By Kevin Scott
GREAT FALLS, Mont., April 25, 2024 — The North American 3 Hockey League’s (NA3HL)’s Great Falls Americans are pleased to announce that defenseman Phil Harrell will head to Kentucky and continue his education and play collegiate hockey for the upcoming 2024-25 season.
Harrell is a St. Louis, Missouri native and will join the Eastern Kentucky University Colonels men’s hockey team starting in the fall of 2024. Eastern Kentucky University located in Richmond, Kentucky offers a variety of different undergraduate and graduate degrees including Criminal Justice and Elementary Education. Richmond is Kentucky’s fourth largest city with a population of 36,000.
The club hockey program is the newest member (2023-24 season) of the College Hockey South conference and plays in the D3 Division along with teams from Alabama, Florida, Florida State, Florida Tech, Florida Southern, Embry-Riddle (FL) and Georgia. College Hockey South is a member conference of AAU College Hockey, “the future of non-varsity college hockey.”
Phil, who played 82 games over two seasons with the Great Falls Americans, also played 43 contests with the St. Lousi Jr. Blues during the 2021-22 season. The Missouri defenseman scored five goals and dished out 17 assists since the 2022-23 season with Great Falls. He helped lead the Americans to twelve wins at the Great Falls Ice Plex and an overall record of 22-24-0-2 during his final season at the junior hockey level this past season. Great Falls fell in two games to the Helena Bighorns, the eventual 2024 NA3HL Fraser Cup National Champions, in the NA3HL Frontier Division Semi-Finals.
He plans on studying Arson Fire and Bomb Investigations while attending Eastern Kentucky University.
Harrell received four NA3HL Frontier Division Honorable Mention Star of the Week honors during his Americans career (January 29, 2023, September 24, 2023, November 26, 2023, and January 14, 2024) in addition to his three NA3HL Stars of the Month honors during the 2023-24 season (October 2023, November 2023, and January 2024).
“We are excited Phil will get a chance to move on to college and continue to play hockey at Eastern Kentucky (University),” said Great Falls Americans Head Coach and General Manager, Greg Sears. “Phil had an unfortunate season ending injury this year, and he did not get to finish the season on his terms. However, he handled it like a pro and helped get our team to the playoffs as one of our captains. I’m really proud of the kid. He will be missed.”
Click here to view Phil Harrell’s statistics for the 2022-24 seasons.
Click here for a full listing of the NA3HL college commitments.