The compressor is on and the ice is in at Bronco Arena as the building plays host to the 40th Annual Falls Summer Hockey Camp.
More than 100 youngsters from International Falls, Fort Frances, Lake of the Woods area and the Iron Range participated in the two week program that will come to an end this evening.
The camp is run by former Falls High boys’ hockey coach Kevin Gordon and is staffed by high school hockey coaches Tony Couture, who coaches in Little Falls; Falls High Broncos boys’ head coach John Prettyman; Bruce Raboin, who coaches Detroit Lakes; Tony Borden who coaches the Lakeland Thunderbirds in Minocqua, Wis.; and Broncos boys’ assistant coach George McDonald.
Also coaching at the camp are former and current college hockey players including University of Minnesota Alumni Ben Gordon, former Gopher and Boston Bruins prospect Blake Wheeler, St. Cloud State University defensemen Garrett Raboin and Minnesota State University Mankato forward Mick Berge.
“The college kids are out on the ice with the kids,” Kevin Gordon said. “They are teaching, they are instructing, mingling with the kids in dry land practice and it’s a unique opportunity for our kids.”
The camp includes both on-ice training and off-ice training, called dry land.
“One of the things that I appreciate about the camp is that we have very good coaches here,” Gordon added. “Our coaches have been coaching this camp for a long time and have coached at numerous camps. I’ve been to a lot of camps and our staff here is as good as anywhere.”
The coach with the most experience at the camp is Prettyman who is in his 40th year with the camp. Prettyman has been with the program long to enough to have coached almost all of the coaches.
“I’ve been at every camp they’ve ever had,” Prettyman said. “I worked at the first one in my junior year of high school. I’ve seen a lot of kids come and go.”
When the school first started it lasted an entire month, but conflicts form other sports and the costs of operating the arena in the summer have forced the camp to scale back to just two weeks of hockey.
“We used to have kids that would come for a week, two weeks or a month,” Prettyman said. “A lot of our little kids back then used to come for a full month. Now, 40 years later, with all of the things going on in their lives with Little League and family vacations, two weeks is probably plenty.”
Prettyman has coached both of the Gordons, McDonald, Couture, Raboin, Sether and Borden.
“It’s fun for me to watch them,” Prettyman said. “Both Tony Borden and Tony Couture have their young sons here with them. It is fun to have them at the camp.”
Ben Gordon has a unique perspective having participated in the camp as youngster and now coaching.
“I do camps like this all of the time around the state and it’s special to get to come back and work with the kids and help the program,” Ben Gordon said. “I know they watch me on TV and have followed the Gophers throughout my career. I always try to get some guys from my team to come up because the kids know who they are, too.”
Ben Gordon’s teammate former Gopher Blake Wheeler attended the camp this year. Wheeler recently signed a contract with the Boston Bruins and will play professional hockey in the fall.
“It’s cool to come up here and look in the book upstairs (at the arena) and see all of the hockey history that has been though here, because it is one of the more historical places in the state,” Wheeler said. “The town breathes hockey so it’s a lot of fun to be up here. I like to come up here and hang out with the little kids; I remember being out there not so long ago.”
One key to the camp’s longevity and success is the partnership it has with the school district. Bronco Arena is owned and staffed by School District 361.
“School District 361 has been great to us,” Kevin Gordon said. “They allowed us to have this camp which is pretty unique. I have noticed in a lot of towns where there are years that they cannot have the camp because they just don’t get the kids. The school has been the key to allowing us to come in here and have the camp.”
The camp focuses on developing a skills and is for players from mites all the way to college. Until recently, the camp did not include mites, who are players eight years old and less. Coaches were unsure whether players that young would benefit from the camp.
After encouragement from mite parents, the camp started a mites program and it has paid off.
“The mites are our biggest group,” Gordon said. “At first we didn’t know what to do so we put six or seven coaches on the ice and went with it. It is a blast. We have a lot of parents that come to us and say ‘this is my kids first time on the ice’. With our program, you are not making a year-long commitment and the kid can find out if they like hockey and sign them up in the fall. Those kids come and on their first day, they are the kids that are walking on skates, but by the end of the two weeks, they are skating.”
Along with mites, squirts, peewees and bantam groups, the camp features a night league for high school and college players with more than 10 Division I hockey players in attendance.
The final day of the camp is today and will wrap up this evening with a pair of night league games starting at 5:30 p.m. For more information about Falls Summer Hockey or information about next year’s camp, contact Kevin Gordon.