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MENOMONIE (February 16, 2018) - Certain hockey fans at University of Wisconsin-Stout — and other sites around the U.S. — can be excused if they end up secretly cheering on an international team, Sweden, in the men's tournament at the Winter Olympics.
Rik Gronborg coaches the Sweden Olympic team.
Sweden's coach, native Rikard Gronborg, also is a U.S. citizen — he played, started his coaching career and lived in the U.S. for about 20 years. Along the way, he graduated from UW-Stout with a master's degree and served as an assistant coach for the Blue Devils' hockey team from 1996 to 1998.
If it weren't for people like UW-Stout Coach
Terry Watkins and one of Gronborg's cousins, Al May, a UW-Stout alumnus living in Menomonie, Gronborg might not be where he is today — at the pinnacle of the hockey coaching profession in a country and on a continent that's crazy about its hockey.
"He's the top dog in all of Sweden," Watkins said.
Watkins' and May's friendship with Gronborg goes back to the day he arrived in Minneapolis as a 20-year-old in 1988 looking for a place to play college hockey. They will be watching with more than a casual interest when Sweden — one of the medal favorites — takes to the ice during the Winter Olympics in South Korea.
"It is a neat story — we got him a scholarship, got him a job. He never spun his wheels, never went backwards. He's been very successful," Watkins said.
Gronborg, 49, was an assistant coach for Sweden's 2010 and 2014 Olympic teams but has moved up. He coached Sweden to the International Ice Hockey Federation world title in Paris in 2017. He reportedly is high on the list of several NHL teams as a possible head coach.
U.S. career started in Menomonie
Gronborg didn't play in the NHL, but that's where his UW-Stout and Midwest story begins.
After a tryout in summer 1988 with the Montreal Canadiens of the NHL, he was assigned to one of their minor league teams. Gronborg's father said no to that, and he told Rikard to either play college hockey in the U.S. or come home, according to Watkins.
Gronborg called May, a cousin in Menomonie with whom he was familiar but had never met. He told May he was flying into the airport in Minneapolis and hoping to play college hockey somewhere.
"I said, 'How will I know you,'" May recalls. "Rikard said, 'I'll be carrying a hockey stick.' Except he wasn't, but he had a girl on each arm."
May, assistant superintendent of Menomonie schools, and Watkins took Gronborg under their wing. He stayed at the rural Menomonie home of Al May and his wife, Joan. Al took Gronborg to tryouts at the University of Wisconsin, University of Minnesota and UM-Duluth. Watkins knew hockey coaches from around the Upper Midwest.
The college teams were impressed with Gronborg's skills but didn't have scholarships available. St. Cloud State did have one available, however, for 1989. "He was about 6-foot-2, 215 pounds and an exceptional skater," Watkins said.
Assistant coach at UW-Stout
After playing as a defenseman at Division I St. Cloud State from 1989 to 1992 and then serving as an assistant coach, Gronborg wanted to continue coaching and go to graduate school. He called Watkins, wondering if he knew of any college that needed an assistant coach.
Rik Gronborg in 1997
"I said, 'Yes. We do,'" Watkins recalled. UW-Stout's men's hockey team was re-starting in 1996 as a school sport after a period as a club sport.
Gronborg served under Watkins with the Division III Blue Devils for two seasons and helped coach women's soccer. In the meantime, he earned a Master of Science degree in management technology from UW-Stout's Graduate School, receiving the Chancellor's Award for academic achievement. He finished most of his coursework by 1998 and received the degree in 2001.
"He was an absolute student of the game. I didn't teach him a thing," Watkins said. "Rikard was bright, driven and loved the game. He had laid out a path and knew what he wanted to do."
With Gronborg using his connections and acting as tour guide, the Blue Devils went to Sweden over the holiday break in December 1997 to play a series of exhibition games. Three Blue Devil players that year were from Sweden, including one from Gronborg's hometown.
In 1998, Watkins helped Gronborg get his first head coaching job, with the Great Falls (Mont.) Americans in the North American Hockey League, from 1998 to 2001.
Gronborg then coached lower-level professional teams in Texas and the state of Washington, and he scouted for the Swedish hockey federation for several years.
In 2009, he was hired by the federation and returned to live in Sweden for the first time since his college days, assisting with and coaching various teams. In 2015, he was named head coach of Tre Kronor, the Swedish team. He coached Sweden in the 2016 World Cup, 2017 IIHF world event and now the Olympic team.
"He moved up the ranks very quickly," said Watkins, who visited Gronborg in St. Paul in 2017 when Gronborg was recruiting Swedish players for the IIHF world event.
Watkins received an email from Gronborg when he arrived in South Korea for the Winter Olympics, saying he was looking forward to the games and that they would be "interesting" because they won't include NHL players for the first time since 1994. Sweden has a 17-year-old on its roster who is considered a top NHL prospect.
Menomonie-Sweden connection
Al and Joan May's connection with Gronborg didn't end with the surprise visit by Rikard in 1988. Al's mother emigrated to the U.S. from Sweden in 1929, and he has visited the Gronborgs and other family there, and vice versa, many times and kept up with Rikard and his career...More...
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