ODESSA, TX – The Odessa Jackalopes are proud to announce that they have added Nate Skidmore to the Jackalopes staff as an assistant and goaltender coach.
Skidmore played four years at the Jr. A level before moving on to play at the State University of New York at Potsdam College for four years with the Bears. Skidmore was named team MVP during his senior season and graduated in 2019 with a Master’s degree in management and leadership, and also has a Bachelor’s degree in exercise science.
He boasts five years of coaching experience with core competencies in recruiting, video breakdown and analysis, individualized goalie and player skill development and strategic team planning.
Skidmore’s first coaching position was as a student strength and conditioning coach as well as personnel director for SUNY Potsdam while he completed his master’s degree. This past season Nate was a volunteer assistant coach at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute coaching at the NCAA DI level.
“We are thrilled to add a person and promising coach like Nate to the Jackalopes family,” said Jackalopes head coach Jason Fortier. Skidmore will be joining Fortier and current assistant coach Adam Phillips to round out the staff. “I coached Nate several years ago in a spring hockey event and respected his maturity and passion during that event. He told me that weekend, at 19 years old, his true ambition was to work in hockey and possibly be a coach. Nate spent the past season with RPI and their Head Coach David Smith had nothing but positive praise about Nate.”
The Jackalopes conducted an extensive search for an additional assistant coach that could not only be multi-faceted but also exude the type of energy and enthusiasm that is commonplace in Texas hockey. According to Fortier, Skidmore checks all the boxes.
“His experience and qualifications are multidimensional which represents today’s new coaches. Video skills, exercise science knowledge, goalie coaching and a competitive spirit. After interviewing Nate and a few candidates, it became clear Nate was the right fit for our program. I am looking forward to working with him and I am confident our players have a great ally along their journey. Here we are 6 years later and he is chasing his dream.”
