Sharks Bench Boss Embraces New Chapter In Life

It’s been quite the story in the Michigan Independence Hockey League as the Waterford Sharks won the Bill Long Memorial Cup for the first time in 2023-2024.   

But time waits for no one and the offseason has been busy. So busy that “Frosty” is going to be coaching in a new continent. Here’s what our own “Voice of the Waterford Sharks” John Ott found out after catching up with former bench boss Chad Frost.   

“I’m trying to find a job, learn German and get involved in some hockey programs in the area,” Frost said. “I had an interview with a team in Sonthofen and I’m getting adjusted to life out there with my girlfriend.” 

Shortly after celebrating the Sharks championship in Waterford, coach Frost made his way to Europe and will now call Germany his new home! 

Doing some quick background work for those at home; Germany has six different leagues with 100’s of teams that range in talent from the NHL, AHL, NCAA… to those who are looking to make a name for themselves. It’s officially the Deutsche Eishockey Liga (or what is commonly known as the DEL) and in the mix are DEL 2, Oberliga, Regionalliga, and Germany 5 and 6.  And what’s more, teams outside of the DEL can be promoted or relegated just like soccer! With such possibilities, it’s not too hard to imagine that Frost could coach the next Leon Draisaitl or Moritz Seider and send some scouting updates our way throughout the year!  

While he’s now taking in the majestic scenery of southern Germany’s Bavarian Alps, Frost said he’s reminisced about how the Sharks program has grown playing with guys on the roster who have become main staples.  

“Alex Gregorich, Jarrett Pfeiffer and myself were on the founding team with Indiana Tech in 2014-2015,” Frost said. “Grego and I were captains for the first year, we got better and adapted to different roles to help the program become successful and that was a lot of fun.”     

That turned into bringing Brendan and Cameron Pfeiffer alongside Nick Papandrea on board with the Sharks too.     

Frost had been roommates with player and assistant coach Dirk Thur as well. And as they say with a life of a hockey player, you often spend more time with your teammates than you do with your family. But in turn that develops a type of bond that can never be broken.  

“I’ve been playing with all of these guys for quite a long time now,” Frost said. “It’s been an honor, they have become such good friends of mine, and such good teammates. We have been there for the big moments of the guys getting married and having kids, it’s been quite the adventure and quite the ride too with life in general.”  

Such bonds perhaps set the stage for Frost coaching long before managing the Sharks bench.  

Through his prior collegiate experience, he was able to coach the Troy United high school program here in Southeast Michigan with former teammates of his. Frost said it ended up being a great way to challenge himself and learn how to communicate effectively with friends and people in general. That effective communication was evident in last couple of seasons as Waterford was able to get to the position to play the Muskegon Voyagers in the finals… but Frost said expanding upon that leadership group was necessary to get to the ultimate goal of winning a championship.  

“We needed someone behind the bench to keep emotions at bay, that was one of our biggest struggles from last year,” Frost said.  “Hockey is an emotional sport, it gets competitive and when things don’t go your way, there has to be someone who can calm things down.” 

Now that isn’t something that Frost takes credit for in the slightest… but the importance of that can’t be understated. In fact, he can be refreshingly blunt about it.  

“I just wanted to add a team aspect to it, the mentality of… we are all on the boat, if you are not going to follow along the path of trying to win a championship together and do what is asked of you, then you can get off,” Frost said. “I’m willing to drive the boat, but I can’t get us there if I don’t have everybody on board helping get to where we need to be.”   

Looking at the group of Spencer Boman, Andrew Palushaj, Joseph Gibbs, Alex Gregorich alongside others on the staff and in the organization, it made it easy for everyone to pull on the same rope because there were leaders all across the roster. Everyone was egoless and it fit together perfectly. 

The Sharks (19-4-1, 5-0) went through the Gaylord Snow and Voyagers to get to the mountain top and it was such a surreal moment for all of us to be able to bring that final series from Lakeshore Sports Centre to the viewers at home for Game 3 in the Lakeland barn. I can tell you from the play-by-play side of things that the players and staff believed in what the ultimate goal was, but for it to happen the way that it did it will be something that all of us will remember well.  

“Everybody did exactly what they needed to do to win a championship, and as a coach I couldn’t have asked for anything better,” Frost said. We built something very special that year with the culture and getting the love of hockey back to the players and having a good time in the process of it all.”   

Frost has been instrumental to the success of the Sharks organization as a player, coach and overall person. We all wish him the best of luck in Germany and hope to see him again around Lakeland Ice Arena someday soon.  

Finding a coach that will continue to build on what “Frosty” accomplished with the organization is not easy to say the least.  

But we can say definitively that the interview process has already begun.  

Stay tuned as we announce future developments in the search for the Waterford Sharks new head coach