Minnesota Hockey Done Right

By Jon Holmes

Every great institution and dominant force in history faces its challenges.  The institutions that have continued to exist are those that are adaptable.  The institutions that can take what is good about change and make it work within its structure have had enormous success. 

Minnesota Hockey has been a dominant force in creating the undisputed champions in the production of division I, division III and professional hockey over the years.  Minnesota Hockey however is at a precipice.  This cliff of extreme moves made by outside Minnesota Hockey leaders is very apparent on the girls’ side of hockey, and the boys are waiting and watching with a readiness to pounce should it gain any more traction. The rival leagues these entities have already, and are continuing to create, directly take our youth hockey players away from the community-based Minnesota Hockey model. The time for Minnesota Hockey to adapt, adjust and keep our community model the most coveted model of hockey in the world is now.

Accountability is an underrated and misunderstood characteristic in today’s youth sports and hockey is no exception.  Youth sports in general has been a booming industry.  With the total amounts of revenue exceeding 19 billion dollars prior to covid, and those expenditures out pacing even that of the NFL’s own market share of 15 billion in that same year, we can safely say that the last twenty plus years we have seen an economic revolution in youth sports in the United States.  With all that economic opportunity comes opportunity costs, or more commonly referred to as tradeoffs.  I wholeheartedly believe that the largest trade off I have seen in my twenty plus years coaching both boys and girls high school hockey in Minnesota is accountability and community building. 

Kids are growing.  Kids are learning and changing all the time.  Kids need positive, trustworthy and community driven adults in their lives to give them the tools to become better functioning members of an interactive and connected society and world.  They need to see how the individual passion they have for hockey can be used as a connection tool to their literal neighbors and community members.  Seeing and feeling the connection is the most important part.  In a world where we try to only exist in areas that make us comfortable and reaffirm our own experiences and thoughts, this is more important now than any other time in history.  The problem that comes with youth sports becoming so monetized over the last few decades is that the opposite can and does often happen.  Meaning, rather than a more well connected and community building group of young athletes, we see more individual and self-absorbed young athletes that care about those immediately around them, but, those around them are only those that are “like” them.  Those around them do not represent the real world or the hardship of real connection outside of a sports world.

Taking ownership of one’s own actions is vital.  Simply talking about what should happen and how people should do it but not taking the steps to live that process has become a major problem.  To take it one step further, many people will justify decisions that clearly go against the betterment of community by arguing the self-serving negatives of being a part of that community outweigh and better serve themselves to not engage with it, so they leave it.  Often, this could not be further from the truth.  Taking ownership in how one’s actions affect those around us and those that rely on us, or can use our help, is an even greater virtue for the betterment of oneself.  

This has been the mission of Minnesota Hockey for the past few decades.  EVERYONE in the world wants to do hockey the way we do it.  But there are some in Minnesota that are trying to do it like everyone else.  The problem with that model of what other areas do is that it directly circumvents the decades of boots/skates on the ground, the flooding of the rinks, and altruistic selfless hockey community legends that came before us and absolutely everything they have stood for.  It goes against the clear reality that hockey in Minnesota is better because of our community-based model.

When problems within that model arise, the solution is not to find other models that do it less effectively and buy into them.  The solution is to take what other models actually do well and work it into our current system. Surely, we cannot be blind to problems our own model may not currently address. We also cannot be so naive to think we should rewrite the success of multiple generations before us because something doesn’t work for “Me” in the present.  When we have troubles completing a specific goal for certain individuals within the Minnesota Hockey Community, we need to recognize it and find ways forward to solve those specific problems or areas of concern within the time-tested community model.

Aside from coaching high school hockey I also teach economics.  One of the key understandings and true celebrations of capitalism is how profit motive and incentive driven behaviors can be maximized when you are both doing what is best for you individually and for those around you.  When you isolate one or the other, we can certainly have short term successes, but the ultimate long term negative issues and suffering will eventually win out and begin to tear at the very web of connections and strength we rely on as a team and even society.  On our current teams, these can be things at the high school level as simple as having our teams lift and strength train together during the season and in the off season.  They become motivators for each other, they become another source of dependability and consistency in each other's lives, and most importantly they become overtly accountable to themselves and each other as they need to show up and do the work. This translates directly to their ability to commit and be a part of something later in life that leads to greater accomplishments and successes then they would not have been able to ascertain individually.  This then of course correlates to legacy and accountability.

In Minnesota we do things different.  In hockey we are a community-based organization and there are reasons we pump out so many NHL and Division one hockey players when compared to other countries...yeah countries, not states.  

One of the main reasons is we have large numbers of youth playing through their teenage years and we do not start to cut age-based groupings solely on talent and skill until they are of at least high school age.  In our communities every kid, regardless of skill, has the same jersey and the same ability to play for their school, their town, their neighbors, and their history regardless of the skill level team they make.  They should learn from extremely young ages how to play for something bigger than themselves and how their individualism contributes to a better connected and nurturing community.  We do this right from the beginning of their sporting life.  We do not wait to sell them on the idea when they are in high school or college.  That sounds like a cliché, but it is reality.  The problem is that the reality of this is deteriorating with more and more pay to play trainings and leagues. With these offerings we get more “me not we,” and we lose out on the bigger purpose and ultimately the numbers that contribute to Minnesota’s long tradition and legacy of success. In non-community based hockey the “Jersey” or the “League” becomes a symbol of individual success and really its more of a social and sporting hierarchy for young children rather than group and community success.  This thwarts the greatest concepts that we teach our kids. 

The concept in Minnesota is very simple and time tested for our community-based model and our high school set up.  At the high school level, I am hired by the school district/community to coach hockey.  I am not paid by the parents on the team or the players of the team.  My job is to recruit young members of our own community to play the game, to help facilitate and train those players along with our community youth organization and retain those players so when they are old enough, they can tryout and come and play for the top level team that their community has to offer in high school.  Putting on that sweater with the school and community’s name means something and these kids want to continue to do that through high school if they are able.  It also gives them a home. It gives them a place to return each year and see how they left something better than they found it.  Pay to play and non-community teams are overturning continuously and do not share the meaningful legacy we promote in Minnesota and High School Hockey.   

All spring and summer long hockey players in Minnesota are given mixed messaging.  They are told by their pay to play off season coaches how to get better, which is great, and no one is arguing that they don’t do a nice job with that. The tradeoff however is that the players are focused primarily on themselves and their own growth and the accountability of their efforts and character is losing ground on connecting them to something bigger than themselves.  I would argue nonetheless that this is a vital time in their individual training and they do need to focus on it.  I would say it’s essential for them to work on their individuality and skill outside their community as well.  During this time frame however, the players can often get away with not giving it 100 percent on “team concepts” such as the back check or defensive zone.  They can get away with much of this because they are paying the same price as the person next to them and customer service usually means the customer is always right.  It certainly does not mean they are not getting better individually, but what it does mean, is that if they continue this model without having the connection to a community driven team, they will come to me, and the other high school or eventual college coaches, with a less coachable attitude, and an almost certain lack of awareness of how accountability is more than just doing what is best for you.

To be clear, Minnesota is still in a great spot.  We still have the community-based model, and we still have hundreds of high school programs that emphasize culture, hard work, discipline, leadership and accountability.  With the rise of these off-season trainings and leagues and now even Minnesota Hockey and MSHSL rival leagues however, we need to take them for what they are.  We need to talk with our kids and have meaningful conversations about accountability.  Some of these leagues and offerings are taking away from the promotion of the bigger picture by continuously telling kids how much better they are than other players which is a very tough mentality to alter as they head into adulthood. This is a massive contributor to why we are seeing more movement amongst family’s and players from school to school searching for an “All Star” team or a bunch of other “Like Minded” parents rather than playing for that community sweater and neighborhood they grew up in.  This has led to more co-op’s in high school programming and of course the monetization of youth hockey.  Just look at the professional level items and extras that our youth teams are acquiring.  In many cases it has become downright laughable when reflected on. 

The point I am trying to make is for our hockey community to uphold our most cherished values and be a part of giving our youth the communities we inherited and better.  Success in the present is much like starlight.  It’s the light from past actions and behaviors that give us the opportunities we have now.  When we look up at night and see the stars it’s because of that light having traveled for many light years. If we switch our focus from our community to ourselves, we will undoubtedly lose our luster and that light we inherited from our path pavers will be much less bright or nonexistent for the next group of hockey players and community members behind us.

Help our youth and hold them accountable by allowing for them to be held accountable by your community-based programs and high school.  The youth season lasts from October to March.  If your player is the next top 1% of 1% they still have 6 plus months to work solely as an individual with a program or person you want to pay lots of money to make them even greater.  But for the other half of the year, teach them how to be a leader to their peers, teach them how to be accountable to something bigger than themselves, teach them that they will be better players and humans by making the effort to do so.

Let’s get back to playing for what really matters and something that we can be proud of to travel back to and have a legacy that they will be able to bring their own kids to and walk them through the hometown rink while shaking hands of community members that remember and respect their willingness to leave their community better than they found it and not just “leave it”.  Minnesota Hockey is at the precipice of making a change.  The time is now to adapt and adjust within the community model to better serve all those playing.  Make a push to your youth program and district to strengthen a united Minnesota Hockey.

Jon Holmes is a USA level 5 hockey coach and a current head high school hockey coach in Farmington, Minnesota.  If you would like to contact Jon, he can be reached at slapshotsllc@gmail.com