STrib: Bob Motzko Still Answering the Call

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http://www.startribune.com/years-la...motzko-is-still-answering-the-call/478471163/


He was a two-time letter-winner for the Huskies before deciding to become a coach during the 1986-87 season.

“It was my third year there, I walked in when [coach] Herb Brooks was there,” Motzko said. “They said, ‘Here’s your workout packet.’ I said, ‘I’m not here to work out anymore. I want to coach. I want to try this.’ This is Herb Brooks. And they let me on the staff. And then I knew I wanted to coach.”

From St. Cloud, Motzko went to Mason City, Iowa, where he became coach and general manager of the USHL’s North Iowa Huskies from 1987-91, leading the team to a Junior A national title in 1989. During that time, Motzko and Serratore, then the coach/GM of the Omaha Lancers, became close friends...

...Motzko left the USHL to become an assistant coach at Miami (Ohio) in 1991-92, where he worked under George Gwozdecky, who later won two NCAA titles at Denver. Gwozdecky remembers a coach who was eager to teach.

“I had to stop him from jumping into the drills during our practices, because he was so used to doing that,” said Gwozdecky, now a high school coach in Colorado. “He’d put his ballcap on backwards and get after it in the drills.”...

...Motzko spent a year as an assistant to Serratore at Denver, but the Pioneers let Serratore go following the 1993-94 season, and Motzko ended up back at Miami for four seasons. From there, it was back to the USHL to be the inaugural coach and GM of the Sioux Falls Stampede for two seasons.

Then Lucia and the Gophers came calling.

“When Bob came in, he was exactly what I was looking for at the time,” Lucia said. “… I thought he’d be a perfect fit, and he was. He had a lot to do with us winning.”

In Motzko’s first season in Dinkytown, the Gophers won the 2002 championship at Xcel Energy Center, ending a 23-year national title drought. The next year, with one of his players from the Stampede, freshman Thomas Vanek, playing a starring role, Minnesota repeated as national champion.
 




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