A few years in the past, Reed Kluender, Dylan Godbout, and Nick Pierre have been teammates with the Minnesota Steeldogs AAA teens hockey program in Minneapolis’ east suburbs.
Their teaching, Mark Strobel, became a partner head educate on the University of Wisconsin and the players scattered to numerous high college applications.
They’re on pace to be reunited down the street with the Badgers.
Kluender, a fifteen-yr-old defenseman, introduced his nonbinding, oral commitment to the Badgers on Friday.
“I love it lots that everyone 3 people are going there,” said Kluender, from South St. Paul, Minnesota. “It keeps us linked and made us nearer buddies.”
Playing for Strobel, head teaches Tony Granato and accomplice’s head to instruct Mark Osiecki as early because the 2022-23 season was an appealing alternative for Kluender, who stated he got here admire the UW application through years of watching university hockey.
“I loved him; he did everything as a teach,” Kluender said of Strobel, who joined the Badgers’ team of workers in 2017. “When I noticed that he went to Wisconsin, it just made me want to move there even greater.
“All the coaches there are implausible. Personally, I think it’s the high-quality education team of workers inside the usa.”
Kluender, indexed at 5-foot-10 and 178 kilos, scored two desires and recorded 17 factors in 29 video games as a freshman at South St. Paul ultimate season.
Like Godbout and Pierre, each of whom is forwards, Kluender was selected for next month’s week-long Minnesota Hockey High-Performance Program summer season improvement competition for gamers born in 2004.
Kluender stated his strengths are in being a stay-at-home defenseman who may be aggressive at times. He’s trying to improve his velocity and strength over the coming seasons.
Not which include six players who have signed a National Letter of Intent to join the Badgers next season, he is the 29th player who has given UW an oral dedication for destiny seasons. Four were born in 2004: Kluender, Godbout, Pierre, and Quebec defenseman Tristan Luneau.
Those 4 gamers are off-limits for a conversation with Badgers coaches until Jan. 1 in their sophomore year in high faculty under new NCAA policies that went into impact May 1. Coaches additionally now cannot make scholarship offers to gamers earlier than Aug. 1 before their junior year. However, Kluender said that UW offered him in March, before the rule of thumb alternates.
He’s “no longer a big fan” of the law that changed into designed to halt early commitments.
“I think that young youngsters with superb skills must have the possibility to talk to faculties,” Kluender said.
