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Ben Tronnes, Steve Thompson Joining USA Hockey Staff

By USA Hockey, 05/30/19, 1:15PM MDT

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COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - USA Hockey announced today the hiring of Ben Tronnes (Mitchell, S.D.) as associate counsel and Steve Thompson (Anchorage, Alaska) as American Development Model manager of goaltending.

ABOUT TRONNES

Tronnes joins USA Hockey working in its legal department after spending the past five years practicing as a broad civil litigation attorney at Bangs McCullen Law Firm where he handled complex professional malpractice defense, business and contract law. He also previously served as a law clerk in the Third Judicial Circuit of South Dakota in 2013-14.

A Level 4 certified coach, he has a long history of involvement with USA Hockey, having served in coaching and team leader roles, and also on the administrative side as vice president of the South Dakota Amateur Hockey Association (2011-2012) and as director of USA Hockey's Northern Plains Player Development Program (2013-14). 

The South Dakota native has also been widely involved with high school hockey, including serving as head boys high school hockey coach at Mitchell (S.D.) for five seasons (2003-08) and in the same position for two seasons (2008-10) at Aberdeen (S.D.) High School. He also spent one year (2016-17) as head girls high school hockey coach at Rapid City (S.D.) High School.

A veteran of the United States Army, Tronnes earned a bachelor of arts degree in English from Northern State University in 2010 and juris doctorate from the University of South Dakota School of Law in 2013. 

ABOUT THOMPSON

A member of the USA Hockey goaltender coaching community since 2014, Thompson joins USA Hockey full-time as its ADM manager of goaltending where he will be responsible for the development and management of the American goaltending program, including player development, coach development, parent education and more.

Thompson made his international coaching debut this past season as a member of the U.S. Women's National Team staff that helped lead Team USA to the gold medal at the 2019 International Ice Hockey Federation Women's World Championship and also to the 2018 Four Nations Cup championship. A goaltending coach and evaluator at USA Hockey district and select camps since 2014, Thompson has also spent the last three seasons representing USA Hockey's Pacific District as its associate coach-in-chief of goaltending.

Thompson's coaching career started at the University of Alaska Anchorage, where he served two seasons as the program's goaltending coach, strength and conditioning coach and director of hockey operations. He joined the staff after skating four seasons (2009-13) with the University of Alaska Fairbanks, where he was named the university's scholar athlete of the year his senior season. Prior to Fairbanks, he skated two seasons (2007-09) with the Sioux City Musketeers of the USHL, the only Tier I junior hockey league in the United States.


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