St. Thomas women's hockey head coach Joel Johnson was featured in an article by the Star Tribune on how he is juggling coaching both the St. Thomas women's hockey team and the Olympic women's hockey team.
From the article: "I love telling people that, like, my coach is also the Olympic coach." Tommies forward Anna Solheim said. "It's been super exciting. I know it's such a great opportunity for him and he's deserving of it. So we're super lucky when he is here and able to practice with us and then always cheering on Team USA and him when he's unable to be with us."
The dual roles have been challenging. Teaching hockey has not. Johnson applies the same principles and concepts to the USA team as he does the Tommies. He has caught himself making the same speeches to both teams.
Johnson is managing to share moments this season with both squads, and share them between the two teams. He was coaching a Tommies game early in the season when he was so moved by the energy the team showed on the bench that he pulled out his phone to record a video of it. The next day, he showed it to the national team.
