Look up any ranking of United States prep schools and Phillips Exeter is somewhere near the top. And for the vast majority of the 2000s and 2010s, Exeter's boys hockey team matched that high ranking.
The Big Red were consistently a team in the Elite 8. That, however, hasn't been the case of late.
They finished 13-16-1 this past winter after posting a 13-12-5 record in 2023-24, missing the playoffs both years. They were under .500 again in 2022-23 with a meh showing of 12-15-1. Exeter's last strong season was in 2021-22 when it went 18-7-3 and made it to the Large School semifinals.
Former head coach Tim Mitropoulos left the team shortly before this past season. Exeter opened up a head coaching search this winter and spring and landed on Sean O'Brien, who has been just about everywhere.
After wrapping up playing for New England College in the mid-1990s and a year of playing in Germany, O'Brien began his career as a scout for the NHL's Florida Panthers. He followed that up by serving as owner and coach of the Portland Junior Pirates before joining a company called Legacy Global Sports and starting the Selects Academy program at South Kent.
In 2017, he joined the Harvard men's hockey team as its director of hockey operations and served in the role for three years. Then came the itch to coach prep, which led him to The Hill School for four years. He spent this past season working with the Pittsburgh Junior Penguins.
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But after five years in Pennsylvania, O'Brien knew he wanted to get back to the Boston area. He also had that itch to coach prep again.
"I just loved the whole atmosphere of coaching and being around that type of environment," O'Brien said.
Paul Pearl, whom he worked with at Harvard, alerted him to the Phillips Exeter job being open. Come early March, O'Brien was getting ready to move to Exeter, N.H.
Come the fall, O'Brien will inherit a coveted prep coaching job with numerous resources. One that's both complicated and full of pressure, which he will gladly put on himself.
Technology, resources and a Division 1 environment
When O'Brien was with the Panthers in the early 2000s, hockey was on the precipice of a seismic change in how it treated players. A new emphasis was put on the offseason and working out. Skill development became paramount for players of all ages. As computers became more advanced and prevalent, technology took a greater hold on the game.
"I was fortunate that it started to come together early on when I was a scout," O'Brien said. "Then, as I got into the coaching side, being able to apply some of those things was beneficial."
Fast forward to when he arrived at Harvard. With Ted Donato as head coach, O'Brien and then-assistant coach Jim Tortorella videotaped every practice and broke down the drills for players to watch after.
"It became a huge value add for teaching," O'Brien said. "You weren't just evaluating Friday and Saturday. You were evaluating seven days a week."
O'Brien continued doing that at The Hill School, and it will be a main focus at Exeter. O'Brien plans on having video analysis for players. Games will be broken down to evaluate individual shifts, line combinations and special teams.
"We will utilize technology no different than any Division 1 college or pro team," O'Brien said. "We want to be able to maximize the resources available to our players."
His time at Harvard greatly influenced how he will coach Exeter. The way in which Harvard coaches communicated with players, structured practice and planned for games will be how O'Brien steers Exeter.
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"I tell my recruits that if you came and watched a day in the life of a team that I'm coaching and then you went to Harvard and watched them, they would be mirror images of each other," O'Brien said.
O'Brien has given that message out quite a bit. Recruiting has become a big part of his job.
Roster management
When Exeter hit the ice this past winter, there were 30 players on the roster. That's relatively high, considering Cushing, the eventual Elite 8 champion, had 26 players, while Elite 8 runner-up Dexter Southfield had 27.
O'Brien inherits a team with a whopping 17 seniors.
That's good news for this coming winter, as Exeter will be older and should be ready to contend for the postseason. But that will cause headaches once the 2025-26 season finishes.
"It's essentially about rebuilding and replacing an entire team for the 2026-27 season," O'Brien said.
The way to remedy that is to recruit, which O'Brien plans to do "24/7." But along with finding the right players, it's also about structuring recruiting classes so they're not all leaving Exeter at the same time.
"I've got to evaluate the combination of underclassmen and upperclassmen," O'Brien said. "I don't want to be in a situation where I have 17 seniors every year."
His goal, as of now, is to be like Harvard — if the Crimson graduate seven players, seven new ones come in the fall.
"I want to structure our roster where every year, I'm looking to bring in six to eight new players," O'Brien said. "Maybe nine on a given year."
That requires bringing in players across multiple birth years. Right now, his focus is on high-end '08s, '09s and '10s.
Postgrads have become popular at Exeter. The Big Red had six this past season, five the year before that and four in 2022-23. Opting for postgraduate players may not be in Exeter's cards much longer.
"I've got to evaluate that," O'Brien said. "I don't know how many quality PGs are going to be available with junior hockey going younger, right?"
The ultimate goal
Phillips Exeter last made the Elite 8 in the 2017-18 season, now eight years ago. O'Brien hopes to end that trend immediately.
"Exeter should be an Elite 8 team every year," the new coach said. "That's my standard."
O'Brien acknowledges it won't happen overnight. Whether it takes multiple seasons remains to be seen. But he's already talked with the many returning players from next year's team. He expects immediate returns.
"The goal for 2025-26 is we're making the Elite 8 Tournament," O'Brien said. "That's going to be the philosophy every day."
It also wouldn't be shocking if O'Brien's future teams feature players similar to those of Exeter's top three scorers from that 2017-18 season. Michael Pitts (Raymond, N.H.) played at Amherst College after Exeter, while Bobby Murray (Yarmouth, Maine) went to Bowdoin and Sam Stone (Middleton, Mass.) played for Connecticut College.
Recruiting players who are interested in NESCAC schools at the Division 3 level, as well as those who want to go the Ivy League route for Division 1, may be Exeter's best path back to relevance.
"More of the Ivy and NESCAC is my sense," O'Brien said. "I do think what's going to happen is you're going to see a lot of bigger schools really focus on the younger kids in junior hockey.
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"I'm going to recruit the best players that I can. Whether they end up playing in Hockey East or the Ivy League, it's going to be the combination of being the best players with the best characters and good students. Wherever they end up, they end up."
One thing is for sure: O'Brien hopes his players lead Exeter back to the Elite 8.
