PoliticsKash Patel Once 'Lost It' While Coaching High School Hockey Team and Got Into a 'Screaming Match' With Player: Report
The FBI director has recently become known for his passion for hockey.
April 23 2026, Published 2:21 p.m. ET
Kash Patel exploded on a high school hockey player while serving as a coach years ago, a new report revealed.
The FBI director "lost it" when the young man was late to a game, and the two "got into a bit of a screaming match," another former player named Luke told CNN, according to an article published on Thursday, April 23.
However, the team made up of students from the then-Woodrow Wilson High School in Washington, D.C., respected Patel's "no-nonsense personality," the player noted.
'He Really Cared About Us'
Kash Patel coached a youth ice hockey team before heading up the FBI.
At the time, Patel, now 46, was working at the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence as an aide after leaving the Justice Department in 2017.
Luke added, "He really cared about us," explaining, "All of the games were Friday nights, so he was giving up all of his Friday nights to come coach me and my idiot friends."
"He definitely cared," Luke insisted, while another former player claimed Patel was "one of the guys," describing him as "more of a bro" than a coach.
'Everyone Was Kind of Blindsided'
Kash Patel's former players liked him.
Several of the players also remembered Patel telling the team not "believe that fake news" if any of them brought up something they'd heard about Donald Trump.
"Everyone just sort of laughed it off at the time," said a player who preferred not to be named due to concerns about retaliation.
"Then like a year or two later, he shows up on Fox News, and he sort of has his own segment, and everyone was kind of blindsided by that," he told CNN. "We were like, ‘Whoa, this is who Coach Kash really is, I suppose.'"
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'Little Did We Know'
Kash Patel left the team after the 2019 season.
Patel announced he was leaving the team after the 2019 season because he "got a really important job," according to Luke.
"Little did we know his job was being buddy-buddy with Trump and all that good stuff," he added.
Some of the hockey players said they didn't recognize their former coach in the video of him partying with the victorious U.S. men's national ice hockey team at the 2026 Winter Olympics.
Kash Patel Addresses the Locker Room Controversy
Kash Patel stirred controversy when he was caught partying with the U.S. Olympic ice hockey team in February.
He was notably filmed drinking beer in the Olympic locker room in Italy earlier this year.
Responding to backlash, Patel defended taking part in the rowdy festivities.
"I’m like an everyday American who loves his country, loves the sport of hockey,” he told reporters during a Tuesday, April 21, press conference. "And champions my friends when they raise a gold medal and invite me in to celebrate."
