Fox Cities' Alumnus Leads Way For Brazil

When we do our game prep's for fans, we often try to talk about what players stand out for the opponents. The Fox Cities Ice Dogs (8-8) have some names that our fans would recognize, like the one's that have played on the biggest stage such as former Wisconsin Badger Matt Paape. They also might recognize those with Marquette ties like Andy Sims.
But we rarely get to talk about alumni of other teams. There have been some great people that have contributed so much to hockey in their communities, but documentation of life after "The G" is hard to find. One rare exception is Jens Hinderlie, a former Ice Dog who is truly maximizing the global scope of the sport as the head coach of the Brazilian National Ice Hockey team. 

Our very own Intern Mike got a chance to speak with Hinderlie during the week and reflected in this essay about how a Minnesotan and former Great Lakes Hockey League player is changing the hockey world.

Like most children who grow up in Minnesota, Jens Hinderlie learned to play a particular sport; hockey. Since the weather in the Northern part of the midwest can get awful chilly, hockey becomes a pastime for all ages. Playing pick-up games on the ice with your friends is as routine as going to the local gym to play basketball. The love for the game has taken Jens on quite an adventure, from playing for the Fox City Ice Dogs for five years in the Great Lakes Hockey League to living in Brazil coaching their national hockey team in Rio de Janeiro.

Jens started out playing hockey as a young man living in Minnesota, playing two years on his high school's team, but after he graduated he decided to take on a different sport. He enrolled in Waldorf College and decided he would try out for the baseball team. Playing baseball was fun for Jens but it was not what he was looking for. He was not enrolled for long before he decided to move to Juneau on a whim. He decided to move to Appleton, Wisconsin when he heard talk from his family about an adult hockey team being good enough to make it to nationals near where they lived. While in Wisconsin, Jens enrolled back into school at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh where he graduated in 2008, inspiring to be a teacher after receiving a degree in history.

After his education ended Jens started to do some traveling, moving from Wisconsin to Alaska, back to Minnesota, and eventually ending up in Texas. After his move and him starting to settle in, Jens wanted to find love. He made himself an online dating profile and found the woman he was searching for. His soon to be wife was living in Rio when they matched on the dating website. After a year and a half of talking and dating they decided to get married, which lead Jens to move to Rio. His wife, knowing the love he has for the game, networked him through the Brazilian Ministry of Sport and he was eventually named the head coach for the Brazilian National Hockey Team.

The team is composed of converted inline skaters, who want to strive to give Brazil a great national hockey team. Unfortunately, ice is not as common in Rio as it is in Minnesota and Jens said the team and roughly twenty hours of actual ice hockey all year, mostly when they are at Mexico City for the Pan-Am Games. Their hard work paid off when they won the bronze medal in 2015.

Jens has had his hands full building the team. It is hard to recruit players because hockey cannot interfere with their day-to-day lives. Having little to no ice time does not help in developing player skills. Even though inline hockey and ice hockey have most of the same game concepts, the rules and gameplay are much different, especially from skating on rollerblades to skating on ice skates. Jens said after five minutes of their first practice they put away the puck and just focused on becoming better skaters. Learning basics that are taught to children, like learning how to fall and get back up on the ice. But, with a lot of practice and determination from the players during the practice times they do have, Jens said there has been much improvement.

To get the team to where they need to be Jens is trying to organize a few scrimmage games between the Brazilian national team and other teams willing to play. One organization he has contacted with in hopes of developing his players and expanding the team's popularity is the Great Lakes Hockey League that he was once apart of. Jens would like his team to travel to Wisconsin in the offseason to play a couple of preseason games with the Ice Dogs and other teams from the league. Since ice time is the biggest obstacle that the team faces, Jens thinks it is important to get as many on ice opportunities as possible saying that "if you're not on ice, you can't get better at ice hockey."

The Brazilian Ice Hockey Team is currently fundraising for upcoming trips and building better ice facilities in their home country. For more information about the team and how to help, visit their Go Fund Me page HERE.