Ben Robert
President/Managing Partner
Ben Robert moves to the Omaha area to serve as President & Managing Partner of the Omaha Lancers for the upcoming 2009-2010 season. He previously served as President of the team during the 2005-06 season and has been an owner of the Lancers since 2004.
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Most recently, Ben spent the last 15 months as the Vice President of Business Development for the Los Angeles Kings of the National Hockey League (NHL) where he led the team in generating incremental revenue through innovation. Prior to joining the Kings, Ben worked in the telecom industry for 25 years, with much of that time spent as a senior executive in sales for various corporations. His entrepreneurial ventures include commercial and residential real estate development in the United States and Canada.
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A native of Montreal, Ben has a solid knowledge and background in hockey after playing four years of college hockey at the University of New Haven while pursuing his bachelors degree and MBA degree.
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Ben lives in Omaha with his wife, Judy, and children, Alec and Ellyse.
FRONT OFFICE STAFFj
Terri Phillips
Director of Player Personnel
Terri Phillips begins her 22nd season with the Omaha Lancers program, and 11th as Director of Player Personnel.
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A native of Ft. Wayne, Indiana, Phillips' duties include overseeing the host family program, coordinating the Lancers' annual tryout camp, providing administrative support to the coaching staff and administering the coordination of Lancers' futures camps.
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Terri resides with her family in Papillion.
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Allison Judy
Director Of Ticket Operations
Alli Judy is in her eighth season with the Lancers. Her duties are to administer and oversee all aspects of ticketing for the team, including season, single game and group ticket sales. She assists with the team's overall marketing plan, attends player and community relations events and maintains the Lancers' website.
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Alli earned a bachelor's degree in sport administration from the University of Nebraska at Kearney where she spent her internship with the UNK Athletic Department and with the Tri-City Storm during the team's inaugural season.
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She is a native of Potter, Neb., and resides in Omaha with her husband Brian and their son Max.
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Dan Fremuth
Broadcaster/Director of Media Relations
Dan begins his season as the "Voice of the Lancers" on the radio and internet. Prior to coming to Omaha, Dan served as broadcaster and Director of Media Relations for the Amarillo Gorillas of the Central Hockey League (CHL). In addition to his roles of Broadcaster and Director of Media Relations, Fremuth also assists with the overall marketing plan for the team.
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In 2004, Dan graduated from the S.I. Newhouse School at Syracuse University with a degree in broadcast journalism and began his career broadcasting games for the Syracuse Stars of the Eastern Junior Hockey League (EJHL).
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After graduation, Dan spent two years with the Billings Bulls of the North American Hockey League (NAHL) where he worked with Lancers' assistant coach Doug Johnson.
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A native of Malvern, Pa., Dan currently resides in Omaha.
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Diana Fisher
Director of Group Sales
Diana Fisher begins her first season as Director of Group Sales for the Omaha Lancers. Her duties are to facilitate all group outings to Lancers’ games this season along with continuing to implement the Lancers “Stick With Reading” program.
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Diana earned her bachelor’s degree in business management from Wartburg College in Waverly, Iowa.
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A native of Wellsburg, Iowa, Diana currently resides in Blair with her husband Todd and their children, Blaine and Lindsay.
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Nichole Nervig
Director of Game Day Operations
Nichole Nervig begins her first season as Director of Game-Day Operations for the Omaha Lancers. Nichole brings 10 years of event planning experience to the organization alongside a passion for the game of hockey.
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Nichole coordinates all game night activities and promotions in addition to hiring and directing all the Lancers’ interns.
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She currently resides in Omaha with her husband Bill and her two step children, Alex and Billy.
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ON-ICE STAFF
Bliss Littler
Head Coach/General Manager
Bliss Littler is entering his 2nd season as Head Coach and General Manager of the Omaha Lancers. The ninth coach in Lancers’ history, Littler led Omaha to a 32-21-7 record overall last season and the club’s 20th consecutive playoff appearance.
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Omaha is the third USHL coaching stop for Littler who first came to the league with the expansion Topeka ScareCrows in 2001-02. Littler guided the ScareCrows to a second-place finish in the extremely competitive West Division and Topeka’s first ever playoff berth in 2002-03.
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The next season, Littler took over the reins of the Tri-City Storm and helped lead the team to the Anderson Cup regular season championship before falling three games to one to Waterloo in the Clark Cup finals. The league acknowledged Littler’s accomplishments at season’s end by naming him USHL General Manager of the Year. After five seasons with Tri-City, Littler had compiled a 164-108-28 regular season record and had guided the Storm to playoff berths in four of his five seasons behind the bench. By the end of the 2008-09 season, Littler had registered a USHL regular season record of 241-171-44.
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Before coming to the USHL, Littler won three regular season championships, five playoff championships and earned four national tournament appearances with the Billings Bulls of the AWHL/NAHL from 1993-94 to 1999-2000. He was selected to serve as an AWHL All-Star Game coach five times and King of the Hill head coach three times during his tenure in Billings. Littler amassed an overall record of 251-104-30 in seven seasons in Billings.
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Working with USA Hockey and its various programs has also been a heavy focus of Littler’s throughout his coaching career. The Minot, North Dakota native served once as the head coach and three times as the assistant coach for the National Junior Team that participated in the Viking Cup.
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Last year, Littler was an assistant coach for the National Junior team that won the Junior A Challenge in Camrose, Alberta. He has coached at the USA Select 15 Player Development Camp (four times) and USA Hockey Select 17 Player Development Camp (two times). Littler was also selected to coach at the national junior camp designed for players competing for spots on the United States National Junior Team roster.
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He resides in Omaha with his wife Gretchen and their two children, Cade and Grace.
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Bill Nervig, ATC
Head Athletic Trainer & Equipment Manager
Bill Nervig is in his 11th season with the Lancers. In addition to his roles as Head Athletic Trainer and Equipment Manager for the Lancers, Bill is also involved with game-night productions, including LancerVision.
A native of Omaha, Nervig has professional experience in previous years as the Head Athletic Trainer for the Omaha Beef indoor football team, Central High School and Benson High School in Omaha.
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He earned a bachelor's degree in education from Northwest Missouri State.
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Bill and his wife Nichole reside in Omaha with daughter Alex and son Billy.
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Steve Briere
Goaltending Coach
Steve Briere enters his first season as Goaltending Coach of the Omaha Lancers. Prior to joining the Lancers, Briere spent the last three seasons as an assistant and goaltending coach at his alma mater, the University of Alabama-Huntsville. Briere, a former USHL MVP for both the Lancers and Sioux City Musketeers, brings 16 years of goalie coaching experience along with nine seasons of professional hockey experience to Omaha.
Steve and his wife Pamela along with daughter, Morgan and son, Cameron currently reside in Huntsville, Alabama.
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