Teach, Improve, Support and Grow with Tonka Youth Hockey 

If you love to teach, help improve skills, performance and provide a positive hockey experience, then let’s talk.

Doing good for the community, families and kids is what coaching is all about with community-based hockey in Minnesota. The sport of hockey can be a life-changing experience for participants. As a coach, you get to deliver that positive experience for families that are all-in to the more recreational minded. Meeting those diverse needs and more can be challenging while at the same time very rewarding.

At Tonka Youth Hockey, we want coaches to be in it for the right reasons. We believe your role is to strive for skill and development excellence, but also nurture the love for the game that gets kids and families coming back. Make it fun! Finding the right balance can be tricky. So that is why we’ve set up a coaching development program to help provide tools to those new to hockey and others with a wealth of hockey and coaching experience. It’s a collaborative setting with off-ice meetings and on-ice instructions for coaches before and during the hockey season.

We Support Our Coaches

Our Hockey Development Committee (HDC), led by Eric Johnson at Impact Hockey, provides the Tonka Hockey coaches with standards for skill development  and opportunities to share instruction ideas and more.

Our talented instructors will walk you through practice planning and give suggestions on team specific challenges you may have. It’s not group therapy, but it helps to get together, compare notes and find ideas or new approaches to make your team better.

The HDC will also lead and complete the tryout process with its independent team of evaluators and will make the final decisions on teams and placement at the traveling levels.

How to Become a Coach with Tonka Hockey

We want to make it as easy as possible. So, before you dive into the multi-step administrative sign-up process, please reach out and connect with us by contacting the correct age level director. See the list at bottom of page. This will save you time and help us manage the process. Please note the following:

1. Before you can ‘officially’ be considered to coach, you NEED to complete Step 1 and 2 as soon as possible.
    
2. Coaches will NOT be authorized to take the ice or added to a roster until Step 3, 4 and 6 are complete.
    
3. The deadline to complete all certifications, including CEP Clinics (Step 5)  Deadline is December 31. This means coaches will NOT be able to continue coaching after December 31 if all requirements are not complete.
   
   Work with your team manager to help make sure you are taking these steps in a timely manner.

Please Follow the Step-by-Step Coaching Application Process

Whether you are a parent or independent/hired coach, there is a seven step process to complete. You cannot coach unless you apply. Start the process by clicking HERE to begin.