MENTAL TOUGHNESS: MEET JOSH ROBERTS, THE RUSH'S LEADERSHIP COACH

In hockey, coaches are often the toughest people in the room. Standing fearlessly behind their players on the bench every night, their bodies, faces, and smiles provide a peek into their time on the ice and the battle scars accrued along the way.

Scott Burt, Peter Drikos, and Chad Costello—the three most front-facing figures in the Rush organization day-to-day—take their group of 20 into battle on game night. During the week, the unit goes to work behind closed doors, transforming young men from all over the country and world into professional hockey players.

While practice rages on inside an empty ice arena at The Monument, the clattering of sticks and hollering of the athletes audible throughout the building, observing from a folding chair at ice-level is the one coach you might not know about.

Josh Roberts is the Rush’s Leadership Coach. While Burt, Drikos, and Costello game plan for the physical side of hockey, Roberts focuses on a part of the game that has seen increasing levels of attention in recent years: the athletes’ mental health and preparation.

“I am a sounding board for the players,” explained Roberts. “I have been in conversations revolving around dissatisfaction with playing time to breakups. The players may be more willing to tell me things they are not going to tell the coaches, so that is obviously a position of trust, but I can still take what the players are telling me and use it to inform the coaches of the team’s general feelings. I think it is beneficial both ways; I also work with the captains doing intentional leadership development. I try to help them understand their roles as leaders and the obligations it brings.”

Roberts is a Transformation Academy Certified Life Coach and helps folks from all walks of life with leadership development and personal coaching. The Rush were his first opportunity to work with a sports team on a regular basis.

“We have a lot of young men on this team who have only ever played hockey as a job,” said Roberts. “So in my life perspective and experience, I have a uniquely close relationship with grief and loss. I think I offer a different perspective that is not hockey-related for the guys who are struggling. It is important to help these young men understand that this is a small window of your life. Even after spending 20 years in the Air Force, I have more time to be a coach before I collect social security than I spent in the military.”

Roberts, an American, spent his early years in Mexico as the son of religious missionaries. Upon crossing the United States’ southern border at El Paso, Texas for return trips to his home country, the sight of an American flag would fill Roberts with a feeling of safety and pride for his home country. Long before enlisting, he grew up with utmost appreciation and admiration for those who served.

“My grandmother had gotten me a book that I read countless times about Medal of Honor winners,” said Roberts. “I was always fascinated by what would compel someone to lay their life down for the people they served with. I mean, that is a very final decision that you make. So I was always attracted to the honor, the spirit of duty, and even just the brotherhood you get in the military that is unlike anything else. You see that brotherhood on a sports team, like the Rush, but the military brings something else out in you.” 

Influenced by the September 11, 2001 attacks and responding to a need to protect our freedoms, Roberts joined the U.S. Air Force in 2002. He started out as a munitions technician, helping build bombs for fighter aircraft. Roberts held numerous roles as he served at nine different bases, including overseas in Korea, Italy, and Japan. His last stop was Ellsworth Air Force Base. Roberts retired from service in November 2022, having attained the rank of Senior Master Sergeant.

“Being a drill sergeant in San Antonio for four years was my favorite thing I have ever done,” Roberts recalled. “My nickname was the Soul Reaper and I very good at it, but I loved watching the transformation that would happen to take civilians and watch them turn into airmen. To have a part in that was very, very special to me. I developed a course that I would teach on base to help NCOs understand the importance of their job in the Air Force. I have been able to take that experience and turn it into a course I teach now.”

As a drill sergeant, Roberts helped the aspiring airmen change their mindset from ‘it’s about me’ to ‘it’s about team success.’ Like in hockey, there are few things that one can pass or fail strictly on their own. While he is not screaming at the Rush players like a head coach or drill sergeant would, Roberts uses the principles he learned as a teacher and coach in the military to approach an ever-changing locker room with a collection of two dozen personalities and backgrounds inside at any given time.

Roberts’ relationship with the Rush began on Military Appreciation Night last season. He used his commanding voice to lead the big crowd in a Jody chant. The day after, Rush President Jared Reid asked him to chat over coffee. Unexpected to Roberts, the coaches also showed up. They offered him a position, and his involvement has only grown since.

“When I was standing in the locker room, I looked around and saw the same faces that I saw in basic training,” said Roberts. “They are young men who want to be great. They want to be great at their job and do it to the best of their abilities. Being able to work with a group of athletes that are dedicated to winning and getting to the next level has been a huge honor for me.”

“Serving in the military was the greatest honor of my life, but this has been the most fun,” Roberts continued. “I may see an NHL game several years down the road and see a dude who I helped get through a rough time and know I played a big part in their success. The team’s faith in me to do this job means a lot to me. But to be honest, just being able to go into the locker room and see the excitement the guys get when I walk in.”

Roberts does not see himself as a part of the Rush coaching staff, though, but an authentic, friendly face to whom players can reach out at any time. He has held one-on-one meetings with anyone willing to chat along with addressing the full team. He does not shy away from dishing out hard truths, either.

His authenticity and openness come out in spades when discussing the military, too. A proud military town since Ellsworth Air Force Base was established in 1941, Rapid City is unlike any city most of the young athletes have ever lived in. Roberts is committed to helping the organization maintain is strong, long-lasting ties with the expansive local military community. 

“Rapid City is unique,” said Roberts. “You have a major, growing Air Force Base that is going to hold a position of vast importance for the future of warfare. You also have Camp Rapid (the South Dakota Army National Guard installation). It is important for the Rush to remember who they are playing in front of, right? This is not LA, this is Rapid City. This town is made up of hardworking, blue-collar folks. As for the military, you are playing in front of a group of people who could be at war at this time next year. For the community to see this organization honoring their service is really, really important. I think that bridge and that relationship are so important.”

Further connecting that bridge, the entire Rush organization—players, staff, and front office—spent a day touring the base, a new experience for nearly everyone in attendance. It was the team’s first time doing so in four years, and Roberts made sure to be on the trip.

“The Rush asked me to be a part of the planning committee to make sure that we are doing things that truly do matter to the military community,” said Roberts. “When we got to go to the base, the folks out there are fanboying over you because you are a professional hockey player. Our hockey players should be fanboying over the airmen that are out on that base, too.”

Roberts’ son, Ethan, is active duty in the Navy, currently stationed out of Naval Base Coronado, right by San Diego. Josh recalls a moment last year when he took Ethan into the locker room after a Rush win and all the players lined up to shake Ethan’s hand.

Military Appreciation Night, always the most important game of Rapid City’s season, is a longstanding tradition dating back to 2008. It is an award-winning tradition, too; the Rush organization has won multiple ‘Specialty Jersey of the Year’ honors at the ECHL league meetings, most recently in 2023. The Rush are considered the gold standard across the league for its commitment to honor the military each year.

This year’s threads serve in remembrance of Ellsworth Air Force Base’s contributions to Operation Arc Light, a nine-year series of missions in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War, which ended 50 years ago in April.

You will be able to bid on the jerseys immediately after the final horn. During the game, you can bet Roberts will be making a special appearance and leading Rush Nation in Jodys.