Denfeld Alumni Association

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🚨 Duluth Camp Update 🚨

Due to poor air quality in Duluth, we’ve made the decision to reschedule the CJ Ham Football Camp - Duluth to Saturday, August 1, 2026

🗓 New Date: Saturday, August 1st, 2026
⏰ All camp times will remain the same.

The health and safety of all campers, families, volunteers, and staff is our top priority. We appreciate your understanding and flexibility, and we’re looking forward to an awesome day together on August 1 🙌🏾

Congratulations to Junior Vinny Udd, name to the Newstribune all area baseball team.

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James Robert Melander Obituary Jul 3, 2026 - Williams Lobermeier Boettcher Funeral Home & Cremation Services View James Robert Melander's obituary, send flowers, find service dates, and sign the guestbook.

Congratulations Angie Simone named to the 2026 News Tribune All-Area Softball Team. 🇮🇹

Denfeld alum Brett Larson

Brett Larson embraces high expectations with Gophers hockey: ‘It just feels bigger here’
The new men’s hockey coach grew up in blue-collar West Duluth, but he’s excited to lead a blue-blood program.

Gophers men's hockey coach Brett Larson, sitting outside the team’s locker room in 3M Arena at Mariucci, is excited to lead a blue-blood program. (Jeff Wheeler / The Minnesota Star Tribune)
Brett Larson grew up in blue-collar West Duluth, and the proud Denfeld High School product still embraces both the lessons in perseverance he learned through sports and — of course — the Hunters’ hockey rivalry with the Duluth East Greyhounds.

“We hated Duluth East. We called them the cake-eaters,” Larson said with a chuckle, roughly a month after being named the Gophers men’s hockey coach. “It was a fun rivalry.”

Larson’s father, Bob, worked his way up from beat cop to detective to Deputy Chief of Police for Duluth. His mother, Bev, was an elementary school teacher. Their hardworking ways set an example for Brett, a standout defenseman, quarterback and tennis player for Denfeld.

Larson seamlessly made the hockey transition to Minnesota Duluth, where he’d play under Mike Sertich and coach alongside Scott Sandelin at a program known for achieving more with less.

An 11th-round NHL draft pick of the Detroit Red Wings, Larson toiled for 12 minor league teams in North America and Europe and even skated for four years on the pro roller hockey circuit before calling it a career as a player.

Come Oct. 2, when the Gophers open their 2026-27 season at Michigan Tech, Larson will be aiming to inject blue-collar grit into a blue-blood program that’s trying to rebound after a disastrous season. It’s a challenge the 53-year-old relishes.

“It just feels bigger here,” said Larson, hired by Gophers athletic director Mark Coyle on March 23 after spending eight seasons as the coach at St. Cloud State. “It’s the University of Minnesota. It’s the pinnacle of college hockey.”

Learning from some great ones

Bob Motzko put the Gophers men's hockey program back on the map, but he and athletic director Mark Coyle agreed to part ways after this past season. (Aaron Lavinsky / The Minnesota Star Tribune)
The fact that the Gophers last won a national championship in 2003 is one of the reasons Larson now works at 3M Arena at Mariucci. His predecessor, Bob Motzko, put the program back on track with five consecutive NCAA tournament berths and two Frozen Four appearances in eight seasons, but after Minnesota nose-dived to an 11-22-3 record in 2025-26, Coyle and Motzko agreed to part ways.

Coyle sought advice from several prominent college coaches, including Denver’s David Carle, who just won his third NCAA championship in eight seasons with the Pioneers. Carle included Larson on his Team USA coaching staff for two World Junior Championships, handing him the reins of the power play. The U.S. won gold in 2024 and ’25, scoring at a sizzling 36.2% clip on the man advantage during the two tournaments.

“He was the guy I thought of to have on our World Junior staff to be on the forward end of the bench and work on our power play,” Carle said. “I’ve always respected his hockey mind.”

Carle sees Larson as a problem solver and a coach that will keep the opposition on its toes.

“You’re not going to just get exactly what you watch them do on video,” said Carle, whose team was 3-3 against Larson over the past two seasons. “You’re going to have to play a little bit of chess.”

Fun plus hard work

New Gophers men's hockey coach Brett Larson jokes that the Detroit Red Wings “never called again” after drafting him in the 11th round in 1990. (Jeff Wheeler / The Minnesota Star Tribune)
Larson might have a serious façade, but he’s willing to poke fun at himself. He’ll joke that he was a wishbone quarterback in high school “who usually went 1-for-3 for 3 yards,” or that the Red Wings “never called again” after drafting him. A Denfeld hockey state tournament hype video from 1989 shows Larson and teammates playing air guitar to R.E.M.’s “Stand.”

He was introduced to hockey by his father, who played a couple of years for UMD before transferring to Wisconsin-Superior. Growing up, Brett Larson got to know UMD standouts like Brett Hull, Bill Watson and Norm Maciver. In high school, he helped Denfeld reach the state tournament in 1988 and ’89. He credits former Hunters coach Bill Vukonich for giving him knowledge he continues to draw on.

“Just being a great teammate, making sure nobody else outworked us, making sure that the team came first — all those are really important lessons I got out of sports, and especially with coaches like Bill,” Larson said.

From Sertich, Larson said he learned that “the simple things are the important things, and they have to come first.”

Larson got his first taste of coaching as a player/coach with the San Diego Gulls of the West Coast Hockey League from 1999 to 2001. His boss was Steve Martinson, a former St. Cloud State player and longtime minor-league enforcer from Minnetonka. Martinson has the second-most victories in North American pro hockey history, amassing 1,166 victories over 26 seasons in the minors. He remembers Larson as a low-maintenance player who owned up to his mistakes.

“There are some players that you can show them video [of their mistake], and they’ll deny that it’s them on the video,” Martinson said. “With him, he’d just give you a nod, ‘Yeah, that was me.’ … I’m not surprised he’s done so well coaching. He was a coachable player.”

Martinson and Sandelin were teammates in the Montreal Canadiens organization in the late 1980s, and when Sandelin had an opening for an assistant at Minnesota Duluth, Martinson recommended Larson. Sandelin hired Larson in 2008 and in Larson’s third year on staff, Minnesota Duluth won its first national championship.

“He was a really good recruiter,” Sandelin said. “In his first three years here, he really built a good reputation of recruiting and interacting with people.”

Seeking a program to run, Larson left UMD after the Bulldogs’ championship season in 2011 to become the coach and general manager of Sioux City of the USHL. After two years with the Musketeers, he joined Ohio State as coach Steve Rohlik’s top assistant.

“What Steve and I learned and what is benefiting me here is learning how to work at a Big Ten school,” said Larson, who recruited players that helped the Buckeyes make the 2018 Frozen Four. “I’ve been at smaller schools like UMD. You’re in that bigger-school environment, and recruiting is a little bit different.”

Rohlik said one of Larson’s strengths is his ability to build relationships.

“The enthusiasm that he brings — people see that,” Rohlik said. “They see the smile on his face and that he wants to work. People can buy into that.”

Larson returned to UMD in 2015 as Sandelin’s top assistant and helped recruit a blue line that included Dylan Samberg, Mikey Anderson and 2020 Hobey Baker Award winner Scott Perunovich. Those future NHL players were key to the Bulldogs’ back-to-back NCAA titles in 2018 and ’19.

Larson and his wife, Kelly, have two children, Lane and Cala. Brett took the St. Cloud State job before the 2018-19 season and had the Huskies in the NCAA championship game in his third year. He admits leaving St. Cloud State for the Gophers wasn’t easy.

“I love that place,” he said. “I love the people around the program.”

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Juneteenth basketball event at Denfeld.