June 6, 2025 • 10 mins
Riley Weselowski is the new Head Coach of the Cincinnati Cyclones. He joined us on ESPN1530.
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Podcasts of The Mo Egger Radio Show are a service of Longnecks Sports Grill.
Listen to the show live weekday afternoons 3:00 - 6:00 on ESPN1530.
Listen Live: ESPN1530.com/listen
Get more: https://linktr.ee/MoEgger
Follow on X: @MoEgger
Instagram too: @MoEgger
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is ESPN fifteen thirty on Moleger. The Cincinnati Cyclones
about an hour and a half ago, announced they had
ended their coaching search by hiring actually a guy who's
spent a brief amount of time in Cincinnati as a player,
Riley was Lowski named head coach of the Cincinnati Cyclones.
He comes to Cincinnati after serving the last couple of
(00:22):
seasons as the associate head coach of the Kansas City Mavericks.
It is a pleasure to welcome to Cincinnati and congratulate
on the new job, coach, was Lowski. It's good to
have you, coach.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
How are you, Hey, I'm doing great. Thanks for having
me on.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
What have the last few weeks been like for you?
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Yeah, you know what, It's been a whirlwind for sure,
interviewing not only with the Cyclones but with a few
other teams in the league. But I'll tell you all
along that process. For me, Cincinnati was number one on
my target list of the one place that I wanted
to be. Everything about the organization, the fan base, the
affiliation that's in place, just kind of knew that was
(01:02):
a place that had the resources to be able to
have the level of success that I'd want to have
as a first time head coach in this league, and
so I couldn't be more thrilled to become the Cincinnati.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
All right, dive into some of those specifics for me,
this is a franchise that has had a lot of
success and you know what the Cyclones can be. You
know what this franchise can do in the EHL. Give
me an idea of what some of those things are
that you saw in the interview process that make you
feel like I can get the Cyclones back to where
they need to be.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
Yeah, well, first off, you got to start with a
great fan base, and we have that in Cincinnati. I
think we know draw maybe in the top five for sure,
the amount of fans into the arena every day. And
so everything starts with a good falling and a good
fan base, which we have in Cincinnati. We've got a
major league city, which you know, not every team in
the ECHL. There's few that have a major league city,
(01:53):
and so we have a great market in Cincinnati. The
affiliation that is in place that was a big one
for me, and I know was the first year affiliation
with Toronto last year and uh and it didn't necessarily
pan out the way fans and hope you're expected. But
what I will tell you is that is something to
be excited about, that affiliation with the mainle leafs and
the mar leagus, and that's going to be a big
part of our success, uh in the future here going forward,
(02:17):
and so use those are some of the really big
points for me. Another, obviously, is the ownership group and
the fact that they the ownership group also owns the arena,
something not a lot of people see, but in our
league that's pretty rare to have that. And so you
really can can do a lot of things in terms
of creating excitement around the games. And and and you
(02:39):
see that with the weekday games and the amount of
butts in the seats for those weekday games because some
of the promotions and stuff they can run. And so
as a coach for me, recruiting, that's huge right to
be able to sell that to the players because when
we talk to players, they want to know what's exciting
about playing in your city and in your market, and
and and with Cincinnati, there's a lot of things for
(02:59):
them to be excited about.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
You mentioned recruiting, and I'm sure there are some fans
who hear that and don't know that the head coach
at this level is involved in trying to get players
to want to play here. Take me through the recruiting
pitch and walk me through some of the philosophies you
have in getting kids to want to come play for
the Cyclones.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
Yeah. Well, first off, it starts with building a program
that people want to be a part of, right, and
so like for us in Kansas City, I've been here
for four years and then we just to be honest,
we'd underachieved that the team in Kansas City had underachieved
for many years, and we knew that there was a
lot of similarities in terms of the market side, the
ownership group that we had some good possibilities in Kansas City,
(03:37):
And for us, it was we didn't have the affiliation
in place at the time, but we were able to
add that our second year. But the mindset of a
coach in the EHL, it's not just about coaching hockey, right,
It's about it's about building a program and every aspect
of the program, from the way you travel from you know,
the way the players are housed in the apartments that
(03:59):
go into it, and then creating an environment. Uh, and
a culture that they want to be a part of.
And and you know the places are in piece for
the pieces are in place in Cincinnati that to do
that quickly. But it is a process, right, and you
have to you have to kind of almost like the
the Field of Dreams quote. They're like, if you build it,
they will come. Uh. And so we've got to get
(04:21):
to that point. But uh. But with the uh, with
the the market of Cincinnati and the success that that
the Cyclones organization has had in the past, it's something
that we'll be able to build on very quickly.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
You mentioned the Toronto Maple Leafs affiliation, which I know
folks here and folks with the organization are really excited about.
What is the role of head coach of the Cyclones
as it relates to the relationship with the parent.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
Club well development of their players, right, Yeah. They they
put players in Cincinnati because they want them to develop,
and they want them to when they do get the
call up in the American Hockey League that they're ready
to go. And and you know, quite frankly, they're sending
players to us that they would expect some they told
be playing for the parent club up in the NHL.
And so actually I played with one of their guys.
(05:03):
Bobby McMahon was a player that I played with in Wichita.
At the time, it was COVID year, they didn't have
the affiliation. So that's a player that they had put
into the EHL and now he's playing, you know, he's
playing in the NHL for them. And so they're putting
players in place in Cincinnati for you to develop and
for them to play a role in the future of
(05:24):
their organization, and they trust you with that. So having
good communication with them and them trusting that that you're
doing what's the right thing for their players and also
putting them in a winning environment. And I think our
fans will be happy to hear that is that that
is a big priority with any ECHL organization, is putting
the team on the ice that will not only win
hockey games, but that your fans can get excited about
(05:46):
watching night in and night out.
Speaker 1 (05:48):
You played, you were an active player as recently as
four years ago. Was the goal to always eventually transition
into coaching.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
Yeah, you know what it was for about the last
five years of my playing. But year one as a player,
my goal was to just play one year pro hockey
and then probably get into the working world. And so
I had some injuries my first year, a tourer knee
that I wanted. I didn't want to end that way.
So I came back for second year and Game one
had a broken back from an awkward hit. And then
(06:18):
by the time I was ready to come back, I
ended up going to Rapid City, South Dakota in the
Central League, and I had so much fun and won
a championship there, and one thing led to the next,
and it turned it into a long playing career that
with about five years left, I knew I wanted to
eventually get into coaching, and which was very helpful because
it allowed me to look at things from a different
perspective for my last five years as a player and
(06:38):
then really allowed me to side in pretty seamlessly to
my first year as a coach in EHL.
Speaker 1 (06:44):
The season is still months away. We talked about player recruitment.
What are the things do you have to get done
this offseason besides just moving to Cincinnati.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
Yeah, moving to Cincinnati is a big part of it.
Building a staff is another big part of it. Now
a lot of those places pieces are already in play.
We've got the best equipment manager in the league already
in place in Cincinnati, and we've got one of the
top athletic trainers in the league already in Cincinnati as well,
and so like that's a huge part of it. But
(07:13):
assistant coach and what the rest of that staff looks like,
you know, determining that what we can do to bring
that in. So that's a big part of it. Developing
even more onto that relationship with Toronto, with the Marley's
and made beliefs, and making sure that we understand what
the type of players and the prospects that they're going
to be sending to us, maybe having a bit of
a say into that. That'll include going up to the
(07:37):
different things with them like their development camp and their
training camps and rookie tournament and stuff like that to
be able to build on that relationship. Then also just
everything working with the front office to be able to
create documents and videos to be able to market Cincinnati
to different players. We've got our broadcaster is doing an
(07:58):
incredible job helping me put together pdf right now to
be able to just text all of our players so
that when they're talking to four different teams, they can see, oh, man,
this is what Cincinnati offers and some of the great
things about coming there. And then it's you know, the
relationships that over the last four years I've built with
all the agents and different coaches that I'll be utilizing
a lot of reaching out to them and just finding
(08:20):
out what players are available, because there's a lot of
them right now. Last year there was four hundred and
fifty six graduating players out of the NCAA Division One
because the COVID year finally ran out, And so there's
going to be a lot of players available, and it's
going to be my job to make sure that the
best ones are coming to Cincinnati.
Speaker 1 (08:35):
I knew this morning I was having you on. Specifically,
I knew last night I was going to have the
head coach of the Cyclones on. I didn't know who
it was going to be. And so I was watching
Game one of the Stanley Cup Final last night, which
was a great game in overtime, Edmonton wins comes from
behind to a win Game one of the series, and
I was wondering, does somebody like yourself, could you watch
(08:56):
that game like a fan or are you starting to
watch that game through the lens of a coach?
Speaker 2 (09:01):
You know, that's a great question, because I do watch
it only as a coach now, and the reason for
that is because I don't get to sit down at
night and watch it because I have a six year
old and I want you, hope and so on. I'm
on dad duties, and so when I watch that game,
it's it's the next morning, and I'm watching it on
like a video element of it, and I'm so I
(09:22):
watched the game in sixty minutes. I don't watch any
whistles or stoppages of play. And I and I watch
it because it is interesting and I learn so much
watching NHL games. But I don't have the luxury right
now with my two boys to be able to sit
there with my feet up, and especially with my wife's
an absolute trooper, you know, the amount of time that
we're on the road during the season, and so when
the season's over, I got to slip into pretty much
(09:45):
major dad mode at the evenings.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
All Right, See, you can't say, honey, I'm gonna but
if like this series goes deep before in game seven,
that you should get a you should get an exemption. Right. Hey,
I'm gonna watch the Stanley Cup Final Game seven if
it goes as far as it did last year.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
Be able to watch when we get close to the
end of the series, there's no doubt with at all.
We get in a few free passes on those ones,
that's for sure. All right.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
Well, congratulations, welcome to Cincinnati, and we'll do it again
before the season starts. Congratulations yet again. We appreciate the time.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
Yeah, I appreciate you guys having me on.
Speaker 1 (10:17):
No problem. That's Riley. Weslowski is the new head coach
of the Cincinnati Cyclones. Played here for a season in
twenty fifteen and sixteen.
This is ESPN fifteen thirty on Moleger. The Cincinnati Cyclones
about an hour and a half ago, announced they had
ended their coaching search by hiring actually a guy who's
spent a brief amount of time in Cincinnati as a player,
Riley was Lowski named head coach of the Cincinnati Cyclones.
He comes to Cincinnati after serving the last couple of
(00:22):
seasons as the associate head coach of the Kansas City Mavericks.
It is a pleasure to welcome to Cincinnati and congratulate
on the new job, coach, was Lowski. It's good to
have you, coach.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
How are you, Hey, I'm doing great. Thanks for having
me on.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
What have the last few weeks been like for you?
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Yeah, you know what, It's been a whirlwind for sure,
interviewing not only with the Cyclones but with a few
other teams in the league. But I'll tell you all
along that process. For me, Cincinnati was number one on
my target list of the one place that I wanted
to be. Everything about the organization, the fan base, the
affiliation that's in place, just kind of knew that was
(01:02):
a place that had the resources to be able to
have the level of success that I'd want to have
as a first time head coach in this league, and
so I couldn't be more thrilled to become the Cincinnati.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
All right, dive into some of those specifics for me,
this is a franchise that has had a lot of
success and you know what the Cyclones can be. You
know what this franchise can do in the EHL. Give
me an idea of what some of those things are
that you saw in the interview process that make you
feel like I can get the Cyclones back to where
they need to be.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
Yeah, well, first off, you got to start with a
great fan base, and we have that in Cincinnati. I
think we know draw maybe in the top five for sure,
the amount of fans into the arena every day. And
so everything starts with a good falling and a good
fan base, which we have in Cincinnati. We've got a
major league city, which you know, not every team in
the ECHL. There's few that have a major league city,
(01:53):
and so we have a great market in Cincinnati. The
affiliation that is in place that was a big one
for me, and I know was the first year affiliation
with Toronto last year and uh and it didn't necessarily
pan out the way fans and hope you're expected. But
what I will tell you is that is something to
be excited about, that affiliation with the mainle leafs and
the mar leagus, and that's going to be a big
part of our success, uh in the future here going forward,
(02:17):
and so use those are some of the really big
points for me. Another, obviously, is the ownership group and
the fact that they the ownership group also owns the arena,
something not a lot of people see, but in our
league that's pretty rare to have that. And so you
really can can do a lot of things in terms
of creating excitement around the games. And and and you
(02:39):
see that with the weekday games and the amount of
butts in the seats for those weekday games because some
of the promotions and stuff they can run. And so
as a coach for me, recruiting, that's huge right to
be able to sell that to the players because when
we talk to players, they want to know what's exciting
about playing in your city and in your market, and
and and with Cincinnati, there's a lot of things for
(02:59):
them to be excited about.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
You mentioned recruiting, and I'm sure there are some fans
who hear that and don't know that the head coach
at this level is involved in trying to get players
to want to play here. Take me through the recruiting
pitch and walk me through some of the philosophies you
have in getting kids to want to come play for
the Cyclones.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
Yeah. Well, first off, it starts with building a program
that people want to be a part of, right, and
so like for us in Kansas City, I've been here
for four years and then we just to be honest,
we'd underachieved that the team in Kansas City had underachieved
for many years, and we knew that there was a
lot of similarities in terms of the market side, the
ownership group that we had some good possibilities in Kansas City,
(03:37):
And for us, it was we didn't have the affiliation
in place at the time, but we were able to
add that our second year. But the mindset of a
coach in the EHL, it's not just about coaching hockey, right,
It's about it's about building a program and every aspect
of the program, from the way you travel from you know,
the way the players are housed in the apartments that
(03:59):
go into it, and then creating an environment. Uh, and
a culture that they want to be a part of.
And and you know the places are in piece for
the pieces are in place in Cincinnati that to do
that quickly. But it is a process, right, and you
have to you have to kind of almost like the
the Field of Dreams quote. They're like, if you build it,
they will come. Uh. And so we've got to get
(04:21):
to that point. But uh. But with the uh, with
the the market of Cincinnati and the success that that
the Cyclones organization has had in the past, it's something
that we'll be able to build on very quickly.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
You mentioned the Toronto Maple Leafs affiliation, which I know
folks here and folks with the organization are really excited about.
What is the role of head coach of the Cyclones
as it relates to the relationship with the parent.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
Club well development of their players, right, Yeah. They they
put players in Cincinnati because they want them to develop,
and they want them to when they do get the
call up in the American Hockey League that they're ready
to go. And and you know, quite frankly, they're sending
players to us that they would expect some they told
be playing for the parent club up in the NHL.
And so actually I played with one of their guys.
(05:03):
Bobby McMahon was a player that I played with in Wichita.
At the time, it was COVID year, they didn't have
the affiliation. So that's a player that they had put
into the EHL and now he's playing, you know, he's
playing in the NHL for them. And so they're putting
players in place in Cincinnati for you to develop and
for them to play a role in the future of
(05:24):
their organization, and they trust you with that. So having
good communication with them and them trusting that that you're
doing what's the right thing for their players and also
putting them in a winning environment. And I think our
fans will be happy to hear that is that that
is a big priority with any ECHL organization, is putting
the team on the ice that will not only win
hockey games, but that your fans can get excited about
(05:46):
watching night in and night out.
Speaker 1 (05:48):
You played, you were an active player as recently as
four years ago. Was the goal to always eventually transition
into coaching.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
Yeah, you know what it was for about the last
five years of my playing. But year one as a player,
my goal was to just play one year pro hockey
and then probably get into the working world. And so
I had some injuries my first year, a tourer knee
that I wanted. I didn't want to end that way.
So I came back for second year and Game one
had a broken back from an awkward hit. And then
(06:18):
by the time I was ready to come back, I
ended up going to Rapid City, South Dakota in the
Central League, and I had so much fun and won
a championship there, and one thing led to the next,
and it turned it into a long playing career that
with about five years left, I knew I wanted to
eventually get into coaching, and which was very helpful because
it allowed me to look at things from a different
perspective for my last five years as a player and
(06:38):
then really allowed me to side in pretty seamlessly to
my first year as a coach in EHL.
Speaker 1 (06:44):
The season is still months away. We talked about player recruitment.
What are the things do you have to get done
this offseason besides just moving to Cincinnati.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
Yeah, moving to Cincinnati is a big part of it.
Building a staff is another big part of it. Now
a lot of those places pieces are already in play.
We've got the best equipment manager in the league already
in place in Cincinnati, and we've got one of the
top athletic trainers in the league already in Cincinnati as well,
and so like that's a huge part of it. But
(07:13):
assistant coach and what the rest of that staff looks like,
you know, determining that what we can do to bring
that in. So that's a big part of it. Developing
even more onto that relationship with Toronto, with the Marley's
and made beliefs, and making sure that we understand what
the type of players and the prospects that they're going
to be sending to us, maybe having a bit of
a say into that. That'll include going up to the
(07:37):
different things with them like their development camp and their
training camps and rookie tournament and stuff like that to
be able to build on that relationship. Then also just
everything working with the front office to be able to
create documents and videos to be able to market Cincinnati
to different players. We've got our broadcaster is doing an
(07:58):
incredible job helping me put together pdf right now to
be able to just text all of our players so
that when they're talking to four different teams, they can see, oh, man,
this is what Cincinnati offers and some of the great
things about coming there. And then it's you know, the
relationships that over the last four years I've built with
all the agents and different coaches that I'll be utilizing
a lot of reaching out to them and just finding
(08:20):
out what players are available, because there's a lot of
them right now. Last year there was four hundred and
fifty six graduating players out of the NCAA Division One
because the COVID year finally ran out, And so there's
going to be a lot of players available, and it's
going to be my job to make sure that the
best ones are coming to Cincinnati.
Speaker 1 (08:35):
I knew this morning I was having you on. Specifically,
I knew last night I was going to have the
head coach of the Cyclones on. I didn't know who
it was going to be. And so I was watching
Game one of the Stanley Cup Final last night, which
was a great game in overtime, Edmonton wins comes from
behind to a win Game one of the series, and
I was wondering, does somebody like yourself, could you watch
(08:56):
that game like a fan or are you starting to
watch that game through the lens of a coach?
Speaker 2 (09:01):
You know, that's a great question, because I do watch
it only as a coach now, and the reason for
that is because I don't get to sit down at
night and watch it because I have a six year
old and I want you, hope and so on. I'm
on dad duties, and so when I watch that game,
it's it's the next morning, and I'm watching it on
like a video element of it, and I'm so I
(09:22):
watched the game in sixty minutes. I don't watch any
whistles or stoppages of play. And I and I watch
it because it is interesting and I learn so much
watching NHL games. But I don't have the luxury right
now with my two boys to be able to sit
there with my feet up, and especially with my wife's
an absolute trooper, you know, the amount of time that
we're on the road during the season, and so when
the season's over, I got to slip into pretty much
(09:45):
major dad mode at the evenings.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
All Right, See, you can't say, honey, I'm gonna but
if like this series goes deep before in game seven,
that you should get a you should get an exemption. Right. Hey,
I'm gonna watch the Stanley Cup Final Game seven if
it goes as far as it did last year.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
Be able to watch when we get close to the
end of the series, there's no doubt with at all.
We get in a few free passes on those ones,
that's for sure. All right.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
Well, congratulations, welcome to Cincinnati, and we'll do it again
before the season starts. Congratulations yet again. We appreciate the time.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
Yeah, I appreciate you guys having me on.
Speaker 1 (10:17):
No problem. That's Riley. Weslowski is the new head coach
of the Cincinnati Cyclones. Played here for a season in
twenty fifteen and sixteen.
Mo Egger News
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