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From Ice Breakers to A5 Skills: Alex Morrow's Journey from Player to Passionate Coach

By Ian Phillips, 08/19/24, 12:00PM EDT

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Since hanging up the skates himself, Alex Morrow has gotten to be a well-known skills coach in central Ohio


Photo- Gahanna Lincoln Ice Hockey

“A bad day in hockey is a good day anywhere else.”

Since he was four years old lacing up the skates for the first time in Oklahoma, Alex Morrow has made that quote a motto of his every day walking into the rink as a skills coach.

Morrow is a California native but moved to Oklahoma, where he started skating at preschool age. Moving to Westerville, Ohio, shortly after, Morrow started working his way up the youth hockey ranks in Columbus, a city that was just getting used to the sport at the time.

Morrow played at every skill level, growing up with organizations like the Capital Amateur Hockey Association and Columbus Chill Youth Hockey Association, eventually cracking the u16 AAA roster. 

In his college years, Morrow and his longtime teammate Adam McHugh founded the Otterbein Cardinals hockey team that Morrow player-coached while being involved in coaching with the Elite Development Program (formerly Belfry).

“Me and my buddy reconnected back in college at Otterbein, and he brought me in coaching with the Belfry program. We were sitting down one day and just being like, Hey, let's try to bring a hockey team to Otterbein. It was awesome in the aspect of, you know, getting to build the program up from nothing,” said Morrow.

After college, Morrow decided he would give professional hockey a go with the now-defunct Mentor Ice Breakers, where he put up a respectable 13G-30A-43P in 92 career games with the club. 

Yet, his path to get to the professional hockey benchmark was more one-of-a-kind.

“I didn't have a hockey background or a resume like some of the players that play in the (Federal Prospects Hockey League) because there were a few D1 and D3 guys—a lot of major junior guys, you know—versus a dude that created a club hockey team at his college,” he said. “When I decided to give it a shot, I trained myself the same way I trained my clients and just wanted to see how far it would take me.”

Morrow, like many of his teammates, saw his professional career come to an abrupt end when Mentor ceased operations due to pandemic-related circumstances in 2020. 

For Alex, the end of that chapter was just the beginning of a brand new one, and A5 Skills was brought to life.

“I want to show the younger generation, ‘Hey, this is possible in the Columbus market now to move on and go to higher levels’. It’s just giving back to the Columbus community,” Morrow said. 

Morrow has worked with over 20 clients one-on-one (in addition to countless other players through the Battery hockey clinics) from house level all the way up to the NCAA and NAHL levels. One of his clients, former Blue Jacket Rick Nash, has two of his kids, Mac and Finn, training with Alex.

“My kids are still at that age where they're learning to fall in love with the game. I have a five-year-old, a nine-year-old, so to find someone like Alex with the passion and energy, he keeps it fun for them,” said Nash, who recently took a position with the Columbus Blue Jackets last year as director of player development. “The more important side for me is how enthusiastic he is about the game of hockey and teaching my kids to fall in love with the game.”

Rick Nash is the all-time points leader for the Columbus Blue Jackets and the face of Columbus hockey for more than a decade. 

In Rick’s eyes, Mac and Finn are in great hands with Alex coaching them.

“It's tough for kids to listen to their parents; you know, they listen to coaches sometimes more. (Alex) keeps it fun; he keeps it light.”

Nash and Morrow connected at the Battery, a hockey training facility in Plain City that Flyers forward and former Blue Jacket Cam Atkinson brought to life.

It was also at the Battery that Alex connected with another special client, Bryce Miller.

Bryce suffered a brain injury in March of last year. Sarah, Bryce’s mom, said doctors weren’t sure at the time if he would make it through, much less walk and talk. Bryce has surpassed those expectations, and with the help of Alex and a couple of other coaches, Miller is now skating and getting back to playing hockey. 

“Alex's positivity and encouragement are incredible on ice with Bryce. I mean, he celebrates right there alongside with him,” said Bryce’s mom, Sarah. “Bryce's excitement is matched—equally matched—with Alex's.”

For Alex, the experience of working with Bryce is one he will remember forever.

“Being able to work with him and just seeing the pure excitement and joy when he masters a new skill or being able to skate without his walker or shoot the puck and, you know, all that stuff, it is humbling for sure,” he said. “It has been truly life-changing working with Bryce.”

Attached are videos of Bryce's shot. The first video takes place in October of 2023, the first time Bryce got back on the ice with coach Anthony Luckow. The second video, taken in February 2024, shows Bryce's shot improvement after working with Alex for a few months. (Video Credit- Sarah Miller)