was named national coach of the year in 1999. Osiecki began coaching at Wisconsin in 2004.
—Nico Savidge
