You’ll see a story on the Tiger Den Thursday, but we were short on space. On Wednesday, I had a nice chat with new assistant coach Mike Guentzel about his decision. “I felt like I was being recruited,” said Guentzel, who will be back in Colorado Springs in about two and a half weeks to get ready for the season. You can see more background on him two posts ago.

Here’s what didn’t make the cut:
Q: What’s going to be your role with CC after 14 seasons at Minnesota, in which you primarily focused on developing defensemen?:  “Joe (Bonnett)’s going to continue to work with the defense. He’s done a really good job with it. In going against each other, I’ve done a lot of watching and observing. He’s done a great job there. I’m completely comfortable spending a lot more time with the forwards.”

Q: Does it reinvigorate you a bit?: “I think it does. It provides a continuing challenge for me to try to keep learning things about the game and to try to stay up about things on the game. Working with different positions excites me to continue to learn that aspect of the game.”

Q: What has your family decided to do? (Jake, Guentzel’s 14-year-old, just started school Tuesday and wife, Sally, works in the Twin Cities): “That was one of the things that I had to think through and analyze. I wanted to spend some time with my family and watch all of my kids equally and see their experiences at the collegiate level. But this is what I do for a living. I’m a college coach. I spoke with some of my mentors and they told me this was a good opportunity. After 14 years (at Minnesota) they said I should stay in the game and continue to develop. This allows me to change course and gain a different perspective. It’s such a good opportunity. Scotty gave me the ability and reinvigorated me to get back in and take advantage of this opportunity. I’ll be able to spend time with my kids along the way, but I don’t know how long this coaching thing is going to last. … I’m going to have to analyze what’s best do. I think I’m going to get out there and run with it for a while … and see how it works for the short term. We still have to decide how we’re going to approach it. I’m going to get out there and get going and spend some time learning the CC way. … We’ll figure it out.”

Q: Last month, you expressed a bit of uncertainty about coaching your son’s team. How are you and Gabe, a freshman defenseman, going to proceed from here? “That was probably one of the first calls I made. We drove out together and spent the time together on the way and at the time, it wasn’t even an issue or a potential option. When I got back from meeting with Scotty, he was just about to go on his retreat as part of orientation, so I called him and told him, ‘Here’s what happened with my discussion with coach Owens.’ He’s such an independent thinker and an independent person being 20 years old. He was partly happy for his father getting an opportunity to stay in the college game. But he’s so independent, too. He wants to cut his own path and make sure that this situation, that how he was treated was as a recruited student-athlete who got here on his own doing. … I think he just wants to have a positive experience at CC and be a normal student-athlete. It’s a good situation professionally and it’s a good situation personally. I told him it would have to be me working with him as an adult and treating him as if he’s another player. … He worked extremely hard for this opportunity. I’ve coached with two head coaches who have had sons on the team (Dan Woog played for his father, former Minnesota head coach Doug Woog, and Tony Lucia currently plays for Don Lucia at Minnesota) and I’ve learned a lot about that experience. … I’ll give him support when needed, but for the most part, I’ll just treat him as another player.”

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