By Bryan Zollman

Let’s Play Hockey

When Steve Rohlik and Mark Strobel manned the bench last weekend at Mariucci Arena for the Ohio State Buckeyes, it was a homecoming of sorts for the duo who both share a deep love of hockey, a passion for young athletes, and a mutual respect for each other.

Rohlik and Strobel’s path to Ohio State started on the hardscrabble streets of the East Side of St. Paul in the 1970s and 80s, where they grew up pushing pucks on snowy outdoor rinks in the winter and banging tennis balls off curbs and garage doors in the summer.

Rohlik is five years Strobel’s senior and is the head coach at Ohio State, who are currently ranked 10th in the nation with a 9-2-4 record and are coming off a split with the Gophers last weekend. Despite their difference in age, the two are the best of friends, and together have taken a strikingly similar path from those east side streets to Columbus, where they hope to put hockey on the same map as basketball and football.

“Being involved in this game a long time, you are always searching for opportunities and I was fortunate to get this opportunity,” said Rohlik before his team took the ice last Thursday at Mariucci for a pre-series practice. “With the future of the Big Ten conference in hockey, I thought there was potential for some real growth here, and being involved with a university like Ohio State is an unbelievable opportunity.”

Both Rohlik and Strobel grew up playing for Johnson Area Youth Hockey, and then attended Hill-Murray High School. Rohlik played on the Pioneer teams in 1985 and 1986 that both lost to Burnsville in the state finals. Five years later, Strobel and his twin brother, Mike, led the Pioneers to the title game in 1991, where they defeated Duluth East to win the last “great eight” tourney before the format moved to two classes. Rohlik, who was coming off a 1990 national title at the University of Wisconsin, was in the early stages of becoming a hockey coach and served as a volunteer assistant during the Pioneers’ title run.

Strobel, who was heavily recruited after leading the state tournament in scoring, followed Rohlik down I-94 to Madison, Wis., where he, too, joined the Badgers along with his brother. The next winter both Mark and Mike advanced to the NCAA title game only to lose to Lake Superior State 5-3. And like Rohlik, once his playing career was over, Mark migrated into a coaching career.

After other stops – Strobel in the USHL where he served as an assistant on the national championship St. Paul Vulcans staff as well as at Colorado College, and Rohlik as head coach at Hill-Murray and as an assistant at the University of Nebraska Omaha – both spent time together at the University of Minnesota Duluth where they served as assistants under Scott Sandelin. Rohlik spent 10 years at UMD before being asked to join the Ohio State staff as an assistant under former college teammate and former Burnsville standout Mark Osiecki in 2010. In 2013, Osiecki was let go and Rohlik was offered the job. Meanwhile, Strobel started a family and took a job in the private sector and was serving as a rink-side reporter for the Big Ten Network when Rohlik gave him a call in the spring of 2015. 

“It wasn’t a tough decision for me, that’s for sure,” Rohlik said on recruiting Strobel to join the Ohio State coaching staff. “I knew he had the itch to get back into the game for a long time. The timing was right.”

Having known him most of his life, Rohlik was eager to bring someone like Strobel on board.

“How many times can you get a guy by your side that cares as much as he does, has the passion that he does and has the want to be around kids and help these guys become better young men?” Rohlik said.

Strobel was humbled by the opportunity. Not only was he joining one of the most prestigious universities in the world, he was also rejoining someone he considers a brother.

“The biggest thing we have is trust,” he said. “We aren’t afraid to let each other know how we feel. We have known each other a long time and go way back. I am humbled and blessed to be a part of this University and this hockey team.”

Having known each other since they were kids, and having worked together as assistants at the collegiate level, they have formed a special bond most coaches don’t share. Strobel describes Rohlik as a coach who truly cares not just about hockey, but the young men who play it.

“He cares about his players and that resonates in the locker room,” he said. “He’s been at this a long time and has been at some good programs. He’s been a leader throughout his life and is a relentless worker.”

Rohlik is in his fourth year at the helm (55-53-16), Strobel in his second. Both admit that the qualities they learned growing up on the East Side and being around coaches such as Steve “Moose” Younghans helped groom them into bringing an old-school “Herb Brooks” approach to Ohio State.

“Growing up on the east side, you hate to lose and you know how to work hard,” said Strobel. “It was always ingrained in us to find a way, to not quit. And that is what we instill in these kids.”

Rohlik’s father, Jim,  was born and raised in the farming town of Wabasso, Minn., where the main sports were basketball and football. He married and moved to the east side of St. Paul where he worked as a teacher, athletic director and coach at Hill and then Hill-Murray for more than 24 years, although he never coached hockey. But Steve started playing the sport when he was three years old. And it didn’t take him long to fall in love with it. He grew up playing on playgrounds such as Hayden Heights, Phalen, Prosperity and Frost Lake.

From then on, hockey was “everything.”

“Being able to play on the east side and be around guys like Moose Younghans, Terry Skrypek and Herb Brooks … I was just the luckiest guy in the world. All we did was go to the playground and play hockey or boot hockey all day long. Without that I wouldn’t be where I am today.”

Both Strobel and Rohlik, like just about every Minnesota kid who laces up a pair of skates, wanted to play in the coveted state high school hockey tournament. Both were able to achieve that goal.

“I can remember going to the state tournament since I was three years old and seeing what it was all about,” Rohlik said. “To get that opportunity, for me, was a dream come true.”

From there it was off to Wisconsin where Rohlik’s career took another leap forward. He was the captain of the 1990 team that won it all. His decision to leave the State of Hockey for Wisconsin was a gut decision.

“It felt right to go to Wisconsin and be with the guys I was around,” he said. “And for us to do something special that nobody can take away from us … we will have those memories forever.”

Knowing what it feels like to win a national title, Rohlik wants nothing more than his players to experience what he did.

“To me, there’s nothing better,” he said. “I tell our guys to set their expectations high and to dream for everything. But I also tell them you have to put the work in.”

Rohlik works mainly with the forwards and Strobel the defense. Both work with the power play for an offense that is second in the nation in scoring. Rohlik said his team is a bit “old school” in that they win some high-scoring games, as evidenced by Saturday night’s 8-3 win over the Golden Gophers after a 5-3 loss Friday.

Both recruit players from all over the country. The current roster has several players from Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, upstate New York, Pittsburgh and a couple from Canada. There are four Minnesotans on the roster.

“We scout the hotbeds,” said Strobel.

When asked what type of player he and Rohlik look for, Strobel responded, “We just want good hockey players. We want to tap into Minnesota more. The ones who have come here are like, wow, Ohio State is a hell of a place to play hockey. The facilities are second to none, you get treated like a professional and the academics are second to none. We have a lot to sell. And word is getting out that we like to play a fast-paced open style of hockey. Plus, leaving with a degree from Ohio State University will set you up for life down the road.”

 Rohlik and Strobel share a common vision and a common goal, and that is to compete every day and ultimately play for a national championship. Five years ago, Ohio State hockey wasn’t mentioned in the same breath as the University of Minnesota or the University of North Dakota. 

But having been champions themselves, both Rohlik and Strobel understand what it takes and how difficult it is to win a title.

“It’s very hard,” said Strobel. “I remember chatting with Scott Sandelin after he came to UMD after being at North Dakota. He said it just takes a little more. A little more leadership, a little more unselfishness, a little more goaltending.”

Ranked No. 10 in the nation and one of a handful of teams with just two losses, it appears the coaches have the Buckeyes on the right path.

“The chemistry has to be like a family,” said Strobel. “It has to be a brotherhood and guys have to care about each other so much that they have to be willing to sacrifice themselves for their teammates.”

It’s a concept that was ingrained in both Rohlik and Strobel early on in their hockey careers, but in today’s day and age where many players are more concerned about reaching the next level individually rather than concentrating on winning at the level they are at, it can make a coach’s job difficult. Which is why recruiting is so important.

“It’s hard to preach today because so many kids want to get to that next level as soon as possible and it’s all about them,” said Strobel. “But I think our organization at Ohio State for men’s hockey is ripe to win one, whether it’s a Big Ten title, playoff title or national championship. For me, it comes back to recruiting not the best hockey players, but the right hockey players.”

Both coaches are examples that values learned on the east side playgrounds in the State of Hockey can translate to success anywhere. Two scrappy young hockey players who value the lessons they learned, and are now instilling what matters, both on the ice and off, to the next generation.

“Hockey is a conduit,” said Strobel. “Life is an even bigger, more important game for these young men once they are done with us. We want them to have a no-quit attitude and not have the entitlement attitude. That’s one area I think Steve and I are throwbacks to some of the coaches we had. Realizing you are pretty fortunate to play a game you love. We just want to make sure these kids are saying please and thank you and busting their hump.”