On Growth in Women’s Hockey
1. When I first started there were very few Midwest programs. One player could dominate. Today there’s so much competition.
2. In the last couple of Olympics, it would take you awhile to notice if a hockey game was a men’s game or a women’s.
3. I just went to a showcase last Saturday for all the high school athletes that have goals of playing college hockey. When I first started going you could pick out the 10 to 15 kids who could. Now there are hundreds of them.
On Division III Sports
4. At the Division III level you can play a sport, do campus activities, have a chance to go to grad school. There have been players who could have played at a Division 1 level but chose Division III for those reasons.
5. Gustavus Women’s Hockey is more than just, “Here’s your sport. Here’s your practice. Here’s your gametime.”
6. We always go to Europe as a team. Those are lifetime memories that I know the athletes appreciate.
7. In a team sport, the life lessons you learn are what’s going to help you be successful when you leave college. When you’re trying to make an impact, winning is a side benefit.
On Playing Through Trauma
[Editor’s note: In 2023, the summer after the team won the NCAA Women’s Hockey National Championship, goaltender Jori Jones ’26 was killed in a car accident that injured three other players. The team worked through difficult grief to make it to the NCAA quarterfinals this past spring.]
8. The lows we’ve had in the past year, we wouldn’t have been climbing out the way we have without the support of the whole community.
9. Everyone has helped us work through it as best we can, from the Chaplain’s Office to professors to other Gustavus Athletics teams. I don’t think you would see that at a big school.
10. At Jori’s celebration of life [in Christ Chapel], current baseball players who knew I used to coach baseball presented me and the team bats with Jori’s name on it. It really hit me.
11. Gina DeNucci ’12, a former hockey player who is now a mental health counselor, came and ran a great session for grieving. That was one of our first steps. That’s the alumni network I can call on in my job.
12. You don’t read a book and know how to deal with this stuff. I mean, I’m a hockey coach. But there are bigger things in the world than hockey
On Coaching Women Athletes
13. I use to worry about how an old school guy like me could work with young women. I learned you just stay with your core values.
14. They were respectful. They wanted to know the why. They didn’t have this know-it-all attitude. It didn’t take long to figure out what women athletes want is to learn.
15. So I also learned that athletes are athletes, and they want to be coached.
16. The women who are coming to Gustavus now, there’s a lot of pressure for them to come into a winning program like ours. But they embrace that. They want that.
On Support from Alumni
17. In the last couple of years we’ve experienced so much support from alumni. They come out of the woodwork. They follow the team. They give financially. They pay attention.
18. At Middlebury College before our championship game in 2022, so many alums from different eras reached out, wishing us luck from all over the country. Our players didn’t know them personally, but that’s the pride our alums have.
19. When we have alumni games here, former student athletes who hardly even played show up. When you win the conference 30 years ago, no one remembers who was starting. You are all just as important to each other.
On “Why Gustavus”
20. Gustavus is a small enough school that each sport supports the other. You come to a hockey game, you’ll see basketball, football, and baseball players, swimmers, gymnasts, and all the other sports, friends, classmates. That can really help a team.
21. I like the combination of competitiveness and drive in a goaloriented student athlete who wants to use their sport to enhance their college experience and also be a part of a winning program.
22. One of the things that separates Gustavus Women’s Hockey from other programs is the consistency. Three of my former players are assistant coaches. That tells our recruits something.
23. It amazes me that we can have all these students who are successful athletes and their GPAs are off the charts.
24. Twenty-seven years [including 19 as baseball coach in addition to Women’s Hockey] and Gustavus liberal arts has made me a better person.
25. I’m still a competitive person. That adrenaline rush—it’s very rewarding.
