FBI Director Kash Patel may have a reputation for bungling law enforcement operations. But in the eyes of the former high school ice hockey players he coached, he was no laughing matter.
Former players at Woodrow Wilson High School recall Patel as fiercely competitive and “super intense” during his brief stint as an assistant coach from 2017 to 2019, several alumni told Politico on Tuesday.
“That’s one of those things I really remember, his intensity, that look he has in his eyes that has become a meme these days,” Luke Mannion, a former player, told the outlet. “That stare and super intense look.”
Patel coached the Washington, D.C., team on a volunteer basis outside his work as a staffer for the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence during President Donald Trump’s first term.
Mannion told Politico that the now-FBI director was “very intense for how bad we were.”
Graham McDonald, another former player, added: “He definitely was intense, no-nonsense.”
Three players recounted a particular game in which Patel, 46, kicked one player off the ice mid-game and later lost his temper with the student in the locker room. “It was a screaming match between the two… Coach Kash was for sure frustrated,” McDonald said.
Other players remembered the former MAGA podcaster’s penchant for aggressive play.
“Whenever I would hit someone, his eyes would pop out of his head and he’d be like, ‘F--k yeah. Let’s f--king go,’” said a player who was granted anonymity.
Patel’s former protégés also recalled him regaling the team with his own origin story, recounting how his family immigrated from India to Long Island, New York, in the ’70s and became massive Islanders fans.
Naomi Welch, another former player, said the man she once respected on the ice is nothing like the one now leading the FBI.
“I wish he didn’t update his email, so I could send him my personal thoughts,” Welch told Politico. “But I doubt he’d give a f--k.”
Patel’s coaching days may be over, but his love for the sport appears undiminished. Just last month, Patel was seen celebrating Team USA’s gold medal victory over Canada at the Winter Olympics in Milan—on the same day an armed intruder was shot outside Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence. Video footage shows Patel leading locker-room celebrations, belting out chants, chugging beers with the players, and phoning in the president himself.
Patel insisted he was in Milan on official business that just so happened to coincide with the 2-1 overtime victory against Canada.
Patel first faced scrutiny over his travel habits after reports in October revealed he took a government jet to see his 27-year-old girlfriend perform at a wrestling event in Pennsylvania on October 25 before flying to her home base of Nashville later that same day.
Though Patel previously criticized his predecessors’ use of government aircraft, he has taken at least six trips to Nashville and 10 to Las Vegas—where he owns a home—Just the News reported last year.
The Daily Beast has reached out to the FBI for comment.
