One of the most respected names in Minnesota hockey, Mike teams up again with Cory Laylin for a second season as an assistant coach. The two paired up as co-head coach at Buffalo High School a few years ago.
This is Mike's first experience at the college level. But that is about the only level he hasn't coached at in more than 20 years on the bench.
Mike actually started his coaching career while he was still a student at UW-Stout. He served as an assistant at Menominee High School. From there, he went on to be the lead assistant and youth development director at New Ulm for seven seasons. The Eagles made the MSHSL state tournament in 1992. Mike then moved to Buffalo when he was an assistant for two years before taking over the reins in 1995-96. His prep colleagues thought so highly of him that he was given the nod to run several section and state teams as part of the Minnesota Player Development Festivals. As head coach of Minnesiota's 16 team, his teams won a pair of national 16 festivals.
In 2001, he was named the winner of the Dave Peterson Award, give annually to a "high school coach who has shown great leadership in develping youth hockey either locally or statewide." (Peterson, a member of Hamline's Athletic Hall of Fame, coaches two Olympic and three national teams after a long and successful prep career at Minneapolis Southwest.) Mike is also a member of the Buffalo Hockey Hall of Fame.
Since 2006, Mike had served as Executive Director of the Minnesota Hockey Coaches Association.
For the past 25 years, he has been closely involved in USA Hockey, currently holding the position of USA Hockey National Coach-in-Chief. In addition to serving as a coach/ counselor at at US Hockey National Development camps and being on a myriad of committees, Mike has served as the head coach for the USA National Sled Development team since 2011. That team is used to prepare players for the national Sled team. In 2014, Team USA won the Gold Medal Game against Russia in the Paralympics.
