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<\/p>\nBEMIDJI \u2013 Travis Winter wasn\u2019t expecting to get the call, but he wasn\u2019t surprised he got it either.<\/p>\n
On Wednesday, USA Hockey announced that Bemidji State\u2019s men\u2019s hockey associate head coach would serve on the American bench as an assistant for the 2026 IIHF World Junior Championship. Winter got the call from head coach Bob Motzko \u201ca few weeks ago.\u201d<\/p>\n
Winter will officially serve as a video coach. Boston College’s Greg Brown, Augustana’s Garrett Raboin, USA Hockey’s David Lassonde and Minnesota’s Steve Miller and Jacob LeRoy are also on staff. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m very grateful for the opportunity,\u201d Winter said. \u201cIt\u2019s very exciting. Anytime you can participate in a tournament like that and represent your country, it\u2019s something that you don\u2019t want to take for granted. You get excited for it; how can you not?\u201d<\/p>\n
The World Junior Championship begins in the Twin Cities on Dec. 26 at the Xcel Energy Center and at the University of Minnesota\u2019s 3M Arena at Mariucci. The WJC runs through Jan. 5, 2026.<\/p>\n
Winter will get the best of both worlds when the calendar flips to 2026. While Bemidji State typically plays a series on the second weekend in December, and on the first weekend in January (or a New Year\u2019s Eve game), the Beavers are off from Dec. 6 to Jan. 9. <\/p>\n
Scheduling luck allows Winter to serve on Team USA\u2019s staff with the potential of not missing a BSU game, save for an exhibition against the Gophers on Jan. 2.<\/p>\n
More importantly for Winter, with the WJC being in Minnesota, it\u2019ll become a family event for the St. Cloud native.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Bemidji State associate head coach Travis Winter hoists the MacNaughton Cup on March 1, 2024, at the Sanford Center. <\/p>\n
Courtesy \/ Brent Cizek Photography <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s the State of Hockey, and our state\u2019s going to knock it out of the park with how they handle it,\u201d Winter said. \u201cThey\u2019re going to put on a great show. It\u2019ll be an experience I get to share with my family, with it being in the Twin Cities. They\u2019ll get to be a part of it, too, which is special.\u201d<\/p>\n
Winter will enter his 12th season on the Beavers\u2019 staff this fall. He was an assistant head coach for eight seasons, then spent the last three seasons with the title of associate head coach under Tom Serratore.<\/p>\n
Winter played for BSU from 2005-09, serving as a captain in his final two seasons. After he graduated, Winter was hired as an assistant for the Cedar Rapids RoughRiders in the United States Hockey League for four seasons, then spent a year as the head coach for the North American Hockey League\u2019s Aberdeen Wings in 2013-14<\/p>\n
Winter came back to Bemidji State in 2015 for his first season as an assistant, and he hasn\u2019t left since.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think this honor is a testament to the respect of our program, what people think of our program and the things we\u2019ve been able to accomplish over the years,\u201d Winter said.<\/p>\n
Motzko is one of college hockey\u2019s most revered coaches. Since being hired by Minnesota prior to the 2018-19 season, he\u2019s posted a record of 161-82-21. Combined with his previous 13 seasons at St. Cloud State, Motzko has a career record of 437-274-70, with 13 trips to the NCAA Tournament, including three Frozen Four appearances.<\/p>\n
Motzko replaces Denver\u2019s David Carle as Team USA\u2019s WJC head coach. Carle led the Americans to back-to-back WJC titles in each of the last two tournaments.<\/p>\n
\u201c(Motzko) asked if I\u2019d be interested in helping out and went over the expectations for different roles,\u201d Winter said. \u201cHe asked if I\u2019d be comfortable doing that, and I said, \u2018Yeah, of course.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know if you ever expect that call to come. With Bob being the head coach and being part of his circle in the hockey world, you\u2019re kind of thinking you might get a call. But there\u2019s a lot of other qualified guys, so you don\u2019t spend too much time pondering that. When he called, it was awesome.\u201d<\/p>\n
Motzko and Bemidji State head coach Tom Serratore have a long-standing relationship. Their relationship helped Winter build rapport with Motzko over the years, ultimately leading to Winter\u2019s selection as an assistant.<\/p>\n
\u201cTypically, when these coaching staffs get assembled, they\u2019re put together with people they\u2019re familiar with,\u201d Winter said. \u201cThey\u2019re familiar with their expertise and strengths as coaches. They want to make sure they cover all areas. Obviously, in working with Tommy, he\u2019s had a big influence on that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Like many Bemidji residents, Winter has been hard at work on community restoration following the severe thunderstorm and 100-plus mile-per-hour winds.<\/p>\n
On Tuesday, Winter, BSU assistant coach Joe Wegwerth and members of Bemidji Covenant Church and Bemidji Youth Hockey helped clean up Paul Bunyan Park.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve never seen anything like this; not even close,\u201d Winter said. \u201cJoe and I were there, along with some members of our church and Bemidji Youth Hockey. We have a pretty good group. We were just old-school raking, making piles.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BEMIDJI \u2013 Travis Winter wasn\u2019t expecting to get the call, but he wasn\u2019t surprised he got it either.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":214784,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5311],"tags":[45789,9643,59063,85417,85418,85419,85420,85421,85422,85416,49,978,659],"class_list":{"0":"post-214783","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-45789","9":"tag-americans","10":"tag-beavers","11":"tag-beavers-hockey","12":"tag-beavers-mens-hockey","13":"tag-bemidji-state","14":"tag-bemidji-state-beavers","15":"tag-bemidji-state-beavers-hockey","16":"tag-bemidji-state-mens-hockey","17":"tag-central-collegiate-hockey-association","18":"tag-united-states","19":"tag-us","20":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114747424494081469","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214783","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=214783"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214783\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/214784"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=214783"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=214783"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=214783"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}