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Duane Koep receives Herb Brooks HOF award
St. Cloud Youth Hockey Association coach Duane Koepp receives Herb Brooks Youth Hockey Hall of Fame Award
by MICK HATTEN
The Rink Live
A longtime youth hockey coach in St. Cloud received the Herb Brooks Youth Hockey Hall of Fame Award after the Herb Brooks Foundation Celebrity Golf Classic on Monday, July 25.
Duane Koepp has been a coach for the St. Cloud Youth Hockey Association since 1976. The association came into existence in 1974.
Koepp has spent the last 25 years as the lead coach for the junior mite program, which is for players ages 5-6. That is the first age group for youth hockey players and includes a lot of beginning skating instruction.
Koepp “has not only helped all of those players, but coaches like myself, learn how to play, work and have fun in the game,” SCYHA coach and The Rink Live’s Mick Hatten said in introducing Koepp. “When he’s talking to junior mites in a large group or oneon-one, he gets down on one knee so
that he’s talking to them at their level. “I’m not sure I’ve ever heard Duane raise his voice, much less yell, at a player. And I’ve never seen him in a bad mood around the kids and he brings an upbeat attitude, inspires enthusiasm from the kids as each practice starts and gives clear direction and instrucMinnesota Youth Hockey tion to everything he does.”Hall of Fame members 2022 — Duane Koepp Koepp also helps or2021 — The Strelow Family ganize and plays in an 2019 — Matt Olson Oldtimers hockey league 2018 — Bob Suter in St. Cloud that plays on 2017 — The Brodt Family 2016 — Steve “Moose” Younghans 2015 — Bill Butters Wednesdays and Sundays. Duane and his wife, 2014 — Chuck Grillo Kim, live in St. Cloud. 2013 — Larry Hendrickson The family also supports 2012 — Janet Marvin hockey through the Brian 2011 — Jim McDonough Cal, Tut and Jack Marvin Koepp Memorial Fund, Rudy Krampotich which sponsors game day Stan Hubbard program ads and equip2005 — Wes Barrette ment for youth hockey players. Brian was the son of Duane and Kim and he died in 2002. The couple also has a daughter, Wendy VanCamp. She is married to Nathan VanCamp and they have three children — Allie, Bennett and Landon. Bennett and Landon play youth hockey in Orono. The Herb Brooks Foundation has established an internet-based, Minnesota Youth Hockey Hall of Fame. People highly devoted to youth hockey development are nominated and inducted into the Hall at the annual awards celebration.
From left, The Rink Live’s Mick Hatten, Dan Brooks (son of Herb Brooks), Duane Koepp and Herb Brooks Foundation executive director Jon Cherney.
Photo courtesy of Kim Koepp
Jason Bryant named next voice of Husky hockey
ST. CLOUD, Minn. – St. Cloud State Men’s Hockey has its next voice of Husky Hockey, as Jason Bryant was announced as its public address announcer ahead of the 2022-23 season. With nearly 30 years of experience in the profession, Bryant joins the Huskies after working several high-level events in the wrestling world, including three Olympic Games, 16 World Championships and 48 college national championships. “You don’t have to look very hard to see the impact and influence of hockey on this great state,” said Bryant. “When looking at the landscape of college hockey, St. Cloud State isn’t just a Minnesota brand, it’s a national brand. I’m excited for the opportunity to be part of this great community and follow the Huskies on their road to the Frozen Four.”
“We are so grateful for Chuck Clausen’s 32 years of service and dedication, and extremely excited to add Jason Bryant as the next voice of Husky Hockey,” said head coach Brett Larson. “Jason will have big shoes to fill, and we can’t wait to see his expertise put to work in front of our Husky faithful this upcoming season. I can’t wait for our fans to get to know Jason, welcome him and his family into our program and add to our thrilling gameday experience at the Herb Brooks National Hockey Center for years to come.” Bryant has built an illustrious career as a broadcaster, journalist and public address announcer over the last 28 years. His career began in his home state of Virginia, where he launched Mat Talk Online, a Virginia-based website out of his dorm room in October 1997. His website led to numerous announcing gigs around the region, state and world, and helped him become one of the most recognizable voices in the sport of wrestling. Bryant has been behind the mic at every NCAA Division I, Division III and NAIA Wrestling Championships since 2016. He’s also been the English public address announcer at the last five UWW Senior World Wrestling Championships and the last two Olympic Games. Bryant has worked for the Daily Press, National Wrestling Coaches Association, USA Wrestling and Amateur Wrestling News while building his resume as a public address announcer. He rebranded and relaunched Mat Talk Online as his own business in 2013, turning the website into the world’s largest on-demand wrestling audio website, producing, editing and distributing more than 3,000 podcast episodes. He has earned 16 major media awards over the last 21 years, including the Bob Moskowitz Media Award in 2021 and the Wrestling Insider Newsmagazine’s Journalist of the Year in 2022. Bryant is the President of the National Wrestling Media Association, a post he’s held since 2009. Outside of wrestling, Bryant has announced hundreds of high school and college sports events in the following sports: football, basketball, soccer, ice hockey, field hockey, lacrosse, marathon and road racing, fastpitch softball, baseball and roller derby. Bryant is a 2004 graduate of Old Dominion University. He resides in New Brighton, Minn., with his wife Abby and two daughters – Lucy London (10) and Ruby Rio (6).
MNHockey.Tv and the Prospect Exchange (TPE) announced today a partnership to extend player development and recruiting to levels never seen in high school sports. The unique agreement merges the high-end video and state-of-the art coaching and player recruitment tools.
Add on to the agreement already executed with the Minnesota Hockey Coaches Association (MHCA), this agreement provides analytics and data for teams and players by TPE through MNHockey.Tv’s unique coaching platform. Every team has access to full game analytics video and every player has the ability to create a player profile to communicate and connect with next-level coaches, scouts, and teams.
“We have always put the team and player first since we began our journey in 2006,” said MNHockey.Tv’s Director of Hockey Media Services Pete Waggoner. “Our agreement with TPE extends our agreement with the MHCA and Legacy. Hockey that already delivers a high-end product for all. It allows for Minnesota High School Hockey to be a great place to not only play and develop the game but be recognized and recruited to the next level.”
Teams will be able to take advantage of the indepth analytics after each of their games which will open up coaching moments for each team. With the never-seen-before combination of the Spiideo Perform coaching tool that allows for live tagging and the depth of TPE’s analytics, there is not a high school league in the nation that has this depth of tool available at the team’s finger-tips which is fitting for the highly revered Minnesota hockey league. “The TPE mission is two-fold,” said TPE Co-Founder and Managing Partner John Becanic. “First, we want to provide the individual player with an opportunity to develop and advance their game. Second, we wanted to provide coaches and scouts a platform to evaluate and communicate with players free of cost to their program.”
Making it all possible is the 4k high-resolution video provided by MNHockey.Tv through the Spiideo system. “It is one thing to knock off a game or two but to scale to a total of 273 girls’ and boys’ teams is a legitimate challenge and never has been done before, anywhere,” Waggoner said. “Our goal has been to include every program and today, we are proud to say we are doing just that from a team, player, and fan experience,”
The video quality allows for an efficient delivery of results from TPE to their customer that is the teams and players. “We believe that MNHockey TV and their use of Spiideo video is the gold standard when it comes to streaming and video quality. We want to provide our users, both players and coaches, with the best possible results and Spiideo will certainly deliver that.”
