Christian Schurmann-Colicchio: New U16 Head Coach & Director of Player Advancement For Chargers

By Ross Forman
Christian Schurmann-Colicchio started skating at age 2 and playing hockey at 4. Originally from New Jersey, his family moved to Georgia, where his hockey grind included seasons skating for the Duluth Icehawks, Atlanta Jr. Thrashers, Atlanta Fire and Atlanta Knights. 

After his 16U season, he moved to Boston to play for the Boston Advantage 18U AAA program, where he spent his senior year and first year out of high school. 

He then played for the Jersey Hitmen and the Portland Jr. Pirates in the USPHL Premier League, now known as the National Collegiate Development Conference (NCDC), before opting to play college club at Indiana University. He next skated at the start of the 2019-2020 season with the Watertown Wolves in the FPHL before moving to Germany to play for EC Lauterbach 2012. 

A center, Schurmann-Colicchio was a Silver Sticks International Champion. He also played in the first ACHA Big Ten outdoor tournament in 2018 in Rosemont, and even made money playing the game overseas for a season. 

He was the 2019 Male Athlete of the Year for IU club sports and stands as the Hoosiers’ all-time leading goal scorer, second all-time in points (IU) and more.

“My playing career helped me prepare me for coaching,” Schurmann-Colicchio said. “My passion and love for the game oozes out when I’m playing and talking about hockey. So, I think that part helps me be detailed when I’m explaining my drills and showing guys how to correctly do the drills. I watch a ton of hockey and watched a lot of film when I was playing competitively, so I can bring in NHL situations that I saw in recent games to show these guys that, ‘Hey, what I’m saying here in this practice is what’s going on in NHL games.’

“I’ve seen a good response from my players when I bring in NHL players making these plays. It gives my words more backing. Makes me seem more legitimate to these players. 

“Second, the fact that I played at a pretty high level, and I still skate all the time, I can demonstrate all my drills and make them look the way they are supposed to look. I think my players respect me because I’m not asking them to do anything I wouldn’t do. The same applies to training. I like to work out and stay in shape, so I think my players see that, believe and respect it if I say, ‘Hey man, let’s get you on a workout program for the summer so we can build some muscle on you while keeping your speed up.’ I also think that I was a guy who would stay on the ice and work a lot. Especially in juniors and college, when our practices ended, we still had the ice so we would be working on little aspects of the game, whether it was faceoffs, one-timers from low areas, playing rebound with the guys, working on chips off the boards/glass, etc. I enjoyed the extra work, and I enjoyed working with my teammates to help them. So now when coaching, it’s easy for me to stay after if there’s time and feed players one-timer passes, show them tricks on faceoffs, and any other in-game situations or skills they want to work on.”

Schurmann-Colicchio, 32, who lives in Chicago, was named in May as the new head coach for the Northwest Chargers midget U16 team and the club’s director of player advancement.

“I was looking to get into hockey full-time and was interviewing around,” he said. “One morning, Michael Turner called and asked me if I wanted to coach the U16 Chargers. I said, ‘Absolutely.’ It’s a great organization to be a part of and I am really looking forward to the season.

“I think (the U16 team) is going to be great. I’m looking forward to having a full year of coaching these kids, developing them, getting them into that winner’s mindset, and just being a tough team to play against every game. 

“I am very excited about this position as director of player advancement, as it’s similar to work I’ve done on the scouting side with junior teams and agencies I’ve worked for. I have a lot of contacts from past roles, so I am looking forward to getting these players exposed to AAA/prep school teams. Also, if I can help players outside of the Chargers as well, that too is a win. It grows the game even more and shows kids that things don’t have to be over at AA.”

Schurmann-Colicchio said the new director role will be to help players get the exposure they need to move on – to any number of higher level hockey.

“When it comes to advancing your players, you must do it strategically. I’ve seen too many times when guys are trying to sell their players, yet the kid is having a rough patch in the season, and I hate to say it, not every scout gives a kid a second chance if they don’t play their top game or something close to it. I’ve learned that from my days (as) head of US Scouting at Sherwood Park in the BCHL. You always want to push your players to the coaches/scouts of other teams when they are playing well.”

So how can players advance and improve?

Working out and getting your mind right are key, he said.

“If I can tell any young hockey player one thing, it is, go read ‘Hockey Tough.’ It’s awesome. It helped my game when I was going through rough patches, and I would also read it before most, if not every, season. As you get (older), you need to work out. When you’re in shape, the game becomes so much easier. You can really separate yourselves from others if you take off-ice training seriously.”

Schurmann-Colicchio said the summer does not mean playing in every possible showcase/tournament. Instead, pick a few that have good exposure, and have a coach call on your behalf, he said. “Get involved in skates with higher level players than you. It will speed up skill and development, and make your pace of play faster. Finally, work out with other hockey players who are at your level or higher than you. They will push the pace, and you will not want to lag. They will also help you and answer any questions you may have.

“For me (as a player), there was a transition period from being the top guy in U16s and a top half guy in U18s to where I needed to find a role because the guys on my junior teams who played my style of game, were flat out doing it better than me at the time. However, I wanted to play so I basically put my pride aside for two years, played a shutdown role where I took every faceoff, but I still practiced being offensive and being a goal-scorer and playmaker during and after practice. Once I got to college, I was a complete player, and I was back to scoring goals, making plays, and putting up points to where I continued that in Germany. 

“My training also changed. When I was U16 and U18, I was lifting weights to look good and, yeah, be good at hockey, but I didn’t have the workout programs I started doing in junior and college hockey. That’s where I started really blowing up the lower half of my body, which is so crucial for this sport.”

Jack Andrus just graduated from New Trier after playing this season for New Trier Green – and part credit goes to Schurmann-Colicchio for helping him land on the school’s top varsity.

“Coach CSC was definitely one of my favorite coaches at New Trier,” Andrus said. “He was always super energetic on the bench, which was perfect for when we needed a surge late in a game. CSC was also super invested in helping his players. I remember him reaching out to me during the off-season to remind me to keep working out and skating to stay in shape and be better prepared for tryouts.”

Schurmann-Colicchio had many influential coaches during his playing career, but two stood out, including one from his mite days.

“My coach for the Duluth IceHawks (mites) was Scott Robertson, who really saw my passion and love for the game. He was the best. I mean, he would yell at us like we were in the NHL, and I don’t think any of us ever hated it because when we did something well, he was our biggest cheerleader. Now times have changed, of course, but if you look at the team that he had, about seven of us went on to play college, semi-professional and professional hockey. He motivated us to achieve something you wouldn’t even believe, which was winning Silver Sticks International, as a team from Georgia against a team from Toronto that came into the tournament (with a) 43-0 (record). We ended up being the only team to beat them twice that year, including the championship game.

“Second, is David ‘Bubba’ Smith, head coach of my Atlanta Jr. Knights U16 team. This was my last season in Georgia before I moved to Boston to play 18U AAA. Bubba was also a guy who saw my passion and love for the game. He knew from the questions I would ask about drills and how I would talk to him about the game that I would continue playing and would one day be a coach. Up until that last year with Bubba, we had never made it to the USA Hockey Nationals. Never even sniffed it, really. During round robin play at regionals that year, we had a game against a team we had history with, and he had this great mind game that he played, where he said before the game, ‘When you score tonight, do not celebrate. Act like you’ve scored a million of them. Let them see that we are all business.’ It worked: we beat them 6-2 and played them again in the championship and won 3-0, (earning) our first-ever bid for USA Hockey Nationals. 

“Bubba also came to one of my first 18U AAA games against Team Comcast in New Jersey. He still had notes on how I can improve my play, and I listened to every word. 

“Two great coaches who really helped me become the player and the person that I am today.”

Schurmann-Colicchio started coaching while playing 18U AAA in Boston. “The players on my team who had graduated from high school already would help with the younger teams and run clinics at other rinks around Boston,” he said.

“I have coached skills since I was playing 18U AAA and juniors. When I played in college and in Germany after college, it was a little bit of the same, skills coaching with the younger teams in the area. 

“When I moved to Chicago in October 2020, I met Matt Ford, owner of Ford Hockey School. After skating at some of his classes, he asked me to coach his skates with him, where we helped players of all skill levels.”

He then landed at New Trier White for two seasons, alongside head coach Jeremy Ellis and assistant John Naanep. “We gelled and found a lot of success as a coaching trio,” he said. 

“New Trier White was a part of my coaching career where I think we really changed the mindsets of a lot of kids to where they reached their goals of playing on New Trier Green quicker than they thought they would. We were able to bring our own style of hockey to it and show kids that being accountable and being about the team-first and nothing else will drive success.”

Schurmann-Colicchio admittedly was not long driven to coaching, though he definitely loves it now.

“I am so competitive and passionate about the game that when I can show these players what I’ve got up my sleeve and guide them through my experience, you feel rewarded,” he said. “My dream and goal is to be in a management role in (a team’s) front-office, some sort of high-end scouting role in the NHL. Now, if coaching really takes off, I’m not opposed, but I did get my MBA in management, so I can go that route. 

“I am a passionate coach who holds everyone accountable. The last few coaching and scouting roles, including this one, are roles that require you to make sure these players know when they aren’t doing things the right way, but you must communicate it to them effectively. I don’t baby guys, but I’m also not going to make your life a living nightmare. 

“The reason 10 players went from New Trier White to New Trier Green while I was there was (because) Jeremy, John and I didn’t let guys cut corners. When guys do well, I’m the loudest one on the bench, cheering them on. I want to see all my players do well. It must come the hard way, though; it can’t come easy because that’s what it takes to get to those higher levels.”