Courtesy of Cole Eichler ‘26
Camel of the Edition is a continuous series which seeks to highlight extraordinary Connecticut College athletes who have stood out for their recent performances.
Cole Eichler ‘26, a forward on the men’s ice hockey team, is currently tied for the lead in goals scored and second for total points among the team. The Ontario native has been a key piece in the Camels attack as the team improved significantly from last season and made the NESCAC playoffs this season. Off the rink, Eichler has worked to educate the community on healthier relationships and preventing domestic violence and sexual assault as a OneLove Fellow. This year, Eichler has worked to provide training sessions for each of the College’s varsity athletics teams.
Recently, The College Voice caught up with Eichler to learn how an Olympic gold-medalist coach inspired him to change positions, how the men’s ice hockey team has improved from last season, and why he wanted to start a OneLove chapter at the College.
Could you please introduce yourself?
My name’s Cole Eichler, I’m a second year student. I use he/him pronouns and I’m from Toronto, Ontario. My intended double major is Biochem and History and I’m an intended minor in Jewish Studies. I’m a Floor Governor in Harkness, part of the food dining hall community, founder and co-president of the One Love chapter at Conn, and also a member of the men’s ice hockey team.
Talk me through your journey in sports?
I started playing sports when I was probably 2 or 3 years old. I was actually a really big soccer player and grew up in a basketball family, so I didn’t know that much about hockey. But growing up, my best friend’s older brother was an NHL player so I kind of got thrown into hockey culture starting from when I was four years-old and I’ve fallen in love with the sport ever since. I tried a couple other sports too but was ultimately stuck between [soccer and hockey] being in season all the time.
When and why did you decide to focus on hockey?
I hit a point where my soccer coach told me it was soccer or hockey. Being from Canada, there wasn’t that high of a level of soccer [being played] so I told my coach I was going to focus on hockey instead. I had always enjoyed playing hockey a lot more than I enjoyed playing soccer so I stepped down to a lower level and decided to focus on hockey a lot younger which kind of guided me towards that direction. I fell in love with the game and working out, and hockey’s become part of my identity since I was 12 or 13 years old.
What was your recruitment process like and how did you end up choosing Conn?
I went to boarding school when I was 16 to play hockey in Connecticut. I thought I was the next coming of something big and so I was looking for the DI schools. But [in] my senior year, I was introduced to the NESCAC and [saw] how good of an opportunity it was [for me], especially as I wanted to go to [medical] school and become a doctor. My coach suggested I look into the NESCAC schools and because I separated my shoulder early on in my senior year, I took the time to do my own research and went on a couple visits. When I got on campus [at Conn], the community and the coaches here really made me feel welcome and I couldn’t say no to coming here and getting the experience they talked about and I think they’ve really lived up to the expectations.
What differences did you notice last year as a first-year between collegiate hockey and high school/club hockey?
My senior year of high school hockey, I was the 19 year-old playing against 16 and 17 year old [players], so I was a lot stronger and physically mature than those guys. But coming to the collegiate level I had a couple teammates who were already 25 years-old when I got here so it was definitely an adjustment for me physically to try to keep up and get with the pace. A big part of my identity on the ice is being a guy who wins battles so battling against older guys was definitely a large adjustment for me.
How did you adjust to these differences and work to improve?
I think a really big thing was working in the gym with John [Pirla]. He really helped me develop the strength I needed and I still continue to improve my strength. But I think I need to give a lot of credit to my teammates who push me everyday in the rink, make sure I don’t have any days off and who would guide me in the right direction.
You’re currently tied in leading the team in goals scored and second on the team for total points. How do you get yourself in positions often to score goals and assist your teammates and how are you clinical in front of goal?
I think a big emphasis this past summer was to improve my shot. A lot of my teammates make really great plays and find me open in the slot and I wasn’t capitalizing last year. This year, I’ve done a better job with that and am continuing to try to improve on this. But I really have to give a lot of credit for my teammates for making really good plays, winning battles, and creating opportunities on the ice. I think overall it’s been a team effort and I’ve just been fortunate enough to be on the receiving end on a lot of those nice passes.
Have you always played as a forward or have you played other positions too?
I actually started off as a goalie but I was pretty scared of the puck so I didn’t last there very long. My first coach was actually an NHL Hall-of-Fame defenseman and Olympic gold medalist, Paul Coffey. He was really known for his scoring and playmaking ability and he suggested I try playing forward. I kind of fell in love with scoring goals so since then I’ve really just been a forward for the most part.
Last year, the men’s hockey team only won two NESCAC conference games and failed to make the playoffs. This season, you all won seven NESCAC games and qualified for the playoffs. What improvements has your team made in order to see such a big improvement?
I think last year we started to try to change the culture of the team. A lot of guys weren’t happy with the results we had and spent their offseasons trying to really improve upon that. The seniors who graduated last year really put in a good mindset for us to work hard and achieve the goals we wanted. So a big shout out to them for creating that culture for us and a really big shout out to the guys putting in the effort and sticking through with it. Additionally, everyone on the team respects everyone and that’s really helped us have the success that we’ve had this year.
How did you first find out about the OneLove Foundation and why did you choose to get involved?
My journey with OneLove started just over three years ago. I actually wasn’t even a member a sophomore year. But in my senior year after COVID, my teacher came up to me and told me that they didn’t have a leader for OneLove and [that] I would be a good fit. My teacher thought I would be a good fit because during my senior year of high school, I was a prefect. My teacher knew that I was planning to talk about my best friend who unfortunately passed away six years ago due to domestic violence along with his mom and sister also [being] killed by his mom’s boyfriend at the time. Knowing my background and how passionate of a cause it is for me to try to battle domestic violence, they thought this would be a really great idea for me to forefront this and try to share my experience the best I could. Not knowing what the organization really was, I kind of made a commitment to it. As I got to understand more about the organization and what it was pushing for, I think it really made a large impact on me and became something that I became passionate about. The opportunity I had to share my experience with not only my school but also with local middle schools was really unique and I’m definitely really thankful for the help they provided in my life as well.
If you could describe OneLove’s mission in a few sentences, how would you describe it?
Their mission is to make every relationship healthier and to try to improve your relationships. The big thing is that 100% of relationships can become healthier and that everything deserves to be in healthier relationships. OneLove [helps] people be more communicable and receptive and helps people talk through their issues rather than staying quiet and allowing those issues to take a larger place.
When did you decide you wanted to create a OneLove chapter at Connecticut College and how did you work to create the chapter?
I really realized my freshman spring that there wasn’t a OneLove organization here and green dot was being pretty quiet at the time. So, I did my research and saw what the campus was lacking. I thought it would be a cool idea to bring OneLove here because I saw how much of an impact it made at my high school and on my life after some of the tragic incidents I went through growing up. My best friend passed away six years ago and definitely knowing the impact that made on my life, I wanted to make sure no one experienced those types of things.
How did the idea of providing training sessions to each of the College’s varsity athletics teams arise?
When I was talking last spring, me and one of the women’s hockey and women’s lacrosse players all met and discussed how we wanted to run this organization. Hannah [Macleod], who unfortunately transferred, was a big part of that and Dillyn [Zindler] ‘24 had a really good idea of what we should try to strive for as an organization. So we talked to Mo White and Liz Cahn to see what we could do with the Athletics department knowing how much of an impact this had on all of us. With Mo and Liz’s efforts to help us and support us in every way they could, it was a big emphasis of our’s to try to train all the athletes and see how it could impact the community positively and try to carry that throughout the rest of the community.
What is the purpose of these sessions and what is covered at each of these training sessions?
The purpose of this is to just to give everyone to learn a little bit and help re-evlate their knowledge on relationship health and what that looks like in different types of relationships we have all developed in our lives.To be able to watch something that’s realistic and compare it to our lives, to have an opportunity to have a look at what a relationship may look like, how their influence can impact it, and in what ways can we step forward as a society to step forward and prevent any type of domestic and sexual assault. The big things covered in training are the ten signs of healthy and unhealthy relationships, what to notice and observe, what we can do to fix negative signs, and what are some things that we look for in relationships to make sure they are on the positive side of things.
What other events do you hope to plan for OneLove?
This spring we’re planning on doing a color run, which is called Yards for Yardly. We’re putting a little twist on it compared to the traditional event run. I think this is a really good opportunity to provide attention for OneLove, gain some interest, continue to train people, and have people open and willing to have these conversations.
