Coaching Staff

The 2024-2025 season is Coach Fabbrini’s 3^rd season both behind the bench as Varsity Head Coach and in the classroom as Fenwick’s Freshman Resource Coordinator. He was named Head Coach on June 1, 2022, after successful playing and coaching careers at the college level. 

Nick grew up in Forest Park, Illinois, and played soccer, hockey, and baseball at Fenwick during his High School career. In 2003 and 2004, Nick was a member of Back-to-Back Catholic League, Kennedy Cup, and State Championship teams. He amassed over 200 points in 2 Varsity seasons and was named to the All-State and Showcase teams in 2004. 

After graduating from Fenwick, Coach Fabbrini attended the University of Illinois, where he found continued success as a member of 2 CSCHL (2006, 2008) and ACHA National Championship (2005, 2008) teams as a player. The 2008 team is still the only undefeated team in ACHA history. Nick graduated from Illinois in 2009 with a degree in Accountancy and finished in the Top 25 in program history in Games Played (141), Goals (74) and Points (132). 

Upon returning to Chicago, Nick coached at the Chicago Hawks for one season and joined the Fenwick coaching staff in 2010-2011 as a Varsity Assistant and JV Head Coach for two seasons before returning to Champaign as the Head Coach of his alma mater, the University of Illinois for the 2012-2013 season. The Illini found immediate success under his leadership, winning the 2013 CSCHL Championship, while Coach Fabbrini was a finalist for ACHA Coach-of-The-Year. In 2016, the Illini were awarded the ACHA Community Service Award for raising over 25,000 for charitable causes, along with the players volunteering over 300 hours of their time for the local youth hockey organization. 

In the 2016-2017 season, Coach Fabbrini was named an Assistant Coach to Team USA for the Winter Universiade in Almaty, Kazakhstan, alongside current JV Head Coach James McGing, who led the team in scoring during the tournament. The 2017-2018 season saw the Illini finish the season ranked 5^th nationally and make a run to the CSCHL and ACHA National Championship games before ultimately falling to Lindenwood and Adrian. In 2019, Nick was again named to Team USA’s staff for the Winter Universiade in Krasnoyarsk, Russia. He coached at Illinois until the 2021-2022 season. 

In 9+ seasons at Illinois, Nick compiled a 202-126-22 record. He was 2018 CSCHL Coach-of-the-Year and a two-time finalist for the same award for the ACHA. He recruited and coached 4 CSCHL Rookies-of-the-Year, 16 All-CSCHL players, 6 All-American, and more than 30 Academic All-Americans. He was also the Coaching Director for the Champaign-Urbana Youth Hockey Association for 8 years, working with their Minor Hawks program up through High School players.

In two seasons at Fenwick, Coach Fabbrini has led the Friars to a 63-58-8 record. He was the 2024 Chicago Catholic League Coach-of-the-Year. He currently resides in Forest Park with his dog, Frankie. He is excited to lead the next generation of Friar student-athletes to successful careers both on the ice and in the classroom. 

Ryan grew up playing youth hockey in the Chicago area for the Blues and Flames. At Fenwick, he played U16 CSDHL and Fenwick JV until playing on the varsity team for his junior and senior seasons. Outside of hockey at Fenwick, Ryan was a part of the varsity wrestling team as a freshman as well as playing lacrosse his sophomore and junior years.

Ryan went on to attend St. Mary’s University in Winona where he was a part of the NCAA Division III program as a true freshman and ACHA Division II the following year. Ryan finished his undergraduate education at Illinois State University where he continued playing hockey at the ACHA Division 2 and 3 levels and was an ACHA Academic All-American in his final year. Upon receiving his Bachelor’s degree from Illinois State, Ryan continued to stay involved with the game of hockey by joining the Oak Park Hockey Academy where he was involved in the learn to skate program teaching levels 1-4 and developing the private lesson program for the Hockey Academy. Ryan took a brief hiatus from coaching to further his education by pursuing two master’s degrees concurrently: Master of Science in Sport and Human Performance; Master of Art in Counseling: Specialization in Rehabilitation Counseling.

After completing his graduate program, Ryan returned to Fenwick Hockey as an Assistant Coach/Mental Skills Coach since the 2021-2022 season. In his second season with the program Ryan was a part of the coaching staff for the team that won the DiChristina Cup during the 2022-2023 season. In addition to coaching at Fenwick, Ryan also is a lead instructor for Next Level Power Skating where he assists hockey players and officials improve their skating abilities.

Professionally, Ryan is a Certified Mental Performance Consultant (CMPC) through the Association for Applied Sport Psychology and is eligible to be Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) through the State of Illinois. He currently works for a multidisciplinary performance, rehabilitation and technology company that plans to open their first facility later this year in the West Loop.

David brings a wealth of coaching knowledge that dates back to his high school days. His experience was built from the time he was 16 years old and throughout his playing career in the Chicago and Minneapolis/St. Paul Areas. The experience he gained over the years led him to starting his own goalie training business, AdvancEdge Performance which provides goalie private lessons, camps and services to individuals and organizations throughout Chicago. 

Over the last few years David has served several roles including: Goalie Director (Ice Dogs Hockey Association), Assistant and Goalie Coach (University of Illinois), Goalie Coach (Carmel HS, Chicago Cougars), and Head Coach (Ice Dogs - Peewee, Chicago Cougars - USPHL Elite).

During his playing days, he played spent of most his youth playing with the Highland Park Falcons and Team Illinois. He went on through the junior circuit ranging from Junior B to Tier II Junior A and then moved on to college at the NCAA D3 (University of Wisconsin - River Falls) and ACHA D1 (University of Illinois) levels.