DULUTH — When Minnetonka’s Joe Molenaar entered the transfer portal after graduating with a degree in biomedical sciences from St. Cloud State, he’s wasn’t looking for a new school that could give him that next leg up in his hockey career.
He wanted a school that would set him up for completing a Master of Business Administration.
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A former Minnetonka teammate who just wrapped up a five-year college career at Minnesota Duluth — Luke Loheit — opened the door for Molenaar to find a solid path to his MBA all while playing for the Bulldogs.
“Hockey for me really going into last year was year-to-year,” said Molenaar, a fifth-year senior wing. “I was kind of just, see what happens, just enjoy it as much as I can. But the COVID year opened up a chance for me to get some schooling taken care of while playing hockey.”
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Molenaar is part of the last group of players who have an extra season of eligibility from playing through the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020-21. He was this week’s guest on the Bulldog Insider Podcast with News Tribune college hockey reporter Matt Wellens and Zach Schneider of My 9 Sports.
Molenaar discusses his role as a leader on a young Bulldogs team that has 11 freshmen, plus they compare life, school and hockey in St. Cloud versus Duluth.
Below is an edited excerpt from this week’s episode, featuring a conversation about coaches Scott Sandelin and Brett Larson.
Bulldog Insider: You played four years at St. Cloud State under Brett Larson, a Duluth guy who worked for six seasons under Scott Sandelin. Now you’re playing for Scott.
How are Scott and Brett similar as coaches?
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Joe Molenaar: Similarities-wise, they're both really intense. Both of them want to win. Their biggest quality and what I appreciate the most is just how much they care for their players, like on a personal standpoint.
I think at times in college hockey that can get lost and both of them have been awesome just as as people and supporting their players obviously in hockey, but more importantly in life. From that sense, those guys have been just awesome to play for.
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BI: How are they different?
Molenaar: With Lars having a more recent time of being the player's coach has made him maybe a little bit more, like I catch him trying at times to avoid the extra talk with players. Like the player’s coach that would just chop it up with the players. At times he would try, I guess, to avoid that, but you could see that he still had that in him and wanted to do that.
From a coaching standpoint, Lars is really — I don't want to say military — but he really sticks to his systems and that's a credit to why St. Cloud has been so good in that sense. Whereas Sandy, wants you to play maybe a little bit more free and kind of learn and make mistakes as you go. I think that's why with Sandy's teams, you kind of see their trajectory going all like this, straight up all year because players just keep continuing to learn and grow.
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BI: You've only been in in Scott's program for a little over half a season now, so it might be too early to answer this question, but the public gets to see him in a much different light than the players. It's always interesting to see players who have come through his programs because a lot of them have said the same thing that you do, that he cares so much about who they are as people, not just as players.
Obviously he wants to win, that's the point of the program, but what is it about Scott that the public doesn't always get to see?
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Molenaar: Like I said in the last question, he's much more personable than he may come off. I think all of us players know that if we ever need anything, we could go right in his office. I know that's what he would want us to do. He encourages camaraderie. Maybe you guys wouldn't be able to see that from just Friday and Saturday nights and the intensity of it, but really and truly he wants the best experience for his players. I think that's a really special piece of him as a coach.
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BI: Are there quirks that Brett Larson used to have that now playing for Scott, you're like, ‘Oh, that's where he got that got that from’?
Molenaar: Honestly, where I notice it most would be like in drills, in like the terminology for them because they have drills and they're called almost the exact same thing. Maybe Lars changed one little word when he went to St. Cloud. The drill names are something I always always notice.
Check out the full episode for more from Molenaar. You can find the Bulldog Insider Podcast at DuluthNewsTribune.com/BulldogInsider , and on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes drop Thursdays throughout the UMD men's and women's hockey seasons.