So what does a hockey coach do in the summer? Coach another hockey team. Hamline head men's puck coach Cory Laylin will be behind the bench as the head coach of USA Hockey's Under 17 team that will compete in the Five Nations Cup tournament. 

It is the second year in a row that Laylin will be on the Team USA staff. He was an assistant last year when the Americans won the tournament in Switzerland. This year's team will tangle with Switzerland, Slovakia, Czech Republic and Germany in a round robin format in Frisco, Texas. The games run from August 9-13. 

Team USA was picked from participants in a tryout camp held in Buffalo, NY. "I'm very pleased with our team," Laylin, who played on four internationmal teams, said. "It was a tough process getting to 20 players. There were a lot of very talented kids out there. It's an honor to coach these elite athletes."

Laylin will be assisted by Matt Millar, an assistant coach with Dubuque of the USHL, Scott Paluch, former head coach at Bowling Green (now fulltime at USA  Hockey)  and Alex Todd, who will be the new head coach at Trine University, a first year D-III program. 

A former University of Minnesota player, Laylin has taken Hamline to the postseason in both of his seasons at the helm. In his first year, the Pipers won three away games in eight days to take the MIAC title and advance to the NCAA tournament for just the second time in school history. The 2015-16 team won a first round playoff game at Concordia before falling to eventual champ Augsburg in the semifinals. Charlie Adams, a senior forward, was named the MIAC Men's Hockey Player of the Year. Adams and Brandon Zurn signed pro contracts after the season and played for the Pensacola Ice Flyers, which won the Southern Professional Hockey League playoffs.

Laylin is the second person with a Hamline connection to coach for Team USA. Dave Peterson, a 1953 grad who is a member of Hamline's Athletic Hall of Fame, was the head coach for the Men's Olympic teams in 1988 and 1992 and also worked with several other international teams.

For more information on Team USA, click here.