In Minnesota, hockey can be social currency. However, access to the sport can vary wildly by neighborhood.

DinoMights, a nonprofit in the Twin Cities, has spent the past 30 years bringing hockey to “diverse youth possessing significant unmet needs.”

Using a holistic approach to youth development through hockey, the program has helped bring hockey to the Powderhorn, Central and Phillips neighborhoods of Minneapolis as well as West Side St Paul. 

Founded in 1995, the group provides not just ice time and coaches, but also equipment and transportation to and from the rink for their players. And the teaching does not stop with hockey. 

DinoMights also provides academic tutoring, mentoring, activities, camps, community service opportunities, internships and more to create a whole-life impact for diverse youth in the Twin Cities.

“Given the limited access to hockey in communities we serve, we’re kind of bridging that gap, and we’re opening the doors for kids who are underserved or ignored when it comes to hockey and we’re bringing them to the table,” said Josh Huisken, marketing and communication program coordinator for DinoMights. “We’re empowering them and showing them that they can compete. They belong playing hockey. It shouldn’t be limited to people with a higher socioeconomic status or what you look like. Hockey is for everyone, and these kids can compete.”

From youth teams to summer skills camps on and off the ice, DinoMights provides a full hockey experience. There are also opportunities for scholarships to more intensive camps held in the area for advanced players. 

DinoMights provides support for players of all ages and abilities, from casual 8U* players up to those who might be hoping to use hockey as a vehicle to go to college. 

While hockey is the thing that ties the group together, Huisken said it’s also maybe the least important part of what DinoMights does. 

“What really matters is what these kids do off ice and being able to support and provide mentorship for whatever they want to become in life,” he said. “Being a part of their goals and helping them reach new heights, it’s an incredible experience. Although hockey is such a big part of the operation, what matters most is what these kids do off the ice, and those are the results that stick with me.”

The successes of the kids who go through DinoMights are so important to Huisken and his co-workers because for many of them, the stories of their current participants echo their own. More than half the group’s full-time staff are alumni of the DinoMights program, having started skating and playing hockey before getting involved through volunteering and internships. They are not just facilitators for what DinoMights is trying to do in the Twin Cities, they are proof of its success. 

Lyna Saengsourichanh and her little brother Lackee both grew up playing hockey thanks to DinoMights. Lyna said their parents immigrated to the area from Laos in the 1990s and when she came home from school wanting to play hockey because all her friends did, her parents were very unfamiliar with the sport. DinoMights gave both Saengsourichanhs the opportunity to learn the game but also become a part of a community.

Now Lyna is a DinoMights program coordinator in Minneapolis while Lackee holds the same role with the St. Paul program. 

“I loved building that camaraderie with my team and the community and everything we did in DinoMights,” Lyna Saengsourichanh said. “It wasn’t just hockey. They also helped me with homework. They helped me get a job in high school. They helped me get an internship with the Wild. I’ve just grown as a person with so many leadership skills and communication skills because of DinoMights. It’s really cool to serve the community that served me when I was little.”

Huisken also grew up in the program. He said he can’t imagine he’d ever have learned to play hockey or gotten involved in the sport had it not been for DinoMights. 

He fell in love with the team dynamic and collaborative aspects of the game and went on to play club hockey at the University of Minnesota. He loves getting to use the sport that DinoMights taught him as a vehicle to connect with underserved youth. 

“Hockey is so important when it comes to interacting with your teammates and your coaches. It’s an amazing sport to go through all that with your teammates and to push each other to be pushed,” he said. “It’s truly a team sport. So many life lessons are passed along to you throughout playing sport, even off the ice. It prepares you for life.”

Whether it’s skating at the Minnesota Wild’s practice facility or participating in a camping trip to the Boundary Waters, getting college grants or, like Huisken’s most recent intern, getting accepted to Notre Dame, DinoMights is giving their participants opportunities they might not have otherwise had and using hockey to build community and teach life skills. 

Lyna Saengsourichanh loves that the program can be something different for every participant. There are options for more serious players, though she admits the Mites team she coaches is far from the best team on the ice. But they have fun and love to play. And Saengsourichanh knows that even when the focus is on fun, the players are getting so many benefits from being a part of a DinoMights team. 

“They get to see other people, other kids who look like them playing hockey and I think that builds so much confidence,” she said. “DinoMights is that place for them to feel safe and confident and comfortable in their own skin and with each other. DinoMights isn’t just a hockey team, we’re a community. We’re a family.”

Story from Red Line Editorial, Inc.