About Us

Hal Tearse:

My playing career began with youth hockey in the Wayzata area and then four years of Varsity experience at a college prep school. I spent a year on the JV at the University of Denver and during late October of my sophomore year sustained a career ending injury at the University of Minnesota. At that point, I decided to coach and teach hockey. I made that decision in 1971.

Since then I have coached players and teams at all ages from squirts all the way up through Junior A and college players. I was fortunate to spend two weeks with the Soviet Jr. National Team, coached the Midwest team at the National Sports Festival pre-Olympic camp and coached the USHL All Star team in Leysin, Switzerland. In the early eighties I teamed up with Jack Blatherwick to run pre-season training for junior, college and pro players with his OverSpeed training methods.

From 1999 through the 2003-2004 season I served USA Hockey as the Coach in Chief for District 3 in Minnesota certifying nearly 2,000 coaches in the CEP program for Minnesota Hockey. I have also coached in the Select 15 and 17 programs in Minnesota during the past four years. I am a member of the Player Development Committee for Minnesota Hockey. From 1998 through 2004 I served as the Head Coach for the Wayzata Bantam A team which made five regional finals appearances and two trips to the State Bantam A Tournament finishing first and third. In May of 2004,  I was elected Coach in Chief for Minnesota Hockey and was appointed the Boys Varsity Hockey Coach at Providence Academy in Plymouth, Minnesota.

Power Skating has been a central theme to my philosophy of coaching and I have learned from the best instructors in the world. As is often quoted,” If you cannot skate, you cannot play this game”.

Billy Kohn:

Billy Kohn joins the staff with a very solid background in power skating and playing hockey. After completing four years on the Roseville Varsity team Billy played one year with the St. Paul Vulcans in the USHL. Next move was to the University of Minnesota for four years culminating with Captain his senior year 1998-1999.
During the 1999-2000 season Billy played professional hockey for the Pensacola Ice Pilots in the ECHL.

For the past 8 years Billy has taught power skating at Pro Edge Skating in St. Paul with Diane Ness, and he continues as an instructor in that program. During the winter season Billy spent 3 years as the Associate Head Coach of the Wayzata Bantam A team. Currently, Billy is the Director of Player Development for Highland Hockey Association in St. Paul, MN and he will serve as an Assistant Coach at Providence Academy working with the defensemen.