Whitney humbled to be inducted in Hockey Coaches Association Hall of Fame
Oct. 10—ROCHESTER — After a lifetime of being involved in hockey, mostly in the Rochester area, Jeff Whitney was honored for his achievements on Saturday night.
Whitney was among the class of 2022 that was inducted into the Minnesota Hockey Coaches Association Hall of Fame.
"Very humbling honestly, and obviously truly honored to be recognized in a sport that I've been involved in since I was a kid," Whitney said. "It's a pretty cool honor."
Making the award a bit more special was Whitney's deep roots and ties with Mayo High School hockey. He played for the Spartans in high school, was an assistant and co-head coach with legendary coach Lorne Grosso and has also done administrative work with the program as the current activities director.
"I've been blessed to be mentored by many great athletic administrators and coaches," Whitney said. "I was really fortunate in my hockey career to be coached by unbelievable individuals. Obviously it made an impact on me and allowed me to continue my career. I'm in education because of hockey."
The 61-year-old Whitney is a 1980 Mayo High School grad. He played hockey and baseball for the Spartans and also played football through his junior year. He went on to play college hockey at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls from 1980 to 1983, helping the team win an NAIA national championship in 1983. That championship team is a member of the UW-River Falls Hall of Fame.
At Mayo, he played for and coached with Grosso, who coached the Spartans for 50 years. Whitney also worked under former Rochester activities director Gary Addington. He played for George Gwozdecky at River Falls. Gwozdecky later won two NCAA national titles as the head coach at the University of Denver and was then an assistant coach in the NHL.
Whitney first started as an assistant coach at Mayo in 1987 and was with the program until 2004. He was the Mayo A.D. part of that time as well, but when Addington retired the athletic programs in Rochester were restructured. Whitney was no longer allowed to be a paid coach, but he stayed on as a volunteer coach until 2014 due to his passion for the sport.
Along the way he got a chance to coach both of his sons and also started coaching at the youth level. Whitney always seemed to have his hand in every piece of the hockey pie in Rochester. As an administrator, he has been the Section 1A and 1AA tournament manager for the past 16 years. He was the All-Star Great 8 manager for a number of years and was the general manager of Select-16 and -17 teams.
"I was involved in every hockey operation going on all over town," Whitney said. "It's a full circle award with the amount of time I've spent here at Mayo High School."
While he was aiding Grosso at Mayo, the Spartans were very successful. Whitney was Mayo's assistant coach from 1987-1999 and then the co-head coach with Grosso from 1999-2004. From 1992 to 2000, Mayo went to the state tournament six times in nine years. The Spartans were Big Nine Conference champs for more than 10 straight years.
"We had a good run," Whitney said. "It was good hockey for a while."
Whitney and three others were enshrined during a ceremony in St. Paul on Saturday night. As part of the ceremony, the class of 2022 were guests of the Minnesota Wild during their last preseason game of the season. The Hall of Fame members were also introduced on the ice between the first and second periods of the game against the Dallas Stars.
"Pretty fun and cool," Whitney said. "It was a surprise."
