“Did you play hockey?” people always ask when they learn that Warroad, Minn., (the one true Hockeytown USA) is my hometown. Yes, I did, and so did every other local boy. Literally, every one of them. When I was in kindergarten, all the boys my age in Warroad were placed on a youth hockey team for a year. And I’ll be honest: it wasn’t my thing right away. I couldn’t skate well, the arena was cold, the skates were always either too loose or too tight, and I was intimidated by the natural talent of many other boys my age – more than a dozen of whom would eventually play college hockey and beyond.
As a high school sophomore, buried on the junior varsity depth chart as the fifth- or sixth-string goalie, the editor of our town’s weekly newspaper asked a favor. Since I was going on all of the Warroad Warriors’ road trips with nothing else to do (the risks of me actually appearing on the ice were exceedingly slim), would I like to write a recap of the games for the paper? And thus, a life-long passion – and eventually a career – was born.
Along the way, I got the biggest thrill any Minnesota kid can find on a hockey rink. On an early March night in 1987, my hometown friends since preschool won a game versus Crookston at the East Grand Forks Civic Center, and advanced to the Minnesota State Hockey Tournament. Life hardly gets any better in the State of Hockey.
In college at Minnesota Duluth I worked for the student newspaper covering the Bulldogs, while I was majoring in communications and journalism. Moving to the Twin Cities after graduation, I was a freelancer for various media outlets for close to three decades while working full time in politics and public affairs. Between 1989 (St. Paul) and last spring (Pittsburgh) I have attended and covered the NCAA Frozen Four 28 times, and have made arrangements to cover my 29th in Boston come April.
Away from the frozen water, my life usually revolves around open water. Growing up on Lake of the Woods, fishing and the outdoors has naturally always been a part of my life. Along with being a hockey dad to three children, I have relished summer days at our lake cabin, and have sat next to all three of them in various deer stands as they each had their first successful hunt.
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On my first date with my wife, we were walking into the arena in Duluth with front row seats for the Ice Capades. She turned to me and said, “This should be fun, but I wish we were going here for a hockey game.” For me, the search was over right then and there.
I joined The Rink Live team in the fall of 2018 to cover the Minnesota Gophers and hockey throughout Minnesota, and can truly say I am living a life that would be the dream of just about any kid from Hockeytown USA.
