As I sit here today, I suspect I am done with coaching. I am so enjoying spending more time to focus on other things, including planning other ventures. One such hockey venture will be announced soon – a junior hockey preparation camp this May to help high school players prepare and better understand their future challenges in “the real world of hockey,” including junior hockey and the try-out camps they will soon be attending. It fits perfectly with my experience and expertise. 

Having more time on my hands has been awesome as it has allowed me to think about many things, including the many lessons I have learned in my days in coaching.  Some of these lessons came from other coaches, some were observed/learned. My many players taught me a ton, and of course, great competition within the USHL, teaches one a lot, too.

Like many young professionals, you ask a lot of questions of a lot of people. I was surrounded by some awesomely great people. Some I sought out. Most, God provided (all really). I know how lucky I was.  

As a young player, I played for Doug Woog and Herb Brooks in back-to-back seasons. That is good fortune! They were as different as night and day. Great coaches both and to see coaches nurture team and individual success, and do it in distinctly different ways, was a remarkable education for me. This was long before I ever got started in coaching. In this, I credit myself for paying attention.  

Brooks told me and many others, “Write a book, don’t read a book.” Meaning, do it your way, not someone else’s way. Just like Herb did it his way and Woog did it Wooger’s way. It was a good lesson from a great coach and it couldn’t be truer. Great coaches and teachers find and create ways true to their own person, to motivate and teach. You gotta be yourself as being genuine is so very important. Kids see right through most “fake.” Be yourself. Write a book, don’t read a book.

As I was getting my first coaching job with the St. Paul Vulcans, I was attending a Gopher hockey game where I ran into the Godfather, John Mariucci.  He asked me what I was up to. I told him I was getting into coaching. He asked if he could give me some advice. “Please” is what I hope I replied. He said simply, and in retrospect, humorously, “Get out.” As in get out of coaching now before you get trapped in. The funny thing is, I continue repeating this advice today to others.  

When other young people tell me they want to coach for a living, I say “get out.” I say you can coach your kids, and when you do you are an important coach. Coaching for a living, on the other hand, is important too, but as a living wage goes, it most often isn’t that good.  

Now don’t get me wrong. I greatly enjoyed my coaching career. But I got out of coaching the first time as the money in the old junior league wasn’t so much and I had a job opportunity with Hubbard Broadcasting. With the Hubbard opportunity, I could make the kind of money where I could raise a family. And I still got to coach my kids. And our friend’s kids. And we played on the backyard pond. That pond helped nurture 11 future Division I hockey players. I am not taking credit for this, but I also know I helped some of these 11, as well as many others who didn’t play beyond high school.

Still today, for many reasons, there are a lot of hockey jobs that don’t pay well. Most coaching is a lot of work, the kind of work that if put into the corporate world, pays way greater, while still allowing one to coach their own kids and their friends kids, too, influencing many young people in many great ways.

As a new and young coach with the Vulcans, I left the practice ice and went to the end of the rink to greet the legend, Ken Yackel Sr., who had been watching our practice. I cannot recall for sure, but I think he was scouting for an NHL team. During our chat, I told him I couldn’t get my guys to talk on the ice. He had just watched me on the ice during practice.  His response, “They are not going to talk when you do all the talking for them.” While I think he was talking about coaches in general, I suspect he was also talking directly to me, having just watched me in practice. And what he said is true. I see other coaches make this mistake all the time during both practices and games.

Coaches say to get four players in each corner and four in the center circle. Then you see six here, two there, most with blank looks on their faces. Kids can add to four. They can figure out how to get four in each line. But then the coach starts to instruct. He yells to everyone because the coach is in charge and will lead them to getting four in each line, quickly and efficiently. It gets the job done, but poor coaching.

If the kids can fix it, let them and require them to fix it. They will learn that fixing things they can fix is on them. If they don’t have the tools, or knowledge, then it is time for the coach to coach. And, of course, this all goes to talking. If they should be using their voice, the coach should just shut up. I had to learn this and, of course, none of us ever gets to perfect. Coaches need to require that their players problem solve and talk. That they think. That they play. Holding them accountable to take ownership and employ all their skills, that’s coaching.

One of my very best lessons ever came from a business professional and friend who coached a lot of youth hockey. Jerry Griffith, one of my early mentors gave me this great advice: “Look your players right in the eyes when they are coming off the ice. You will see in their eyes how they feel. Tired or angry. Embracing the challenge in front of them or frustrated. Their eyes rarely hide their true state of being.” This information is invaluable for any coach as s/he chooses what to say and what not to say and even who to play and who not to play. Knowing what is going on in your players’ minds is obviously of great value.It remains one of the most valuable tips I have ever been given.

A St. Paul native and forward for the University of Minnesota from 1978-82, Kevin Hartzell coached in the USHL from 1983-89 with the St. Paul Vulcans and from 2005-12 with the Sioux Falls Stampede. He was the head coach of Lillehammer in Norway’s GET-Ligaen from 2012-14. His columns have appeared in Let’s Play Hockey since the late 1980s. His book “Leading From the Ice” is available at amazon.com.

Photo: Christine Wisch