Woodbeck earns ‘unbelievable honor’ with USA Hockey
MINOT, N.D. – Eric Woodbeck ’07 has been coaching for nearly 30 years, but his experience coaching sled hockey has been relatively short.
Nonetheless, he has quickly moved up the ranks to earn a spot in a pinnacle position in the sport.
Woodbeck, a 10-year adjunct professor in math at Minot State and teacher in the Minot Public School system, was named as the goalie coach for USA Hockey’s National Sled team late in 2024. He started his stint with USA Hockey fast, coaching the team to a pair of wins over Team Canada at the 2025 Reeve Hockey Classic in Saugus, Massachusetts.
Since then, the USA Hockey’s National Sled team has been as good as it gets, winning the 2025 World Para Ice Hockey Championships in Buffalo, New York in early June.
“The Monday before Thanksgiving, I received a call from my boss at USA Hockey, Steve Thompson, and he notified me that I was going to be asked to become the goalie coach for the National Sled Team,” Woodbeck said. “The emotions that I felt when he was telling me this were unbelievable. It is an honor to represent your country on a national level, and to do it with this group of Paralympians is truly an experience that I will embrace and cherish for the rest of my life.”
The Reeve Hockey Classic, spearheaded by the NHL in cooperation with USA Hockey and Hockey Canada, supports the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation and was part of the festivities surrounding the 4 Nations Face-Off in February in Montreal and Boston.
“As my first international event for USA Hockey, being a part of that event and this team is very humbling and a huge honor,” Woodbeck added.
The appointment from USA Hockey joined Woodbeck with some familiar faces, head coach David Hoff ’90 and Corey Gorder ’01, both from Bottineau. The trio has extensive experience coaching in high school and youth-level hockey in the region through the Northern Plains Development Camps (NPDC) — and all have ties to MSU — as Woodbeck earned a master’s degree at Minot State, with Hoff and Gorder earning their bachelor’s.
“I have known and worked with coach Hoff and coach Gorder for a while now,” Woodbeck said. “Coach Hoff and I would coach against each other during the high school season, and it was coach Hoff that gave me an opportunity to get involved with our Northern Plains District. He is our Coach in Chief for the Northern Plains District, and he and I have worked together producing coaching clinics for several years, especially pre-COVID, when all the clinics were done in person. I have the utmost respect for coach Hoff, and getting to work with him on this level is a whole new experience.
“Corey and I used to work at the Northern Plains camps together, and so we have been friends/colleagues for quite a while. Both coach Hoff and coach Gorder, as well as the rest of the staff, have welcomed me and made me feel like a valued member of the team.”
After coaching football for 20 years, starting with Grand Forks Central’s football program in 1997, 11 years in Glenburn, and four years at Jim Hill Middle School in Minot, Woodbeck moved to hockey. He was hired as an assistant coach and goalie coach at Minot High School in 2011 and continues to work with the team’s JV and goalies. He began with NPDC in 2016.
It was during his time with NPDC that he started working with USA Hockey, holding multiple positions as part of the Northern Plains District, including North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, and Wyoming.
“USA Hockey was starting a new goaltending initiative, called 51in30, to try to get more American goalies playing at the highest levels,” Woodbeck said. “They wanted to have at least one goaltending development coordinator in each of its 34 affiliates. I ran coaching clinics, goalie development camps, and any ways to grow the game of hockey, specifically for goaltending.
“Currently, I am one of the lead instructors for USA Hockey for their goaltending courses (Bronze, Silver, and Gold), oversee the North Dakota High Performance Camp for goaltending, and oversee the Northern Plains District Camp for goaltending.”
His first experience working with sled goalies was in 2018 when the national team came to Minot for a training camp weekend.
“Coach Hoff invited me out to be with them and learn more about sled hockey. I was able to be on the ice with their staff and goalies (at the time it was US Hockey Hall of Famer Steve Cash and Jen Lee, currently still on the team),” Woodbeck said. “It was an experience that I would never forget, and I loved being on the ice with them. In 2024, after I was invited to work at the national sled development camp, I became a sponge and tried to find whatever I could about coaching sled goalies.”
While his current role is part of the national team and his NPDC role is regional, he continues to give back to the greater Minot community, coaching his son Henry’s Bantam Minot Wolves and Team ND 14U Tier II teams, and working with Prairie Grit.
“Coach Hoff, coach Gorder, myself, and a few of the players from the national team ran a local sled camp in Minot this past fall for Prairie Grit and anyone else in the area that could attend,” he added.
While his frantic schedule can be overwhelming, he credits his wife, Amy ’06 — MSU’s professional and community education coordinator — and lessons in time management for finding time to coach and to be a husband, father (they have four children, Bailey, Andrew, Adam, and Henry), and grandfather (Mason and Elijah).
“As far as finding the time for all this, it is a lesson in time management for sure and a very good partner at home,” he said. “I owe a lot of gratitude and thanks to my wife, Amy.”
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Published: 07/03/25
