Submitted Ohio’s TJ Richey raises the American Collegiate Hockey Association trophy after winning the national championship against Adrian College.

As a very young child, nothing seemed to calm down Poland native TJ Richey. No matter where his parents would take him, Richey would not stay still.

That all changed when Richey saw his first hockey game.

Richey was mesmerized, and in that moment, a lifelong love affair with the game was born. Soon after discovering hockey, he began skating, and eventually began to play. Starting in the Youngstown Phantoms youth program, Richey played with teams in Cleveland and Pittsburgh while attending Cardinal Mooney, and spent a season with the NAHL’s Amarillo Wranglers in Texas.

The love of the sport has taken him across the country, most recently to St. Louis, where Richey and the Ohio Bobcats won the American Collegiate Hockey Association’s Division I national championship.

“The people at school really make this sport such a special sport, and my teammates and coaches and everyone, the whole support crew, is really what is so advantageous to play here, and I wouldn’t change it for a single thing,” Richey said. “I’ve only been here two years, but it’s by far been the best two years of my life, one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.

“This past year, we lost a decent amount of guys last year that graduated and we were kind of unsure how the year was going to go, but we got a really good freshman group, our seniors are really strong and great players, and we trusted in our coach and trusted in our process to lead us to how we want to play and what we can maybe accomplish at the end of the year. We just trusted the vision day after day, and then I think the result of the national tournament was just the result of trusting the process.”

Ohio took down Adrian College in the title match, 3-1. Beating Adrian was a long time coming, as the Bobcats had their season end at the hands of Adrian College each of the prior four seasons.

“To meet up with them in the championship, it was almost like a storybook ending to the season for the seniors, because they’ve lost Adrian every year, and we were able to beat them,” Richey said.

Richey, a defenseman for the Bobcats, recorded an assist on the final goal to help Ohio ice the game.

“We just knew that we wanted to play championship hockey and get pucks deep into their zone,” Richey said. “Just wanted to try and play a smart game and use our abilities to their maximum potential. We have a really fast and skilled team, and our forwards and defensemen are bigger and stronger, so we wanted to have a really good defensive zone so then we could let our forwards work their skill. It was a back-and-forth game. Our defense played really well. We had two big penalty kills, and then our forwards stepped up in big moments to get us three goals. Our goalie played out of his mind that game. I’ve nothing but good to say about our goalie, Matt Zazon. He played one of the best games I’ve ever seen.”

Ohio has a rich history of club hockey. The 2026 national title is the program’s fifth, which is the most among active programs. Penn State has six championships at the club level, but has since transitioned into an NCAA-sanctioned Division I program.

“The history and the support from the alumni is really unlike anywhere I’ve ever played,” Richey said. “The jersey means so much to wear. It’s not just about our team, it’s about everyone in the past that has made this program what it could be, and it’s really just an honor to be able to wear the Ohio Bobcat logo.”

While considered a club sport, that doesn’t mean there’s a smaller workload. Richey still has to balance his classes with practice.

“The work we put in this year is unlike any other team,” Richey said. “We have a six-month year, from September to March, and every day we’re Monday through Friday, we’re skating, and then we have two games most weekends. We’re lifting three times a week. We have off-ice conditioning workouts, and all that without any breaks. The only breaks we get are for Christmas, really, and then we’re back for New Year’s.

“We get a shortened break to come back and practice just to get back in shape and keep our craft. Our work ethic is kind of rooted in us as hockey players. You learn it at a young age. We’ll go from classes trying to balance school, and then you have to go to a workout, and then you have to go to skate right after, and then sometimes you’ll even have to go back to classes after workouts and practices.”

With two years left of eligibility, Richey is ready to run it back.

“Hopefully we can do what we did this year and bring another national title back to Athens,” he said.