Front Office

Christian Esposito

Director of Hockey Operations

Many may remember Coach Esposito from his time serving as an associate on our Division 2 coaching staff and later as the head coach on our Division 3 coaching staff. We are excited to bring Christian Esposito (“Espo”) back as our Director of Hockey Operations. In addition to his time spent here at NIU he has had many experiences that make him a perfect fit for this role. Espo received many honors throughout his playing career including 3x high school all conference selection, Illinois High School All-State selection, 2x ACHA D2 All conference selection, and finishing twice in the top 10 scoring leaders in all of the ACHA. Espo was the founder of the ACHA program at his Alma Mater, St. Mary’s University of Minnesota. He served as president for all 4 years and helped mold and grow their program from the bottom up. He is one of four founding members of the NCHL conference that still competes at the ACHA D2 level and helped Captain his team to a playoff birth in their first year of existence. Christian started coaching youth hockey after graduating and eventually started his own spring and summer program which grew 300% over its 4 years of their existence. As before mentioned he went on to join our NIU coaching staff in various roles for a few years. He most recently serves as the Hockey Director and Head Varsity coach at Marmion Academy where he continues to have success and help grow their program. In his first year there the program expanded to having both JV and Varsity teams for the first. That year the Varsity team saw their first ever birth into the CCHL playoffs. Espo’s passion for the game of hockey, coaching, and his experience in growing programs makes us very excited to welcome him back into the NIU Huskie Hockey family. Espo is excited about joining new and returning staff in the common goals of continuing to grow our new D1 program and continuing the successes of the D3 program.

JC Weems

General Manager

This will be year 10 for JC Weems with NIU hockey. JC Weems played on the D3 team for 5 years and was an MACHA All Star twice. JC has held many roles with the Northern Illinois Hockey Club. JC was a team captain and President for 3 years. After Graduating from NIU JC Was part of the gameday staff until he was brought on as an assistant coach for the D3 team. After a year as an assistant coach JC took over as head coach for the D3 team. JC then took over as the GM for the program and looks forward to continuing to build up the NIU hockey program.

Wayne Bower

Assistant General Manager

Wayne comes to the Huskies after spending 16 seasons behind the bench at Crystal Lake South High School. Wayne also spent 16 years as a member of the CLS board, serving more than a decade as vice president of the club along with handling all equipment and ice contracts.

Wayne will be a good addition to the NIU staff. His role will include scouting and recruitment of future NIU players along with support current GM and Hockey Director in a variety of essential duties.

He remains on the board of directors of the North Central Division of the Illinois High School Hockey League.