Feature Story

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Woodbury: A new power rising in the east

By Adam Somers

High school hockey is built on tradition. Many of the same schools who battled in the state tournament 20, 30, even 50 years ago still reign king atop boys’ hockey in Minnesota. Therefore, trying to break through with a new legacy is sometimes harder than making ice in July.

However, none of that has deterred Woodbury High School from etching its own winning tradition. One of the metro area’s fastest growing communities, Woodbury never tasted the state tournament until they dethroned defending state champions Cretin-Derham Hall in the 2007 Section 2AA finals.

“That is obviously exciting anytime a school is able to do that the first time,” Woodbury Head Coach Wes Bolin said. “Exciting for the hockey community, the school, obviously the players themselves to be a part of that first trip to state and the coaches as well.”

Woodbury followed up with an even louder encore in 2008, cruising through sectionals en route to their second straight trip to St. Paul. Despite dropping their opening quarterfinal game, the Royals rallied to win the Consolation Championship.

Prior to Bolin’s arrival five years ago, it was common to find many of Woodbury’s top players on private school rosters in the East Metro.

“When I was hired here, I understood that there were a lot of kids who believed that in order to have a successful high school hockey experience they had to go to a private school,” Bolin said.

Woodbury was losing kids to private schools such as Cretin-Derham Hall, Hill-Murray and St. Thomas Academy. Bolin understands and is supportive of families which have history and heritage attending certain schools, but for those who don’t, he believes it is not necessary to leave just to play hockey.

“First message we had to get across is that you can be successful in a public school program and that it is not necessary to go to a private school.”

The message was well-received as very few players are leaving Woodbury now to attend private schools. In order to maintain the current level of success, Bolin has played an instrumental part in building a strong hockey community from the mite-level up.

Since his first year with Woodbury, Bolin has spent a lot of time attending youth games and practices, helping with coaching and on-ice player development and making sure the younger kids enjoy a good experience with the game regardless of their ability level.

Bolin has also established what he hopes to be a long tradition in the Woodbury hockey community. Last year marked the beginning of a high school mentor program, in which high school players are assigned to youth teams and attend practices to skate with the kids, help run drills and more importantly, be strong figures to look up to.

“An important thing about a community is having young players be able to identify with older players and have role models to aspire to be like,” Bolin said. “And for the older players to understand that when you have success, the more success you have, the more you’re personally scrutinized and you have to be a good role model.”

Pete Stuckert, President of Woodbury Area Hockey Club agrees. “I think there is just so much value to having a role model. It is really kind of fun to see and generates a lot of excitement among the kids.”

The excitement also has contributed to Woodbury’s steady increase in participation. Stuckert says there are 909 skaters signed up this year, up from 853 last year. There also has been a big drive for girls, with the program bringing in 50 new girls, adding to the 120 who skated last year.

“You have that pipeline of young families here and obviously the excitement of the high school,” Stuckert said. “I would imagine in the next couple years we’ll be up over 1,050 or 1,100 skaters.”

One of the club’s primary goals is to keep fees low for families. Given the current economy, it puts more pressure on non-profit organizations to think outside of the box to raise money and generate revenue.

On Nov. 1, the first annual “Hockey Night in Woodbury” was held to not only kick off the hockey season, but also this year’s fundraising drive. Over 100 items were donated by local businesses for a silent auction, including items from the Herb Brooks foundation. Bolin and girls’ head coach Bay Shock were among the speakers at the event, which raised over $20,000 for the club.

“The intent of Hockey Night in Woodbury is to celebrate ice hockey from the mite level all they way through high school,” Stuckert said.

Around 250 people attended the inaugural event, but Stuckert envisions goals of upwards of 500 people attending the event and raising over $50,000 in the future.

Challenges do lie ahead for the Woodbury hockey community, starting next school year with the opening of East Ridge High School. East Ridge will pull kids from both Cottage Grove and Woodbury to split the school district among three high schools: Woodbury, Park-Cottage Grove and East Ridge.

“The unique thing about what will happen at East Ridge is it will be kind of a melding of two communities of the Park-Cottage Grove community and the Woodbury community, which should be quite a challenge since the two schools are archrivals in just about every sport they play in,” Bolin said of the new high school.

While the long term outlook for all three schools looks strong with population and participation numbers rising, immediate struggles may occur due to the lack of depth, which is needed to compete consistently at a high level.

“You are going to be able to compete short term, for shifts here and there, period here and there,” Bolin said. “Being able to put together full games and then full seasons, and then runs through playoffs, it’s just going to be a little bit more challenging to try to get that out of your people, but that’s what coaching is all about, looking forward to challenges to see what you can do.”

At the youth level, there is still uncertainty if a new youth association will be created for East Ridge to supplement Woodbury and Cottage Grove. Over 1,600 kids currently play hockey in Woodbury and Cottage Grove, so ice time becomes a big issue if a third association is added.

“Knee-jerk reaction is when a new high school opens up you have to immediately create a new pipeline or association to feed that team and I don’t know if that is such a great model for what some of the challenges we have,” Bolin said.

Outside ice time, there would be funding challenges. While Woodbury is on a great track for fundraising, East Ridge is located in a ‘bedroom-community,’ which is heavy in residential, but not commercial. There are also current obligations the Woodbury club has with the city and the Bielenberg Sports Center.

A third sheet of ice at Bielenberg would help house a third association or simply aid Woodbury’s growth. However, while plans have been discussed on this issue, nothing is set.

Both East Ridge’s boys and girls teams are set to play on Cottage Grove Ice Arena’s newly added sheet of ice for their first three years. While the future of the youth associations is still being hashed out, Stuckert has a positive eye on the future for all three schools.

“For both boys’ and girls’ programs, ultimately it is going to give 40 more kids an opportunity to play hockey at the high school level.”

Which sounds like a Woodbury tradition – kids having the opportunity to play the game and be successful in their community.

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