Former Gophers hockey captain Kevin Hartzell resigned as an assistant coach of the White Bear Lake girls’ hockey team after acknowledging that he entered the team’s locker room without warning.

Hartzell, who played for the Gophers in the late 1970s and early ‘80s, wrote about the situation in a column written for the Dec. 21 edition of Let’s Play Hockey magazine. Hartzell wrote that he went into the locker room without knocking first, in pursuit of two players who were 10 minutes late getting on the ice for practice.

He wrote in his column that an e-mail from the father of a Bears’ player sent to Hartzell, head coach Jerry Kwapick and activities director Brian Peloquin “said that parents have had enough of me. They said I have been “unhinged,” my language unacceptable, and the kicker, I had entered the locker room this past week without knocking.” Such unusual disclosure from a high school coach continued in the column as Hartzell acknowledged past use of profanity.

He added, “I was reminded in their e-mail how bad it could have been had these girls not been dressed adequately and that I had crossed the line. They said, I had to go.”

Hartzell, a St. Paul native, was assistant coach at White Bear Lake the past two seasons. The Bears were 10-1-1 at the time of his resignation and had won 10 consecutive games.

He wrote that the critical e-mail, the first he received, was “one it seems they have been wanting to send for some time.”

The two tardy players, Hartzell wrote, had “some leeway this day” to be late to practice because of an unspecified “elective.” But when they didn’t hustle to the ice, Hartzell took issue. After waiting about 10 minutes, Hartzell wrote, “I looked at the other coaches and asked, “Should I go get ‘em?”

When he reached the locker room door, Hartzell, who has a daughter, wrote, “I didn’t knock. In the e-mail, the father’s supposed, “What if these girls had not been dressed?” The girls being undressed was furthest from what I thought I might see. I wanted to know what the heck these two were doing making their team wait on them. They were adequately dressed and about a minute from being ready to get to the ice.

“That they or the adults around them would find coming late to our practice acceptable amazes me. I was Kevin Hartzell firm, no question, in telling them that they were thinking wrong. After the criticism of their current thinking, and to end with a little love, I reminded them of something that I have said only on a rare occasion. “I want to remind you two,” I said. “I have been a 100-percent volunteer here my entire time. I don’t take a penny. I come here because I actually love all you girls. I am here for you two and you both needed to hear this message. You cannot put yourself above the team; your being late is NOT acceptable,” Hartzell wrote.

When reached this week, Hartzell, Kwapick and Peloquin declined further comment.

Hartzell’s columns have appeared in Let’s Play Hockey Magazine since the late 1980s. He was a forward at Minnesota from 1978-82. He coached in the U.S. Hockey League 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.