Cranberry Township, Penn. – The DICK’S Sporting Goods USHL Fall Classic is the first time new Fargo Force Head Coach
Nick Oliver and Associate Head Coach
Chad Demers will lead the team in games that count towards the standings, but it isn’t the first time they’ll lead a Fargo squad hungry for a prestigious Clark Cup Championship. Oliver and Demers served as part of the captaincy group of the 2010-11 Force roster led by
Dean Blais that made it to the Western Conference Quarterfinals.
This time around, Oliver and Demers are leading the team from behind the bench instead of on the ice, but the goal remains the same: hoist the Clark Cup Championship.
To do that, the pair will lean on the experience they both have from behind USHL benches, with Oliver having broken into coaching with the Sioux Falls Stampede (2015-18) as an Assistant Coach and Director of Scouting while Demers starts his second stint behind the Force bench after having previously served as an Associate Head Coach (2020-21) and Assistant Coach and Director of Scouting (2019-20).
Oliver said, while his decision wasn’t an easy one to leave his alma mater St. Cloud State University and return to Fargo, it was a choice he was ready to make.
“It was a hard decision. St. Cloud State is a place that is near and dear to my heart. I played there, I got a chance to coach there for four years,” said Oliver. “But I knew this was always something that motivated me and I knew if it was the right fit, I would pursue it. The history, the program, the resources, the people from the top down, made it a super attractive position for me. Fargo is all of that.”
An easier decision, however, was making the call to Demers, seeing if he would join him behind the bench.
“He might have been my second call after my wife and maybe my parents, to see if he would entertain coming back,” said Oliver. “He was one of the first calls and someone I wanted by my side.”
Demers obliged, returning to Fargo and completing a Force reunion 11 years in-the-making.
“I can’t seem to stay away,” said Demers. “First and foremost, my family and I like the Fargo area. It’s a great place for our kids and it’s close to both our families, which helps a lot. This time around, Nick being here was a big selling point. Having the opportunity to go to work with him is something I’m really excited about and motivated for.”
While the 2022-23 season will be the first for Oliver as a Head Coach, the Roseau, Minn. native has had an extensive coaching background to date, beginning with his now Western Conference rival Sioux Falls Stampede as an Assistant Coach and Director of Scouting (2015-18). The newly minted Head Coach credits then Stampede bench boss
Scott Owens with taking a chance on a young coach.
“I was able to work for an unbelievable person in Scott Owens,” said Oliver. “I had one of the best to learn from and work with. I owe a lot to him and the environment he created and things I have been able to pull from my time with him. It gave me confidence in taking the Fargo job.”
Those Force squads also featured current Madison Capitols General Manager and Head Coach
Corey Leivermann as well as current Sioux City Musketeers Assistant General Manager and Associate Head Coach
Colten St. Clair.
“It’s pretty special, and it’s cool for the League as well, when you have players who go on to play at the Division I level and then come back and give back to the League,” said Oliver. “It speaks volumes to what this League is about, developing people, developing coaches. It obviously made a good enough impression on the four of us where we wanted to jump back into it.”
Both Oliver and Demers credited the leadership of Blais amongst other Fargo coaches who led a group that produced four future USHL high-ranking coaches.
On Friday night, the second regular season game for Oliver and Demers, the pair will look across center ice to see Leivermann, also in his second game, leading a Capitols team coming off a Clark Cup Final appearance last season. It will be the only matchup between the teams this season, barring a Clark Cup Final meeting.
“I’m so excited for Corey. He’s another great teammate that we had in Fargo,” said Oliver. “You look at his coaching background, he’s taken it step-by-step. He’s worked at every level. He’s been a head coach, an assistant coach, recruited. He’s checked all the boxes for himself. He’s going to do an awesome job and it will be fun to go up against him.”
The Force will see the Musketeers plenty throughout the season, giving Oliver and Demers plenty of chances for bragging rights over former teammate St. Clair in what has been a Western Conference rivalry for years.
“That’s been such an intense rivalry. There’s a mutual respect between the organizations but there’s also a mutual hatred,” said Demers. “It makes it all the sweeter to beat them. You’re competitors on the ice, but off the ice we’re all rooting for each other.”
Oliver said he is used to having a rival mentality with former teammate St. Clair as the pair played collegiate hockey at NCHC rivals St. Cloud and University of North Dakota, respectively.
The reunion between Oliver and Demers looks different this time not only behind the bench but off as both are fathers with young families that now get to grow up together where a lifelong friendship began. Oliver said he looks to Demers off the ice as an example of how to balance work with a young family.
“Chad is one of the better examples for me as a young father of someone who puts family first and makes it a priority in his life.”
The new Fargo coaches also acknowledge that, while only a decade removed from playing in the USHL, the League has seen changes that has made it deeper overall and within each roster. Oliver credited the influx of American-born players competing at a high level, bringing more depth to the League and giving its teams a roster full of talented players.
How the season will end is yet to be seen, as is what Oliver and Demers’ legacy will be in a second run with the Force, but what is known is the Force will be led in the 2022-23 season by a close-knit coaching staff with a pedigree of bringing success to the Fargo area.