“As a coach if you ever have an inclination to say I have arrived, it may be time to step away. It is a journey. You don’t ever arrive. You just don’t. It is a journey.”

Sullivan and Ty Hennes, one of Sullivan's longtime assistant coaches, gave a 40-minute presentation Friday morning on Developing Game Sense to kick off another day of learning, networking and engagement.

With so much information and ideas floating throughout the conference, Sullivan said afterwards that even a coach leaving Columbus with only one new idea or lesson learned is a victory.

“One of the most rewarding aspects of that (coaching) journey is the learning process,” Sullivan explained. “What is the next frontier? What is the new move? It might be on the ice tactically. It might be the sports science. It might be all the analytics. It might be in the human performance space. Mental health. Helping players with their states of mind off the ice so they are in the right head space when the puck drops. How they deal with confidence issues. Relationship stuff.

“There are so many things involved in coaching, and that is what makes it, number one, so difficult, but also so rewarding. None of us have it figured out, and those that think they do, they obviously don’t.”

John Tortorella, who ranks second all-time among American-born head coaches in career NHL victories, participated in a Q/A session Friday and echoed Sullivan’s thoughts on learning and development.

“The sporting world, life, it is changing so quickly,” Tortorella said. “If you think you have all the answers, you will go by to the wayside pretty quickly. It is unfair to the people you are coaching because you are not up to speed. I have been doing it forever. I am so fortunate the league that I coach in, the NHL, has allowed me to coach this long in it. I continue to learn.

“A lot of people may think I am stubborn, this and that, but they don’t know where my heart is. I watch other coaches’ interviews. I listen to other players. I think I have improved tremendously in empowering players. It really has opened my eyes into how much I still have to learn as we keep evolving because they see the game so differently. It is pretty cool to listen to players come up with thoughts that I never would have thought of. If you aren’t doing that, you are doing an injustice to yourself, but more importantly, you are with a group of people you are responsible for.”

For youth hockey coaches, that responsibility is essential. Yes, younger coaches may not be competing for Stanley Cup titles or managing players making millions of dollars, but they are developing the next generation of people. That is worth more than any championship.

“Coaches in youth sports, next to a child’s parents, may be some of the most influential figures in their lives,” Sullivan said. “It is a huge responsibility if you think about it. The kids deserve that. It is our responsibility as coaches to make sure we provide the best experience for them.”

It is a message that certainly resonates with Nate Schmidt.

Schmidt coaches for the Mt. Lebanon Hornets in Pennsylvania and is a lifelong Penguins fan.

To learn from Sullivan, as well as Dan Muse, the Penguins new head coach, is something Schmidt is not taking for granted. Muse led a presentation entitled: Key Elements for Creating Space and Taking It Away.  

“It is awesome,” Schmidt said. “The fact that we are learning from NHL coaches, and to be able to take the ideas that they're using at the NHL level and be able to implement them into the teams I coach is awesome."

The work is not done either Schmidt added, as he is ready to keep consuming everything else the Level 5 Coaches Symposium has to offer the rest of the weekend.

"There is not one specific thing that I want to learn," Schmidt concluded. "I just want to be able to take it all back to all my coaches and get them thinking outside the box.

“We need to be lifelong learners.”