Cloquet's Michaud moves off ice as coach, manager

The road from Cloquet youth player to Division I college hockey, professional hockey, and now coaching, has been a fun one for former Lumberjack hockey player Westin Michaud. Last week it was announced that Michaud was named head coach and general manager of the Ice Bats, an Austin, Texas, team in the North American Tier III Hockey League.

"After I decided to hang up the skates, I was contacted by seven or eight different junior teams," Michaud said. "I was offered a bunch of assistant jobs, but this is a great opportunity to be both the head coach and the GM."

He graduated from Cloquet High School in 2014.

Michaud, who played college hockey at both Colorado College and the University of North Dakota, recently completed his doctorate at UND in educational leadership and practice.

"I got the doctorate while playing professionally in Europe," Michaud said.

Michaud will take over a team that managed just three wins all of last season.

"I hope to be an inspirational leader and to focus on each individual and their goals as well as the goals of the team," said Michaud. "I am fact-centric and what matters is trying to put the jigsaw puzzle together with helping each player hit their goals. It needs to be an 'us versus them' mentality."

Michaud plans to start out by setting micro goals for each player that will ultimately help them reach their macro goals. He also admits that because he is still young, he doesn't know everything.

"I have a lot to learn, and if I don't know the answer to something I will seek out the people who do have the answer," he said. "There is a lot of work to do before we hit the ice - things like finding assistant coaches, finding billet families, getting sponsors, building a team brand and also holding tryouts and actually physically building the team."

Michaud finished his playing career while playing for the Nottingham Panthers in the Elite Ice Hockey League in the United Kingdom. He was a teammate of Hibbing's Adam Johnson, who died during a game last fall after receiving a cut in the neck from a skate.

Michaud also played professionally in the U.S., Canada, Slovakia and Denmark.

"I lived my dream of playing pro hockey, and now I am setting new goals," Michaud said. "As a kid I had to overcome a lot of obstacles, and now I hope to use what I learned to help younger players."

Michaud will hit the ice with his new team Sept. 1. He is excited about the future.

"We hope to see a complete culture change," said Michaud. "I will expect players to bring their passion every day, their humility every day, and a grinding work ethic every day to the ice. As a coach, that is all you can ask."

That blue collar work ethic is something Michaud said he learned as a youth player in Cloquet, and he hopes to share those traits with his new team.