The 208 Hockey Experience

About two years ago I was approached to be part of a program that was aimed to showcase Idaho hockey. I didn’t really know why or how I would fit in but I was intrigued. My participation, being a former professional player and an ex-Steelhead would give the start up “credibility.” Although flattered, I still wasn’t sure. I was pitched on the idea by Idaho IceWorld’s hockey director Kory Scoran. We go way back through the years and were D partners with the Steelheads when we played together. Kory has gone on to work for the City of Boise in the previously mentioned position, while serving as the State of Idaho’s ADM Director (American Development Model.) Simply put, Kory is a member of IAHA (Idaho Amateur Hockey Association) and he is part of the leadership group that oversees hockey development in our state.

This idea was brought to him by Steve Klein. Steve is the Head Coach of the Boise Premier & Timberline high school hockey teams. I didn't know a lot about Steve. He and I had crossed paths through our work in the city programs and I had seen what he was building through the Boise Premier program. Steve had migrated from Arizona where he was part of the hockey growth in that state. As a former Lieutenant in the Maricopa County Sheriffs Office, Steve spent many years developing hockey in the “Valley of the Sun.” 

Turns out Steve and I knew some of the same people (usually happens in hockey circles) as my father was the head coach of the Phoenix Coyotes in 1996-97. These leaders in hockey from the Phoenix area had been taking these “showcase” teams to this tournament for a number of years. “Americas Showcase” as it was titled, was a USA Hockey sponsored event used to promote high school hockey players from around the country. Steve’s group in Arizona had solid success getting their players seen, evaluated and recruited by junior and college scouts. Think of Arizona 20-25 years ago. Hockey and hockey players are probably not the first thing that come to mind. This was an avenue to promote top level local players who wished to continue pursuing their hockey dreams. It came to be a very successful venture for our hockey friends in Arizona which lead to increased development of high school hockey in their state.

 Fast forward to last year and the beginnings of 208 Hockey. Steve pitched it to Kory & they pitched it to me. I thought it sounded promising. Add Steve’s confidence and experience in it and I gained a lot more belief. Last year’s tournament, held in St Louis, was scheduled for early April. We had a target, now it was time to create a plan.

Steve Klein is a man I truly admire. I had no idea the detail and attention this man was capable of until I saw his plan come together. This is not a guy you want writing you a speeding ticket. Because there is no way this fella is gonna make a mistake on it. He is dialed in. My type of guy!

From the start of the process, Steve did all the heavy lifting. He knew the contacts, set schedules, purchased ice and coordinated tryouts. My job was easy. Show up, blow the whistle, have a training camp and be part of the team selection. In theory it is really straight forward. Doing this for a start up program is a bit more difficult. The goal was to attract as many top level players as we could for a tryout over winter break. Getting this information out to the various parts of the state and getting everyone to the tryout was our biggest hurdle. “You’re doing what? Taking a team where?"  I am so glad Steve knew what we were doing. He made it look easy.

Needless to say, we were able to engineer what I thought was a very competitive first evaluation. We planned a weekend of on-ice practices, off-ice dry land and video teaching to help us assemble a group that would compete in Missouri. We had an amazing turnout of kids from all over the state. It was a real pleasure to see some of the top kids from other programs around Idaho. I could start to sense what Steve and his buddies in the Arizona desert were up to. This was a good idea! Especially for under scouted, under recruited states like ours with reputations of not being “hockey states.”

We had a couple tough choices to make, especially with the volume of players from the Boise area. One of the best things about a small state is one of the worst things about a small state. Everyone in hockey knows or knows of the other people. Makes transparency and communication very important. Can’t start a program like this and have it be accused of “playing favorites.” That works for no one and doesn’t make Idaho hockey better at all. We had to be mindful of that and be honest to a fault. That’s why you keep a former cop on staff right?! All jokes aside, that is one of the things I am most proud of. Steve’s dedication to fairness and the standard he sets for each and every person that he leads. I knew we were in good hands. 

Now we had to get to St. Louis and perform. The easy part was finished and now the real work began. We had built a team with players from all over the state that were going to walk off the plane in Missouri ready to play high level hockey with minimal practice time. I know that may not seem too difficult but believe me when I say, it's more difficult than you think. The absence of practice meant we had to get our group on the same page quickly. The hard part is getting everyone to speak the same language. Not English. Hockey. Players from different organizations are all taught differently. Getting everyone to speak the same language and believe in the plan became our point of focus.

One thing that I have come to love doing is teaching through video. I believe in this day and age, it is the best tool to teach with if you can't be on the ice. Especially when you have players from all over the state, it becomes one of the most functional means to communicate your message. I have so much film built up from my years coaching at various levels. It is fairly easy to illustrate the points of emphasis that need to be made. The hard part is you don't have video of your current players succeeding to show to the group. I find people are much more engaged when the video is of themselves. They pay more attention and usually are more bought in. It's not a huge hurdle but if I am going to start my wish list, that's at the top. We put together a "teaching package" to get into the players hands so they could start preparing for the tournament. This year we used the same package because of the success we had the previous tournament.

Another thing we really wanted to key on was how to engage and interact with scouts. Unfortunately, most games in Idaho don't have any scouts attending them. It's not a "hot zone" for talent evaluators to be in. That doesn't mean we don't have talent or develop it in the state. It's just not a priority for an evaluator because there may be a single player they are there to see. These types of tournaments allowed us to put players in front of the decision makers. After that, it was up to them to show the level they could play at. We really wanted our kids to make a good first impression when speaking with these scouts. Steve put together Zoom trainings to teach our players what scouts may ask and how to prepare thoughtful answers. If you only get one chance to make a good first impression, we wanted our players to knock it out of the park.

   If the team wins, evaluators want to watch the group. Former President John F. Kennedy spoke to the strength of "a rising tide lifts all boats." This was a mantra we wanted to harness as a group. More winning meant more people watching our young men from Idaho. More opportunities to impress those scouts and chances for an ongoing audition. 

In St. Louis, the tournament had 2 divisions. One division made up of the powerhouses of youth hockey. The states with high level groups. The first division housed teams like Colorado, Illinois, Missouri, Texas, Florida and others. Our division had states like Washington, Utah, a group from San Diego and ourselves. The rules dictated that no AAA players were allowed to take part and the players must be part of high school programs in whichever town they reside. We would end up going a very solid 4-0 in Round Robin play and our goalie, Tucker Bayly, won top goaltender of the tournament. Our first place finish in the division meant we would cross over in the playoff and play the team from Colorado. The outcome was very one sided and Colorado showed us we had a long way to go to play with the big boys. It was a tough pill to swallow but a very good learning experience. One that saw a handful of our players commit to different programs outside the state of Idaho and allow them to continue the pursuit of their dream. Mission accomplished.

That brings us to this years tournament. Our hope was to get more players from the various hockey communities around Idaho to join this endeavor. From coaches to players, we wanted it to become a true cross section of our state and showcase our players from smaller associations. We added a coach from Idaho Falls in Greg Bruley. His team won the Idaho high school championship this season. He would be our conduit to the eastern part of our state and bring in 5 of his Idaho Falls players. We added 2 players from Salmon, 2 from McCall and the rest of the group was filled with local Boise high school players. We had elevated the talent level from the previous season, we had involved more associations from around the state and we were able to take the next step in improving our program.

Dallas would mirror the same set-up St. Louis employed. Two divisions of similar strength opponents. 4 game Round Robin in your division and then a cross over game depending on your seeding. Our schedule had us lined up against Arizona (Black), Oregon, North Dakota and Washington State. 2 games per day going between the 2 Stars-Ice facilities in Plano & Farmers Branch, Texas. It was going to be a more robust schedule than we faced in St. Louis but one we had prepared for. Our goal was to win our Round Robin division.

I am so proud of the group we took to Texas and the effort they played with. Most of these kids play against each other all season. To ask them to come together and play "for" each other and to compete as one group can be a challenge. Especially with the added pressure of playing in front of scouts, evaluators and various other coaches. That ability to play team hockey would allow us to work through the kinks until we found our stride and could play at our highest level. That means dedicating themselves to the defensive side of the puck. A side of the puck a lot of these players aren't asked to worry about because of their offensive talents. Our group was built from the top players in the local organizations they represented. Players that were used to playing a high number of minutes and in all situations.  We would ask our kids to buy into the team vision and if we did, everyone would enjoy success. They learned quickly that "this is the way" we were going to win. A slogan we adopted from the popular Disney+ series, "The Mandalorian"                                        
Our group battled to a 4-0 Round Robin record. We defeated Team Arizona 2-1 in a 7 round shootout. Made short work of Oregon, 5-0 in the second game. Then we were able to squeak out a 2-1 shootout win over North Dakota in game 3. We were winning 1-0 with 90 seconds left and had a mental miscue in the neutral zone to give up a shorthanded breakaway that evened the game at 1. Our kids reloaded and went to work in the shootout scoring 2 out of 3. Blake Drost was stellar against the ND shooters stopping every shot he faced. I loved that we got back on the horse after getting bucked and found a way to win. Part of the tournament package was tickets to the Saturday afternoon Dallas Stars game. An exciting time for our team, especially to be part of some players' first live NHL experience. The Stars beat the Kraken with ease. Miro Heiskanen had a 3 point game to be the game's first star. Our last game of the Round Robin would be at 8:45 pm against Washington State. 15 hours after starting our day. Needless to say, it was going to be a battle for our whole group to summon the energy to finish the job. Our kids gutted it out for a hard fought 3-1 win. We had been able to win our 4 Round Robin games because our players bought in to the way we had to play to be successful. The second consecutive tournament that our Idaho group would go 4-0. We limited opponents to an average of 19.25 shots against/game and finished with a 0.75 GAA as a team. Two stats that show the commitment a group must make to look after their end first. Our second place finish in the group would have us cross over and play Team California. We finished second by percentage points because of our 2 wins in shootouts. The team ahead of us, DMV (Delaware, Maryland, Virginia) secured first with 4 wins in regulation. We ultimately ran out of gas and couldn't compete with the size and speed of California. We lost our final game 7-0. Before you gasp at the result, we were down 2-0 going into the 3rd period. Our team hit a couple posts and missed a couple glorious chances that would have made it a game. Alas, California did what good teams do. When they see a team on the ropes they go for the knockout. Which they administered in the final frame of the game. Capitalizing on every chance they got. Another 4-1 tournament.

Looking back on the trip to Dallas and reminiscing on the past 2 entries into the showcase, it's been fun to sit down and write things down here. Looking at photos & old videos brought back some fond memories. I can't begin to tell you what an honor and privilege it has been to represent our state. Anytime you get asked to be part of something on this level is really special. We have a very promising group of young hockey players within Idaho's borders. It was so fun to see them grow, together. To see them compete, together. To see them succeed, together. 

I am very hopeful we can continue to build this program and find ways to develop our players that dream of competing at the next level. It will be a process that will take some time and effort but one that will be so rewarding when we get to that point. When we are that state in the top division and our players are being chased by scouts and recruiters to play at the next level. The next rung on the ladder is to get a win in our crossover game. Then after that, to build the program so that the scouts are coming to us, instead of us going to them. Lao Tzu said "a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." We are two steps into this journey and somehow that 1000 miles doesn't seem like it will take very long to cover.

Written by Darrell Hay April 21/24

About the Author- Darrell has been very fortunate to work with an incredible group in the building of 208 Hockey. The efforts of Steve Klein, Greg Bruley, Spencer McLean, Scott Larsen, Kevin Rasmussen & Brian Stypinski have allowed this program to become successful very quickly.

In his best selling book, "Extreme Ownership," Jocko Willink said, "in order to convince and inspire others to follow and accomplish a mission, a leader must be a true believer in the mission. Even when others doubt and question the amount of risk, asking, ‘Is it worth it?’ the leader must believe in the greater cause. If a leader does not believe, he or she will not take the risks required to overcome the inevitable challenges necessary to win. And they will not be able to convince others—especially the frontline troops who must execute the mission—to do so." 

Thank you men for being part of this undertaking and leading the journey going forward. We appreciate your service to this state, this game and the players & coaches you lead.