Assistant coaches...

[massalsa]

Congrats to Tonka. Fast, entertaining, and rock solid play throughout the season and obviously at State.

I don't believe anyone mentioned on the tv broadcasts or anywhere here on the forum anything about the amazing assistants Goldsworthy recruited to help him. Amazing players and at least for a HS team is there any staff that has a better resume as a whole?

Feels like Goldsworthy was the CEO (thought I heard that he was not a systems guy or something along those lines) and he hired or asked a great group of coaches to join him that did a lot of things that he either did not want to do or could do better than him. I was reminded of that in the last period against East where Jack Hillen was working the clipboard during that timeout with a couple of minutes to go.

Feels like a great balance of big picture stuff and direction from Goldsworthy and then assistants with all sorts of coaching and relevant experience (from the NHL to college and even past state championships as players).

[blueblood]

Surround yourself with talent, keep egos in check, focus on what you do best, and good things will happen, like it did for Tonka

[karl(east)]

Agreed, massalsa. Goldsworthy pulled together a great staff at Tonka with a lot of experience and depth of knowledge. That was an early clue to me that the new Skipper skipper would get the program over the hump sooner or later, and it turned out to be sooner. That crew does some great work behind the scenes, and I expect them to keep it up in the coming season.

[JerseyDave]

Along the same lines of tapping into his coaching network, Goldsworthy brought in Jefferson's former coach to talk to the team before state:
http://www.startribune.com/up-where-he- ... 476192513/

"On Monday this week, former Bloomington Jefferson coach Tom Saterdalen addressed the Skippers at practice. Saterdalen, a five-time state champion, coached the late Steve Molenaar, captain of the Jaguars’ 1984 team and father of senior co-captain Joe Molenaar. The message resonated with players and Goldsworthy alike: Live in the now."