Mike Koster doesn’t frequent Bemidji often.
The Gophers’ fifth-year defenseman and captain made his hockey hay in the Metro area. He rose through the Chaska youth ranks before playing with the Tri-City Storm in the USHL. Koster stayed close to home in college, signing his National Letter of Intent to play for Minnesota.
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Along the way, Koster formed a bond with Bemidji State captain Jackson Jutting. It started in youth hockey, and it’s strengthened into adulthood.
So when Jutting pitched the idea of bringing their hockey camp to Northern Minnesota last April, Koster’s interest piqued.
“I was pumped to get up to Bemidji,” Koster said. “I actually stayed at Jutts’ house all weekend. We went out golfing, went out to dinner. I got to spend time with all of the guys Jutts lives with, and they’re all great dudes.”
Jutting and Koster have shared the ice in more ways than one. They’ve been teammates, opponents and coaches.
In the offseason, they host the Jutting Koster Hockey Camp in different locations around Minnesota. Their development sessions come with the emphasis of being for players, by players. The camp made its first stop at the Bemidji Community Arena last spring.
But when college hockey season rolls around, Jutting and Koster table their coaching whistles and morph back into competitors. And this weekend, they’ll play against each other for the first time since high school.
Bemidji State is gearing up for a weekend against No. 3 Minnesota. It’s the first time the two teams will play in a non-exhibition setting since Dec. 28, 2019. The Gophers host the Beavers at 7 p.m. on Thursday before the sites flip on Saturday.
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“I’m excited for this weekend against the Beavs,” Koster said. “They’re a tough team to play against, and we have to be ready. They’re heavy, and they defend really well as a team, too. They make you work to get out of your own end. We’re going to have to be ready to go.”
For Jutting and Koster, however, this weekend is rooted deeper than the typical Minnesota in-state nonconference series.
Talented beginnings
Jutting and Koster didn’t grow up in the same school districts. They never played high school hockey on the same team.
Instead, their friendship kindled playing AAA hockey for the Minnesota Blades. It’s an offseason program designed for top-end players at their respective youth levels.
“It starts with that Blades team we were on,” Jutting said. “There’s a lot of guys playing Division I college hockey on that team, and we were really close. We were on that team for six, seven years with the same coaching staff every year. Those guys really gelled together and pushed each other to become better people and better hockey players. Out of that core group, a lot of us are still close friends today.”
By the time they reached high school, their opportunities to play on the same team were limited.
Koster, who moved from Marshall to Chaska at a young age, held down the blue line for the Hawks for four years. Jutting, a Savage native, also started playing varsity hockey as a freshman for Prior Lake.
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Their first head-to-head meeting happened sophomore year in the Section 2AA Tournament, with Prior Lake squeaking out a 2-1 win in the quarterfinals. Jutting took home another victory over Koster during his junior season as the Lakers beat the Hawks 2-1 in the Prior Lake Invitational.
Senior year, though, Koster finally caught a win. Chaska beat Prior Lake 8-0 in the same tournament.
“My first two years – my freshman and sophomore year – we were really good, and they weren’t very good,” Jutting said. “We beat up on them pretty good. He kind of flipped the script in my senior year. They started to get a little bit better, and we didn’t have as good of games against them. There’s definitely bragging rights on the line this weekend.”
Their postsecondary paths split them up even further. While Koster played for Tri-City, Jutting found his lane in Cedar Rapids with the RoughRiders in the USHL.
The distance between them grew larger when they went to college. Koster returned home to play for the U of M, while Jutting headed west to play for Colorado College. That lasted two seasons before Jutting came back to the state of hockey. He transferred to Bemidji State ahead of his junior year.
Camp counselors
Despite the miles between Koster and Jutting, the two remained connected. In 2021, they turned their friendship into a business venture.
“I think we were hanging out at Jutts’ house in the hot tub when we were like, ‘We could start our own camp,’” Koster said. “It got rolling from there. We figured out how to start it and how to do the legal stuff. Once we got through all of that, it was pretty easy, actually.”
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The birth of Jutting Koster Hockey Camp followed years of instructional experience. Both of them were asked by Dave Snuggerud, father of Gophers’ star forward Jimmy Snuggerud, to coach for Breakaway Academy in Chaska during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Eventually, we were running our own practices for him,” Koster said. “It was kind of a good way to make some money during Covid.”
Once they figured out they were good enough to run their own camp, the ball got rolling.
“We started setting up in Prior Lake, and the rink manager has been great to us,” Koster continued. “Eventually, we got a website out there and started to market it to people. We didn’t really know what was a big or a small camp. We were just looking to get our feet wet and provide some good development.”
The mark of a successful hockey camp is tied to its intentions.
“We wanted people to take us seriously as coaches, not guys who were still play hockey trying to make a quick buck,” Koster said. “We pride ourselves on actually developing young players, and we can personalize stuff with them. We were those kids once. We attended camps, looked for the right people to train us for our development.”
JKH eventually expanded beyond the Dakotah! Sport and Fitness Center in Prior Lake. It’s done two stints in Marshall, then it came to Bemidji.
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Included in each camp is on and off-ice training, along with classroom sessions with guest speakers. Jutting and Koster have used their hockey connections to bring in current and former NHL players to speak with youth athletes, including the Minnesota Wild’s Brock Faber and 14-year pro Paul Martin – both former Gophers.
“You hear it all the time as a kid – and when you get older, you hear it less and less – but it’s just about having fun playing hockey,” Jutting said. “I think that’s the big development opportunity for kids: if they’re having fun, they’re going to keep coming back. … Making it an enjoyable experience for the kids where they can see the personalities of college hockey players and pro players we bring in is huge.”
Rinks to links
Jutting and Koster spend their fair share of time together away from the rink as well.
Five years ago, Jutting and his dad, Tyson, started taking father-son gold trips. They decided to add more dads and sons from the Minnesota Blades teams.
Koster got the invite, as did Minnesota’s Mason Nevers, Union’s Ethan Benz and Colgate’s Tommy Bergsland.
The group has taken weekend trips once in each of the last three summers, with the latest in the Brainerd lakes area.
“It’s been the same group of guys since then,” Jutting said. “We’re a close group. We play pickleball all the time in the summer, we train together, golf. We’re a tight-knit group.”
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Of course, the matches are always competitive.
“This past summer I got him,” Jutting said of Koster. “His handicap might be a little lower, and he might be pissed that I’m saying this, but 90% of the time I beat him right now. He’s been better than me the past couple of years, but I think I got him more this past summer.”
“His biggest problem has been his driver,” Koster said of Jutting. “He had a huge slice the last few years, and he figured it out this summer. His iron game is unbelievable, and his wedge game is probably one of the best I’ve seen. Usually, I’m out-driving him because he hits a spinny one off the tee. But he gave me his slice this summer and I gave him my straight ball.”
When the competitive juices settle, however, Jutting and Koster turn into fans of each other.
“It’s pretty easy to see why he’s their captain,” Koster said. “The way he leads people, he’s one of the hardest-working guys I’ve ever seen. I’ve seen it first-hand. … He understands what it takes to win, how hard it is to win. His leadership through his actions and his words is where it shows.”
“He’s a great kid, his character is off the charts,” Jutting said. “He’s a really fun guy to be around. He leads by example, knows what to say. I’ve seen him around those guys in the summer during summer skates and stuff, he’s the consummate captain and the guy you want leading your team. He’s got a lot of those intangibles that make him a good captain.”
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