Boston Americans
2023-24 Midget Coaching Staff
U18 Elite

Ralph Nichols

rnichols@thebostonamericans.com

Ralph grew up in Woburn, MA. where  he attended and played his high school career at Woburn High and has been involved in playing, coaching, and refereeing hockey for over 30 years.

Ralph has coached all levels from instructional hockey thru the Midget and High School levels. Over the years, Ralph has coached as assistant varsity coach at Matignon HS and Austin Prep High School. Ralph is a student of the game and believes in building a strong foundation both as a player and person. He has been a great asset to the Americans organization.

U16 Elite

Don Collins

dcollins@thebostonamericans.com

Don has been developing hockey players for over 20+ years from youth level through to the High School level. Don is a Level 4 Certified Coach with USA Hockey and understands the importance of developing kids and his expertise has placed several kids in Division 1 Colleges. During his playing career, he led the Saugus High Hockey Team to win 3 Northeast Conference Championships. Don was a Hockey Night In Boston elite prospect and went on to be a standout player and four-year Varsity Hockey Letterman at University of Connecticut, recipient of the 7th Player Award and ECAC All-Academic Team.

He was an assistant coach for the Saugus High Hockey Team while working as the Director of Skills for Bobby Orr & Gary Doak Hockey School. Member of the Wakefield Youth Hockey Board of Directors and has been a head coach for Wakefield’s Middle School Hockey Team. Don is going into his 3rd season as an assistant coach at Essex Tech High School. 

Don is the owner of Inside Edge training, an off-ice conditioning company that focuses on combining hockey functional conditioning (speed, power, strength) with hockey hands skills (stickhandling, shooting, passing) to achieve peak performance.