Latest / The PodKaz: USCHO Women's Hockey / Meet new Minnesota coach Boom May

Transcript

Meet new Minnesota coach Boom May · The PodKaz: USCHO Women's Hockey

0:04
Speaker 1: Uscho.com hi and welcome to another pre-season edition of the
0:14
Speaker 1: podcast from uscho.com i'm todd belusky here as always with
0:18
Speaker 1: nicole hazy and in our tour of new head coaches
0:21
Speaker 1: around women's college hockey we are pleased to be joined
0:25
Speaker 1: today by minnesota's boom may boom it's it's great to
0:27
Speaker 1: meet you finally in well virtually in person i guess
0:31
Speaker 1: um Congratulations on the new role. And I want to
0:34
Speaker 1: start this off by just asking what these last few
0:39
Speaker 1: months have been like for you. I mean, you're familiar
0:41
Speaker 1: with Minnesota. You obviously know the area. You've been there
0:44
Speaker 1: pretty much your whole life, right? But it's a different role.
0:49
Speaker 1: It's a lot more responsibilities and a lot more managing.
0:52
Speaker 1: How have these first few months gone for you?
0:57
Speaker 2: Yeah, thanks, Todd. And thanks, Nicole. Great to meet you
1:00
Speaker 2: guys as well.
1:00
Speaker 3: I've heard a lot about you guys and read a
1:02
Speaker 3: lot of your stuff and listened to you guys as well.
1:04
Speaker 3: And I appreciate what you guys do for the women's game,
1:07
Speaker 3: for sure.
1:07
Speaker 2: So just want to start with that.
1:08
Speaker 3: But yeah, the last, I guess it's almost been five
1:11
Speaker 3: months now, I think, late March is when I got hired.
1:14
Speaker 3: And it's been definitely been a change. Don't get me wrong.
1:18
Speaker 3: It kind of started fast and furious with trying to
1:21
Speaker 3: hire a staff. And if I remember correctly, the very
1:23
Speaker 3: next day, our transfer portal opened. And as you know,
1:26
Speaker 3: that's a wild time, no matter what sport you're in.
1:29
Speaker 3: So trying to navigate the portal, trying to navigate our
1:32
Speaker 3: current roster and retention and what we need out of
1:34
Speaker 3: the portal, plus trying to hire a staff. And then,
1:36
Speaker 3: as you know, you fast forward to the summer and
1:39
Speaker 3: now you're in full blown recruiting mode and June 15th mode.
1:42
Speaker 3: And next thing you know, it's visits. And I'm fortunate
1:46
Speaker 3: that I'm part of USA Hockey with U18 staff as well.
1:49
Speaker 3: So that adds another another A couple things to my
1:52
Speaker 3: plate also. So all good stuff. No one feels bad
1:56
Speaker 3: for me, I always say. But it's been fun and
1:59
Speaker 3: it's been a lot of work. But honestly, I can't
2:02
Speaker 3: wait for the puck to drop because I actually feel
2:04
Speaker 3: in a weird way the normalcy of the season might
2:07
Speaker 3: slow things down just because you get into routines and whatnot.
2:10
Speaker 2: But again, I can't complain.
2:14
Speaker 4: Has anything surprised you or just really been not at
2:17
Speaker 4: all what you expected of the last few months? Just curious,
2:20
Speaker 4: because that transition, I think, can be, I think people don't,
2:24
Speaker 4: the greater public doesn't necessarily know all the things a
2:27
Speaker 4: head coach does. And so I was just curious if
2:28
Speaker 4: there was anything that you were just not at all expecting.
2:30
Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't know that it's anything I haven't been
2:32
Speaker 3: expecting or didn't expect. I've actually been a head coach
2:36
Speaker 3: more than I've been an assistant coach, just in different levels, right?
2:39
Speaker 3: So I'm never at the Division I level, so don't
2:41
Speaker 3: get me wrong, it's a different beast, but I don't
2:43
Speaker 3: know that it's been anything that I haven't expected. It's
2:46
Speaker 3: just a reminder that you are now the decision maker, right?
2:49
Speaker 3: And whether it comes down to do I make an
2:51
Speaker 3: offer to a kid or do I not make an
2:52
Speaker 3: offer to a kid? And, you know, the last three years,
2:55
Speaker 3: I could say what I wanted about a player. And
2:57
Speaker 3: at the end of the day, it doesn't come down
2:58
Speaker 3: to me who's making the final decision whether we want
3:00
Speaker 3: that player or not. So that's just one small example.
3:03
Speaker 3: But schedules and communication and like, am I communicating with
3:06
Speaker 3: this person? Oh, shoot, I forgot to include this person
3:09
Speaker 3: in that communication. At the end of the day, it's
3:11
Speaker 3: so cliche, but it falls on you, right? So Um,
3:14
Speaker 3: you know, those things have just been a good reminders
3:16
Speaker 3: for me. And, um, you know, the other part that,
3:18
Speaker 3: that is so special about Minnesota, but we're part of
3:21
Speaker 3: a pretty big media market here and hockey is a
3:22
Speaker 3: big deal in our state.
3:23
Speaker 2: So, um, you know, getting to do fun.
3:26
Speaker 3: Things like this and, and beyond podcasts and, and different
3:28
Speaker 3: types of interviews and, uh, press and whatnot is, has been, uh,
3:32
Speaker 3: has been a change, uh, for sure. Even from my,
3:34
Speaker 3: my previous spots that have been a head coach in,
3:37
Speaker 3: but again, no one feels bad for me and it's
3:39
Speaker 3: all good stuff.
3:41
Speaker 1: One of the things we were talking about with one
3:44
Speaker 1: of our earlier guests, Courtney Kennedy, new coach at Merrimack,
3:47
Speaker 1: who I know you're familiar with from the U18 team
3:49
Speaker 1: and from being around that, was that, you know, she,
3:53
Speaker 1: you know, obviously was very familiar with Hockey East, having
3:56
Speaker 1: been at BC so long. But, you know, going to Merrimack,
3:59
Speaker 1: a new school, you know, you have to figure out
4:02
Speaker 1: who you turn to for this and where you go
4:04
Speaker 1: for that at U18. With you at Minnesota, has that
4:06
Speaker 1: been a little bit easier given that you've had a
4:08
Speaker 1: few years there with the women's program specifically, but then
4:11
Speaker 1: also before that, a few years before that, before you
4:14
Speaker 1: were at Augsburg as the head coach on the men's
4:16
Speaker 1: side there, you were with the men's team in ops.
4:20
Speaker 1: And I would imagine you've seen kind of all of
4:22
Speaker 1: that inner workings of behind the scenes at Minnesota. What
4:25
Speaker 1: has that helped with, I guess?
4:27
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's definitely been helpful.
4:29
Speaker 3: If for nothing else, you just know who people are
4:31
Speaker 3: and you know what their roles are and you know
4:33
Speaker 3: who to go to for this and who to go
4:34
Speaker 3: to for that. Um, honestly, the other part is that
4:37
Speaker 3: I have Jess Scott with me still, uh, who's, who's
4:39
Speaker 3: been part of our staff for the last, I don't know,
4:42
Speaker 3: seven years, I want to say, maybe it's been longer, seven.
4:44
Speaker 2: Years, I think.
4:44
Speaker 3: But, um, she's been a true right-hand person for me, um,
4:48
Speaker 3: with a number of different things. She wears so many
4:50
Speaker 3: different hats, but kind of transitioning her from the, from
4:53
Speaker 3: the assistant coach role into the GM role as has
4:55
Speaker 3: been really helpful for me. Um, you know, so I have,
4:59
Speaker 3: I have a great support network in house with my
5:01
Speaker 3: own staff. And then, uh, like you said, having the
5:03
Speaker 3: relationships before, uh, have been great. And honestly, like I
5:07
Speaker 3: owe a lot to, I say this all the time,
5:08
Speaker 3: but Bob Motzko for hiring me in that ops position
5:11
Speaker 3: with the men's staff. And when you're in that ops role,
5:13
Speaker 3: you learn so much about so many different things. I
5:17
Speaker 3: was coming from high school hockey before that on the
5:19
Speaker 3: boys side and thought that I had this, this job
5:22
Speaker 3: that was such a big deal and, and everything. And
5:24
Speaker 3: you don't even, you have no idea what division one
5:26
Speaker 3: coaches are doing everything from pregame meals to postgame meals
5:30
Speaker 3: to your prehab. And when do you work out and
5:33
Speaker 3: how many, is it full team or is it, in groups, what,
5:36
Speaker 3: how many hours before the.
5:37
Speaker 2: Game do you eat?
5:38
Speaker 3: And do we need a snack in there because there's
5:40
Speaker 3: too much time in between, you know, like little things
5:42
Speaker 3: like that, that, that seems so easy, but there's, there
5:45
Speaker 3: really is a science behind it. So, you know, having
5:48
Speaker 3: that ops experience really, really helped me. And even with
5:52
Speaker 3: the video stuff, again, at the high school level, I
5:54
Speaker 3: thought I was at the forefront of video. And then I,
5:56
Speaker 3: I go to the, they go for men's side. And
5:59
Speaker 3: I still remember the first day there thinking I needed
6:01
Speaker 3: an IT degree to figure out these video systems and stuff.
6:05
Speaker 3: But it's all those little steps along the way has
6:09
Speaker 3: for sure prepared me to where I am now.
6:13
Speaker 4: I know that the ideal answer is that you don't
6:16
Speaker 4: think about sort of the media or the attention or
6:19
Speaker 4: the pressure, but the reality is that you are only
6:22
Speaker 4: the third ever coach for this program, a story program
6:25
Speaker 4: with massive history. As you said, you're lucky that the
6:28
Speaker 4: market pays attention in a way that like a lot
6:30
Speaker 4: of other collegiate programs don't have. How are you planning
6:35
Speaker 4: or how are you already sort of navigating all that
6:38
Speaker 4: and taking that in without letting it be at the forefront?
6:40
Speaker 4: But I think it's probably fair to say you can't
6:43
Speaker 4: ignore it either.
6:44
Speaker 2: That's a great question. And it is different here.
6:46
Speaker 3: And I mean that in the most respectful way to
6:50
Speaker 3: all other programs, too.
6:51
Speaker 2: But it is different.
6:53
Speaker 3: And there is a lot of pressure. And I say
6:56
Speaker 3: this to a lot of people as well. And Brad
6:58
Speaker 3: Frost to this day is still one of my best friends.
7:00
Speaker 3: And we talk almost daily.
7:02
Speaker 2: Uh, still today.
7:03
Speaker 3: And, um, here's a guy who had won four national championships.
7:08
Speaker 2: And 565 games, whatever the number is. And, and it
7:10
Speaker 2: was deemed to not be good enough, right. In our,
7:13
Speaker 2: in our university.
7:14
Speaker 3: And, um, our, it just goes to show you what
7:16
Speaker 3: the expectations are, um, you know, year in and year out,
7:19
Speaker 3: and it's not good enough just to, to be close
7:22
Speaker 3: or to get to a frozen four to a semi
7:23
Speaker 3: and lose, or to get to a finals and lose. And, um,
7:26
Speaker 3: our expectation truly is to.
7:28
Speaker 2: To win. And going back to Courtney Kennedy, one.
7:31
Speaker 3: Of the things that she speaks about so much with
7:33
Speaker 3: our U18 team is the outside noise.
7:37
Speaker 2: And that's all it is, is outside noise.
7:39
Speaker 3: And to your point, Nicole, it is almost impossible to
7:42
Speaker 3: ignore it, especially in today's day and age. And I
7:46
Speaker 3: have kids and I have a wife who are on
7:48
Speaker 3: social media and everything as well. So if I don't
7:50
Speaker 3: see it myself, I might hear it from them. But
7:55
Speaker 3: it really comes down to, again, what Court says and
7:58
Speaker 3: It's outside noise.
8:00
Speaker 2: And again, easier said than done.
8:02
Speaker 3: But the more I think you keep telling yourself that
8:04
Speaker 3: and you try as hard as you can to ignore
8:07
Speaker 3: it and really understand that, you know, whatever happens in
8:10
Speaker 3: between our walls and with our staff and our players
8:12
Speaker 3: is the most important part. And if we can get
8:16
Speaker 3: our staff and our players to buy into that and
8:18
Speaker 3: also themselves not buy in and listen to the outside noise,
8:22
Speaker 3: then I think we got a much better shot.
8:25
Speaker 1: Fed players at Minnesota now who have known you as
8:29
Speaker 1: associate head coach, which is a different role than knowing
8:32
Speaker 1: you as a head coach. But do you feel like
8:35
Speaker 1: you are going to be working with them the same way?
8:37
Speaker 1: Or do you think there's something that changes there when
8:39
Speaker 1: someone is, you know, moves from a number two spot
8:41
Speaker 1: to a number one spot in, in the eyes of
8:44
Speaker 1: the relationship with players?
8:45
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think it definitely changes. I, whether you want
8:49
Speaker 3: it to or not, I'll say this though, Todd, like I,
8:53
Speaker 3: This is my 20th year coaching. It's not my first,
8:55
Speaker 3: but it's not my 50th, right? But it's, I've been
8:58
Speaker 3: doing it for a long time now. And I have
9:01
Speaker 3: a very expansive like background and a unique background where
9:06
Speaker 3: I've been, I taught elementary for nine years. I've been
9:09
Speaker 3: an athletic director. I've been an assistant coach.
9:10
Speaker 2: I've been an ops.
9:11
Speaker 3: I've been an associate head coach. I've been on the
9:13
Speaker 3: boy's side, the girl's side, women, men, division three, division one,
9:17
Speaker 3: et cetera. And again, all those things have helped me
9:20
Speaker 3: navigate and know who I am as a coach and
9:24
Speaker 3: I'm not going to change who I am. The difference
9:27
Speaker 3: is that now I am the one who ultimately the
9:30
Speaker 3: decisions fall on, right? So beforehand, even if it was
9:35
Speaker 3: me who was pounding my fist on the table that
9:38
Speaker 3: this player should move from this line to that line,
9:40
Speaker 3: when it gets rolled out to the players, that falls.
9:43
Speaker 2: On the head coach, right?
9:45
Speaker 3: So again, that's going to be a huge difference now.
9:49
Speaker 2: I don't think I'll treat players any differently, but.
9:53
Speaker 3: You know, I think the tip to that, to that
9:56
Speaker 3: same phrase I just said, or comment I just made,
9:58
Speaker 3: I think I will probably have a little bit more
10:00
Speaker 3: bite as a head coach than I would have as
10:02
Speaker 3: an associate head coach because I think when you're an assistant,
10:06
Speaker 3: I don't want to say there's only so much you
10:09
Speaker 3: can do, but at the end of the day when
10:10
Speaker 3: you're an assistant, your voice doesn't quite mean as much
10:15
Speaker 3: in the room as the head coach does naturally, right?
10:17
Speaker 3: So I think that will be a change for the
10:20
Speaker 3: players as well. But my hope is that having known
10:24
Speaker 3: them and having had the relationship already for the previous
10:26
Speaker 3: three years, that they know that if there is a
10:29
Speaker 3: bit of bite, for lack of better words, that they're
10:31
Speaker 3: going to know it's coming from a place of care
10:33
Speaker 3: and that they trust me already.
10:35
Speaker 2: And, you know, one of the greatest compliments that I.
10:37
Speaker 3: Received right away when I got hired was that every
10:41
Speaker 3: player on our roster that could have stayed, stayed. And
10:45
Speaker 3: as you guys know, in today's day and age with
10:46
Speaker 3: the transfer polar and everything, and everyone had to free out,
10:50
Speaker 3: you know, because of the coaching change. And for them
10:54
Speaker 3: to all say, you know what, I believe in this
10:55
Speaker 3: guy and I believe in our program.
10:57
Speaker 2: I actually want to stay in and see this thing through.
11:00
Speaker 3: Was a really big kind of unspoken compliment that I
11:03
Speaker 3: received from our team.
11:04
Speaker 4: It is an interesting situation in that you were already
11:11
Speaker 4: the associate head coach. As you said, you're, you know,
11:13
Speaker 4: you still talk to Frosty, you're good friends, but also
11:16
Speaker 4: like there probably will be some new changes. There probably
11:20
Speaker 4: does need to be some new direction. How do you
11:23
Speaker 4: put your stamp on this moving forward? You know, kind
11:26
Speaker 4: of extrapolating from what you were just talking about in
11:28
Speaker 4: terms of, of how they view you and how you
11:32
Speaker 4: can sort of move the team forward without, you know,
11:36
Speaker 4: coming in, changing everything from day one. Cause I don't,
11:39
Speaker 4: see that being something you want to do.
11:40
Speaker 2: No, no, not at all.
11:41
Speaker 3: And again, going back to the, the close, you know,
11:44
Speaker 3: earlier saying that, you know, close, unfortunately hasn't been good enough,
11:47
Speaker 3: but at the same time we are very close, right?
11:49
Speaker 3: So it's not, uh, it's not something where we have
11:52
Speaker 3: to turn the dial 180 degrees. Like it's just a little,
11:55
Speaker 3: a little tweak, a little turn of the dial in
11:57
Speaker 3: different ways. And, you know, my, my background kind of
12:00
Speaker 3: how I was brought up and raised too, is that
12:02
Speaker 3: I was raised in a very structured and very disciplined family.
12:05
Speaker 3: And that's how I coach. I coach with a lot
12:07
Speaker 3: of structure. I coach with a lot of discipline. So
12:09
Speaker 3: those are two areas that I hope that fans and
12:14
Speaker 3: the women's hockey followers see right away with our team
12:17
Speaker 3: and honestly that our players see with our team right
12:20
Speaker 3: away is that we're going to play with a little
12:21
Speaker 3: bit more structure and a little bit more discipline. And
12:25
Speaker 3: that carries over off the ice as well with how
12:28
Speaker 3: we do things and how we approach things and the
12:31
Speaker 3: standards that we have and Are we walking by the
12:33
Speaker 3: standards or are we holding ourselves to these standards on
12:36
Speaker 3: a daily basis? And as you know, structured discipline standards,
12:41
Speaker 3: like those things are not easy to do. And our
12:44
Speaker 3: players are going to hear this from me right away
12:46
Speaker 3: early in the year, but we are certainly going to
12:47
Speaker 3: butt heads. And I use this example all the time,
12:50
Speaker 3: but just like our players butt heads with their moms
12:53
Speaker 3: or dads or grandmas and grandpas or their caregivers, it's
12:57
Speaker 3: going to be the same with me at some point
12:58
Speaker 3: throughout the year. And I say this to them, but like,
13:02
Speaker 3: the reason why they usually butt heads with their, the
13:05
Speaker 3: ones that they, that they love and that love them
13:07
Speaker 3: so much is that they're usually hearing something that they
13:10
Speaker 3: don't want to hear in that, in that moment. So again,
13:13
Speaker 3: as long as they know that it's coming from a
13:15
Speaker 3: good place, I think it goes well, but you guys,
13:19
Speaker 3: you know, Minnesota women's hockey, probably longer than I have
13:21
Speaker 3: to be honest with you. And we're, we're always going
13:23
Speaker 3: to be fast. We're always going to be skilled. We're
13:26
Speaker 3: always going to be depth, have depth. Honestly, the offensive
13:30
Speaker 3: side of things is probably going to be, I don't
13:34
Speaker 3: want to say more important, but we want to score goals, right?
13:38
Speaker 3: And none of that stuff's going to change. I think
13:41
Speaker 3: what you're going to see that the little tweaks to
13:44
Speaker 3: is probably our compete level and our discipline and structure
13:47
Speaker 3: that we play with.
13:48
Speaker 1: I wonder if you can get into maybe some of
13:53
Speaker 1: the background of just your coaching journey, because you talked
13:56
Speaker 1: about it over those 20 years and all the different
13:58
Speaker 1: levels and roles you've had in that.
14:00
Speaker 2: And I wonder if.
14:02
Speaker 1: Has it felt like, was there ever a point where
14:06
Speaker 1: it felt like I'm kind of drifting here? I'm going
14:09
Speaker 1: from place to place and I need, you know, a
14:13
Speaker 1: direction or I need something to kind of tell me, look,
14:16
Speaker 1: this is where I need to go now. Or this
14:18
Speaker 1: is the path I need to follow. And who have
14:22
Speaker 1: been the important people in your life, in your coaching
14:26
Speaker 1: life to kind of help you stay grounded, stay directed
14:29
Speaker 1: in the way you want to go?
14:31
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's a good question and a big one too.
14:34
Speaker 3: To answer your question short, yes, absolutely. I have felt,
14:38
Speaker 3: not that I've been drifting, but going back to probably 2020,
14:42
Speaker 3: right around COVID, when I was with Bob and the
14:45
Speaker 3: men's staff at Minnesota, I was in this ops role
14:49
Speaker 3: and I had previously been an athletic director at the
14:52
Speaker 3: high school level. So I kind of had my one
14:55
Speaker 3: foot in the athletic administrator path.
14:58
Speaker 2: I have a master's degree in educational leadership.
15:00
Speaker 3: I always thought that one day I wanted to be
15:02
Speaker 3: a head athletic director, whether it's at the high school
15:04
Speaker 3: level or collegiate level. Got a little taste as an
15:07
Speaker 3: associate AD at the high school level. And then I
15:10
Speaker 3: always had my foot kind of in the coaching path.
15:12
Speaker 3: And I always knew it's going to sound really arrogant.
15:16
Speaker 3: I always knew I could do it. I had success
15:19
Speaker 3: at previous stops. I felt like I had the demeanor
15:22
Speaker 3: to do it. I was just kind of waiting for
15:24
Speaker 3: someone to give me a chance, quote-unquote. And Bob did
15:28
Speaker 3: that for me at Minnesota. And going back to 2020,
15:30
Speaker 3: this was the start of year two with them. And
15:34
Speaker 3: things were changing around the world. We had no idea
15:36
Speaker 3: what was going to even happen. Is there even going
15:37
Speaker 3: to be a season or not? There was pay cuts happening.
15:40
Speaker 3: There was furloughs happening. All these different things. And he
15:43
Speaker 3: probably got annoyed at me, but I must have gone
15:45
Speaker 3: to his office four or five times and just asked him,
15:49
Speaker 3: should I stay in here?
15:51
Speaker 2: I want to coach, but.
15:52
Speaker 3: It's so hard to I didn't play at the Division
15:55
Speaker 3: I level or the NHL level myself. I had no
15:58
Speaker 3: USHL experience or junior experience myself. Am I just chasing
16:04
Speaker 3: something that I'm not going to actually ever be able
16:05
Speaker 3: to achieve?
16:07
Speaker 2: Or should I go back.
16:08
Speaker 3: Into the athletic administration side of things? And I still
16:11
Speaker 3: remember him telling me, he said, boom, you keep your
16:14
Speaker 3: foot in each path. And I'll never forget it because
16:16
Speaker 3: I was very, very close to, I don't want to
16:19
Speaker 3: say quitting, but for lack of better words, giving up
16:22
Speaker 3: on the coaching dream. and just going into the, I
16:26
Speaker 3: shouldn't say just going in, but going into the athletic
16:28
Speaker 3: administration role and having kind of a more normal life.
16:33
Speaker 3: My wife always jokes that. She's like, I thought I
16:35
Speaker 3: was marrying a high school teacher and a high school coach,
16:37
Speaker 3: and here we are traveling around the world and all
16:39
Speaker 3: the time and everything. But I'll never forget Bob giving
16:43
Speaker 3: me that mentorship in that time. Brad Frost is another
16:49
Speaker 3: one that when I was on the men's side, Um,
16:51
Speaker 3: he was one of the first people that came in
16:53
Speaker 3: and introduced himself to me when I got hired by Bob.
16:56
Speaker 3: And he did not have to do that as a
16:57
Speaker 3: head coach of a story program. He had no reason
17:00
Speaker 3: to come seek me out, uh, an ops person on
17:03
Speaker 3: the men's side to introduce himself. And, uh, when I
17:06
Speaker 3: went to Augsburg, uh, to be the head coach, he
17:09
Speaker 3: was always a guy that I talked to come playoff time.
17:11
Speaker 3: Cause he had done it before and he's won before.
17:13
Speaker 3: And I wanted to know, like, do you pull back
17:16
Speaker 3: at this time or, or is it the opposite? Do
17:18
Speaker 3: you go harder at this time? Do you put your
17:19
Speaker 3: thumb on them even more? Um, are your practices longer?
17:23
Speaker 3: Are they shorter? Are you doing less video? Are you
17:25
Speaker 3: doing more video? Just all these things that go into, to,
17:28
Speaker 3: to winning a championship. And, um, you know, so I
17:31
Speaker 3: always stayed in touch with him and kind of had
17:32
Speaker 3: him as a, as a mentor, uh, as well. Um,
17:36
Speaker 3: Chris Brown was my head coach at Augsburg in my
17:38
Speaker 3: last year when I was a player there. Um, and
17:41
Speaker 3: he's someone that I kind of saw firsthand sort of
17:44
Speaker 3: in the process of climbing the ladder. And now he
17:46
Speaker 3: is at Cornell and he's the associate head coach there
17:48
Speaker 3: and has a great gig. But he was in the same,
17:50
Speaker 3: kind of the same boat that I found myself in
17:53
Speaker 3: as an aspiring coach that, you know, I use this analogy,
17:58
Speaker 3: but like I didn't start on third base. I literally
18:02
Speaker 3: started in the batter's box. Like I started by coaching
18:04
Speaker 3: junior varsity hockey at.
18:05
Speaker 2: Moundsview High School in Minnesota.
18:08
Speaker 3: And don't get me wrong, like I would have loved
18:09
Speaker 3: to have started on third base. So it's nothing against
18:11
Speaker 3: those that get that opportunity. But I was literally trying
18:15
Speaker 3: to round each base one at a time or climb
18:17
Speaker 3: each rung of the ladder one one at a time. So, um,
18:21
Speaker 3: there were many times that I, I wondered, gosh, is
18:24
Speaker 3: this just an impossible chase.
18:26
Speaker 2: Or, or what am I doing here?
18:27
Speaker 3: And, um, you know, and I, and I think it
18:31
Speaker 3: ended up, it ended up paying off to I'm in
18:32
Speaker 3: the seat I'm in, but you know, I moved, I
18:35
Speaker 3: moved around a lot. Like I was at this program
18:37
Speaker 3: for a couple of years and this program for a
18:38
Speaker 3: couple of years. And, uh, and I truly believe what
18:41
Speaker 3: I'm saying when I say this, that, uh, I feel
18:44
Speaker 3: like I left each one of those programs in a
18:46
Speaker 3: better spot before I moved on.
18:48
Speaker 2: Um, And I was really, I was.
18:50
Speaker 3: Moving on because I was trying to continually move up
18:54
Speaker 3: and eventually land a job like I have today.
19:00
Speaker 4: Maybe extrapolating a little more out of that, can you
19:02
Speaker 4: just talk about transitioning to the women's side and maybe
19:05
Speaker 4: how that part of your career came about and just
19:08
Speaker 4: like what you like about being able to coach.
19:11
Speaker 2: The women's team? Yeah, totally.
19:13
Speaker 3: So when I was coaching at the high school level,
19:15
Speaker 3: at the Division III level, and actually when I was
19:17
Speaker 3: with Bob and his staff as well, I had my own,
19:21
Speaker 3: my own company, I guess you want to call it that,
19:22
Speaker 3: but where I did private, private skill sessions and small
19:26
Speaker 3: group skill sessions, large group skill sessions, et cetera. And
19:30
Speaker 3: I somehow found my way working with, I probably had
19:33
Speaker 3: a roster of like 12 to 15 division one women
19:36
Speaker 3: that actually started with Rob McClanahan was my assistant coach at,
19:40
Speaker 3: at Blake when I was coaching high school hockey and
19:43
Speaker 3: his daughter, Sarah McClanahan was at Blake and then she
19:46
Speaker 3: ended up going to Dartmouth. And so he was trying
19:49
Speaker 3: to find some stuff for Sarah and some of her teammates.
19:51
Speaker 3: So it kind of started with Sarah McClanahan and Izzy
19:54
Speaker 3: Delianidis and Lily Delianidis and Izzy Daniel. And it kind
20:01
Speaker 3: of started with that group. And then I got someone
20:04
Speaker 3: like Rory Gilday, Hannah Baskin, Amanda McMahon, Lacey Martin, some other,
20:10
Speaker 3: and forgive me, I'm missing names here too, but I
20:12
Speaker 3: ended up having a group of about 12 or 15
20:14
Speaker 3: that were training with me for every summer.
20:18
Speaker 2: And I just loved it. Like I, they were really
20:21
Speaker 2: good hockey players. They were super competitive and wanted it really,
20:26
Speaker 2: really badly.
20:27
Speaker 3: But at the same time, they were like social too.
20:30
Speaker 3: So as they were doing things with me, it was like,
20:33
Speaker 3: it was fun for lack of better words. It was like,
20:36
Speaker 3: nice to talk to them and chat with them.
20:38
Speaker 2: And, and, and they, but yet they were still really serious.
20:40
Speaker 3: And when they did their rep, it was as hard
20:42
Speaker 3: as any boy or any, any guy would do their
20:45
Speaker 3: rep also their dreams and their desires and, and how
20:48
Speaker 3: they treated their bodies and with nutrition and everything like
20:51
Speaker 3: that was, was on par with, with what the guys
20:53
Speaker 3: were doing as well. So, um, I actually always thought
20:58
Speaker 3: that again, with my, my demeanor, my temperament, my experience
21:02
Speaker 3: with being a teacher and everything that I could easily
21:05
Speaker 3: transition over to the women's side and, and coach on
21:07
Speaker 3: the women's side. I think it helps being in Minnesota too,
21:10
Speaker 3: where you see girls hockey and how popular it is.
21:13
Speaker 3: And again, not that it's not in other parts of the,
21:16
Speaker 3: of the, of the country or the world, but in Minnesota,
21:20
Speaker 3: like the girls high school hockey tournament, it's a huge deal.
21:23
Speaker 3: And even when I was growing up, like we respected
21:25
Speaker 3: the heck out of those, those players that were playing.
21:28
Speaker 3: And again, And then the last part of it is
21:31
Speaker 3: that my wife played college hockey. It's actually where we met.
21:34
Speaker 3: And then I have two daughters. So I have a
21:36
Speaker 3: 13-year-old daughter and a nine-year-old daughter. And it ended up
21:41
Speaker 3: being kind of a, what's the word I'm looking for?
21:47
Speaker 2: It happened by chance, right?
21:49
Speaker 3: But by moving over to the women's side, it honestly
21:51
Speaker 3: is maybe one of the greatest things I've done as
21:53
Speaker 3: a father is is be able to give my daughters
21:56
Speaker 3: those type of role models and the access that they
21:59
Speaker 3: have to the female players. And I don't know why
22:03
Speaker 3: it is, but it's just so different than the access
22:06
Speaker 3: that little kids have to their male counterparts. You know,
22:10
Speaker 3: and I say this often to people too, but like
22:13
Speaker 3: my girls are in the locker room with our players
22:15
Speaker 3: doing TikTok dances. And my little daughter was on top
22:18
Speaker 3: of Abby Murphy's shoulders dancing after we swept early in
22:21
Speaker 3: the year last year. Like just experiences like that, that,
22:24
Speaker 3: they just would never get.
22:25
Speaker 2: If I didn't, if I didn't move over to the
22:27
Speaker 2: women's side.
22:27
Speaker 3: So, um, I, I always tell people that I, or
22:31
Speaker 3: that those that I was training, um, you know, that,
22:33
Speaker 3: that group of division one women, but I blame them for, for, uh,
22:37
Speaker 3: getting me over to the women's side because I just
22:38
Speaker 3: fell in love with it when I was, when I
22:40
Speaker 3: was with them. Um, and then again, having my wife
22:42
Speaker 3: and daughters and, uh, has just been a huge, huge, um,
22:46
Speaker 3: benefit from that too.
22:48
Speaker 1: That's awesome.
22:49
Speaker 2: Thanks for sharing that.
22:50
Speaker 1: And I, just before we let you go, can, can
22:52
Speaker 1: you share with our audience, Boom is not your given
22:55
Speaker 1: first name, Greg is, but can you share, uh, with,
22:59
Speaker 1: with our audience, like how that came about and why
23:02
Speaker 1: everyone knows you as Boom?
23:03
Speaker 2: Yeah, of course. It's so funny.
23:05
Speaker 3: Like I, I bet you in my first 40 years
23:08
Speaker 3: of my life, I never got asked the question and
23:10
Speaker 3: now I got this job and I get asked all
23:12
Speaker 3: the time, which is great.
23:13
Speaker 2: But, um, I have an older brother and older sister.
23:16
Speaker 3: Um, and when my mom was pregnant, uh, with me,
23:18
Speaker 3: when I was in her stomach, anytime I would move
23:20
Speaker 3: around or kick around, my brother or sister called me boom, boom. Um,
23:24
Speaker 3: so it started as boom, boom. And then as I got.
23:27
Speaker 2: Older, it just shortened.
23:28
Speaker 3: And then they would introduce me to their friends as
23:31
Speaker 3: boom or boom, boom. And, um, it's, it's stuck my,
23:34
Speaker 3: literally my entire life. My mom and dad call me
23:36
Speaker 3: at my wife calls me. And I mean, it truly
23:39
Speaker 3: is my name. Um, I actually feel like it's weird.
23:43
Speaker 3: When people call me Greg, I feel weird introducing myself
23:45
Speaker 3: as Greg. But also I feel like I have to
23:48
Speaker 3: at times, just depending on the audience. So, yeah, I mean,
23:52
Speaker 3: I've had the name Boom since before I was born.
23:55
Speaker 3: Great name to have in hockey, too. I mean, I
23:58
Speaker 3: wish it was more of an athletic stance, lab shot
24:05
Speaker 3: or something like that, or how hard I hit people.
24:08
Speaker 2: But no, it came from my brother and my sister
24:10
Speaker 2: before I was born.
24:13
Speaker 4: I think none of us ever know like a nickname
24:16
Speaker 4: can be so personal. So like to walk up to
24:17
Speaker 4: somebody you don't know and be like to use it.
24:20
Speaker 4: So we're always like, we should check and see. So
24:22
Speaker 4: for you to just be like, yes, please do not
24:24
Speaker 4: call me Greg. Does that feel like you might be
24:26
Speaker 4: in trouble here? Like being full named if somebody calls
24:30
Speaker 4: you that?
24:30
Speaker 2: Exactly, exactly. Well, Boom, thanks so much for doing this.
24:35
Speaker 1: Congratulations on the new role and best of luck with
24:38
Speaker 1: this season at Minnesota. And hopefully we'll have a chance
24:42
Speaker 1: to connect with you again as the season goes on.
24:44
Speaker 2: We know we'll see you along the way. Yeah, I
24:46
Speaker 2: hope so too. Yeah, thank you both for having me
24:49
Speaker 2: and I appreciate the talk.