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Thursday, August 20, 2009
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Hockey camps in 30th year of training players of all ages HOCKEY By NATHAN BROWN Sports Writer The year was 1980.
It was the year of the Miracle on Ice.
Wayne Gretzky finished with 43 goals and 61 assists for the Edmonton Oilers and claimed the Hart Memorial Trophy in his first year in the NHL.
The New York Islanders defeated the Philadelphia Flyers for the Stanley Cup.
Meanwhile, off the beaten path, Chuck Grillo and Herb Brooks quietly founded Minnesota Hockey Camps in Nisswa.
Since then Gretzky won the Hart Memorial Trophy eight times, every year until 1987, the Islanders won the Stanley Cup three more times, the U.S. men's hockey team has only earned one more medal.
MHC has seen more than 300 NHL players, hundreds of juniors and college players make their way through the camp, and has added a larger staff, including Chuck Grillo's son, Dean Grillo, as hockey director and St. Cloud State graduate Joe Ciardelli as strength and conditioning coordinator.
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Ryan Malone of the Tampa Bay Lightning talked about his many years of attending Minnesota Hockey Camps. Malone was 15 when he attended his first camp.
Brainerd Dispatch/Steve Kohls
» Purchase reprints of this photo.
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Thousands of drivers a year unknowingly pass by the 14 acres owned by MHC, which houses more than 240 players, on the edge of Clark Lake. But those who make MHC their destination have benefited from the passion for hockey, combined with grueling work ethic, that the camp presents.
As the 12th and final session comes to a close later this week, MHC will have provided its 30th year of extensive on- and off-ice training for hockey players of all ages. Their 2009 training season included several area specific sessions, including basic skills, goalie camps, and four weeks of strictly professional/amateur conditioning.
Each of the 12 sessions assists players in becoming better hockey players through a combination of hockey specific exercises, including ice time, plyometrics, weightlifting, shooting, stickhandling, and time in the classroom studying the game.
MHC and Dean Grillo have played host to Olympic hopefuls from Norway, Russia, Sweden and Canada, along with NHL players like Ryan Malone of the Tampa Bay Lightning, Scott Hartnell of the Philadelphia Flyers and T.J. Oshie of the St. Louis Blues.
Also joining the camp were former Brainerd Warrior players Joey Fraser and Ryan Peltoma, as well as two Little Falls products, Jared Festler and Ben Hanowski.
During each session each player, pros and amateurs alike, have made their way to the Brainerd Area Civic Center and hit the ice to work on their shooting, stickhandling and speed with amateur participants being measured regularly for top speed and acceleration.
When players aren't at the civic center they can be found back at the camp participating in dry-land activities like running through beach sand, weightlifting, a plyometric circuit and classroom time. The most rigorous of these activities, and a point of pride for the camp, is their plyometric circuit.
The circuit includes 10 hockey-specific stations, including a Russian Box, hurdles, a multi-tier plyometrics box and more. Each station is designed to help players' skating power and explosiveness.
"It's a six-minute workout that guys can barely walk out of," Dean Grillo said. "It's a bunch of power jumping - they're landing on boxes four feet high. A lot of guys ... are using it to get in shape for the season."
Even though the extensive nature of the camp allows players to get into shape quickly, players hoping to see improvement in their game can't limit themselves to just a week of play.
"You have to train here for more than one or two weeks," Dean Grillo said. "The first two weeks you're so sore it's probably not going to do you any good, so it's that third week where you start seeing improvement."
Malone, who has been attending the camp for multiple weeks every summer since he was 15, credits the camp for conditioning him to become the player he is today.
"This has definitely given me every opportunity I've had in my career," he said. "I kept coming up here every summer to work on my game and eventually I took my game to the next level and have grown from there. To end up where I am today, I owe a lot to this camp."
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