Three years ago, Josh Nelson was a college student majoring in athletic training and playing hockey for Minnesota State-Mankato.

He had a burning desire to get into coaching, knowing the grueling hours involved and the long, traversing bus trips that lay ahead.

He felt like he knew the game well enough. He felt confident that once he entered the profession, he wouldn’t be overwhelmed when taking the next step up the coaching ladder.

But there’s absolutely no way Nelson could have known that three years later, the Wisconsin native would be a head coach in the NAHL, a league he played in not that long ago.

While the circumstances that turned the 27-year-old Nelson into the league’s youngest head coach weren’t ideal, Nelson has seized the opportunity that became available once Tony Curtale was suspended more than two months ago.