The Bespoke Guardian Swindon Wildcats head coach Aaron Nell reflected on a “whirlwind” season for his side on and off the ice.
Swindon made the Final Four in the NIHL before falling in the semi-finals to Leeds Knights having spent the first three months unable to play at the Link Centre due to flooding causing damage to the ice rink.
Nell said that although his side met his expectations on the ice, it was what happened away from it that made him the most proud this season.
He said: “It has been great, it was a tough semi-final; it has been the hardest year that we have ever done but also the most rewarding.
“The players have been second to none and to get to two semi-finals and a third place, normally it wouldn’t be a massive achievement but in our circumstances it was and I am so proud of the players.
“It was a whirlwind, those first six weeks were tough and we made decisions as a management team to keep everyone, a lot of teams would have had to make cuts in that situation, there was a great amount of trust put in the players and they paid us back a lot.
“None of them decided to move on or quit and that was the biggest thing, the loyalty of the players.
“It has been a season we will never forget that we can be proud of and that we can learn from and push on from to be better next year.”
Nell added that he looked back with particular fondness on reaching the semi-finals of the NIHL National Cup with how it managed to keep people going during the difficult autumn months.
He said: “When you get put in that situation, you have to set goals for yourself and making the semi-final of the cup was a massive achievement for us, not for just making it as our expectation was to try and win the cup.
“We had to win ten of our last 11 games in the cup to go through and we did that, it was our third game in four nights against Hull and to win that game and go through in the cup was a special night.
“When you are in such a bad situation, you have to set things up to keep people going and the cup qualification kept people going through October and November and that was a great achievement together.”
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