If you spend more than a few seconds talking to Heather Weems you’ll quickly notice her enthusiasm for hockey.

The NCHC’s first-year commissioner has a lengthy history with NCHC schools, starting at Denver and continuing through her decade as Director of Athletics at St. Cloud State. In addition, she was the Chair of the NCHC Athletic Council in 2021-22.

Heather, a mother to four hockey-playing sons, took time recently to talk with Magness Mayhem creator Chris Bayee about her love of the game, her background at Denver, the strength of the NCHC, and the ever-changing college hockey landscape, among other things.

When did the hockey bug bite?

I spent the first 10 years of my career at Denver. It’s got a special place in my heart.

I grew up in Iowa, and other than the junior leagues, there wasn’t much of a presence when I was growing up. I joke that when I was in high school probably my junior or senior year I went to the old barn in Urbandale (Iowa), and I went to an open skate there. After that there was a whole team of guys that came onto the ice, and I couldn’t figure who they were because they weren’t representing a high school, weren’t representing a college. In hindsight they were the (United States Hockey League’s) Buccaneers. It never really registered with me because I didn’t know anything about the USHL in the early 90s.

I did my undergraduate at the University of Iowa and was a rower there. I was involved in athletics, but hockey at that point wasn’t big. They had the club team at Iowa, which has grown, but it didn’t have a big presence. I went out to the University of Denver for grad school, and it was during that time when I interviewed for my grad assistantship. it was the weekend they imploded the old arena and started on Magness. I didn’t actually see the old one. I did an internship during my second year of grad school with the athletics department and it was during that time I began to get a better feel for that. I started my career there. I worked for 10 years at the University of Denver, and it was while they were transitioning from Division II to Division I across all sports. Hockey and gymnastics were D-I already. I oversaw the development of the athlete sports services program.

My office was just down the hall from George Gwozdecky at the time so I got to see a lot of him. George is what I would call my mentor in the world of hockey. I worked closely with him, Steve Miller and their team, got to know a lot of those guys, traveled with them some. That’s really where it started. Ron Graham was there at the time. He had a huge background in hockey. … That was when I got familiar with the sport and its culture, during the old WCHA days. Now 20 some years later to see how it’s changed and where it’s going is really cool.

George was such a first-class guy, such an open book in terms of how it works.

What DU has accomplished on the ice is impressive. It’s also in a unique position in that it’s the biggest city in the conference. How has DU been able to stay so successful in a saturated sports market?

I will always start with any successful team starts with a successful head coach. You can’t start any place else. You have to have a coach who is a visionary, who understand what their goals are, has their finger on the pulse of recruiting. So it’s the head coach and the team around them. If you go back, I speak very highly of not only coach Gwozdecky, but Jim Montgomery, David Carle. That’s a really good group of head coaches. They surround themselves with sharp assistants so they’re always on top of talent.

When I look at the University of Denver since I’ve been there, and even before that, Daniel Ritchie’s vision for the university when he was chancellor and how that sent the campus as a whole in a different direction. When he took over in 1989, he understood the market and how attractive it is as a city. If you look at the growth of the campus and the continual building and refurbishing of the buildings and programs, it’s just a really attractive campus and a really attractive university.

With the ability for players to come in and certainly have a great hockey career, even though as one of the coaches used to say, “Every athlete has some athletic mortality,” at some point your career comes to an end. The university gives them such a great leaping off point, and it’s so networked I think it’s attractive as parents and students come look at what’s available. At some point you have to keep up, whether it’s renovations or new facilities. Look at when they redid the locker room. It’s showing you’re always relevant with recruits.

You mentioned being in a major market. That’s where the benefit is in Minnesota as well. If you’re at St. Cloud, if you’re at Duluth you may end up in Minneapolis, but you’re still just a stone’s throw from your alma mater. Because there are so many jobs and opportunities available, people will go back to where they’re comfortable. Denver can be that place.

For Denver, it’s the strength of the coaching staffs they’ve had, the strength of the department, and then continually being relevant in the conversation.

It seems like you can’t hold a Frozen Four now without at least one NCHC team (at least one team every year since the league’s beginning, five titles since 2016, including DU’s in 2017 and 2022), so we know the on-ice product is really strong. How is the overall health of the conference in the big picture?

Overwhelmingly we are in great shape. We have had incredible stability. I go back to the inception of the conference. This year we celebrate our 10^th anniversary. When the schools involved went into forming the NCHC, and there’s certainly enough negative stories floating around, they knew what they wanted. They wanted like-minded institutions that were committed to hockey as kind of a flagship sport. The recognition and the commitment to hockey by each member of the conferences has made it so that every year teams are competitive. It’s not simply about doing well and having success at hockey. The excitement and the rallying of your alumni base is built a lot around hockey, so there are higher expectations. Again it’s creating that relevance. When you have that as your initial goal. Then it means you have a lot of schools who are highly invested in it.

I can’t go on without talking about Josh Fenton and his leadership within the conference and financial management and willing to be innovative. NCHC.tv came out of some his oversight of the conference and understanding we are the only conference that really brands itself individually through NCHC.tv. Some people say, “Why don’t you go with ESPN or that sort of thing?” I know that when we were looking at it, it was because we can make a platform that provides all of the information and continues to brand the league in a one-stop shop so to speak. With other conferences, ESPN certainly provides a platform for television or web streaming but they don’t necessarily provide all the content. So if you look at what Michael Weisman has done with our content, everything from the game shows to just the continual story lines that are coming up, there are a ton of creative content videos coming up that are continually pushing the edge a bit because we’re branding and giving reverence to our institutions and telling their story as well.

During Covid, when lots of places were figuring where they were going to go next and what games they were going to play, the Pod (at Omaha) was a really innovative option at that time. I think if you look back at that time in December when we were playing in the Pod in December, I think we were some of the only college or pro games being played because we had come up with a design (that could work.) A lot of credit to Josh Fenton and Nebraska Omaha. Their setup for medical treatment and facilities made that happen. They had people behind the scenes helping with that concept. It enabled us to come forward and get all of our games in where people could see sports when there was such a demand for it because we had been quiet for a fall until that time.

All of that has driven the fact we have a healthy reserve structure. We’re thoughtful about how we spend. The Frozen Face-off and that mode of having a destination tournament has worked for us. Before the revenue generated through first-round tournament play and the Frozen Face-off it means we have the ability to create the best environment for college hockey.

Has there been thought given to a holiday tournament using the Frozen Face-off model of hosting at a destination (say Denver)? Maybe conference games are in the mix. Perhaps that gives teams an extra break during the season.

Historically there used to be a lot more of those holiday tournaments, and I haven’t really looked into why they declined. I think the demands of all sports continue to increase. It’s how you staff and manage some of these additional events. I’ll be the first to say a lot of athletic staff members are tired. They work lots of nights and weekends. When you’re balancing multiple sports, it’s having the capacity and bandwidth to pull some things off.

College sports and college hockey have become sort of a wild frontier. There is a lot of movement of players, and in hockey we’ve seen new programs coming on the scene. Where do you see things going with college hockey, and how could these changes affect the NCHC?

I think that’s what we’re all trying to do, look at our crystal balls. We’re not getting any answers right now. Part of it is the NCAA is in a bit of flux and the transformation committee, and that’s being driven by FBS football at that highest level. It’s trying to keep your finger on the pulse and where it’s going, and the impact it will have that will trickle down while making continually making sure we’re looking out for the best interests of the league.

As these new programs come on board part of it is watching and seeing what their commitment is, their ability to move into the space. You look at St. Thomas, which made the jump (from Division III), and over time they’re working on a facility, and that will make a difference. Certainly, it will keep them relevant in the market in Minneapolis. I think Augustana will come up really strong. They’ve taken a different approach, having Garrett Raboin there as a coach and recruiting, not playing any games. They’re building into it. I think Lindenwood has come out this year with some competitiveness, taking advantage of the St. Louis market.

It’s trying to figure out if expansion is a conversation, what does that look like? What’s in the best interest of the league? What schools espouse the values and the mission of what our conference is? It’s all of those things. I think we have to be prepared. We don’t want to jump the gun because the NCHC has had a lot of stability. But we also have to understand change can happen, and it can happen relatively quickly, and we have to be poised to be part of those conversations. If additional teams come in, it’s trying to find that space where they can find a home and they can be successful. It’s so much easier to put a schedule together where you can be part of a conference, but also recognizing geographics matter. Travel schedules work, and they’re still students at the heart of what they do. It’s certainly having eyes wide open and your finger on the pulse so you can make a move if you need to, but also not jumping the gun and anticipating too much.

Based on what you’ve said, it seems to me that a program like Arizona State, where they do have their own facility, and they’re not ridiculously far away – and maybe it’s in the forefront of my mind because a lot of players like playing games there – could be an option. It’s a gateway to another frontier in hockey so to speak. It’s interesting to think about what happens to them, the Alaska teams. There are a lot of possibilities aren’t there?

It’s hockey commitment and having the resources in place. Arizona State has done a good job with getting that new facility. I’ve not been there yet but I know people rave about it. I believe they’re sold out for the season and did that rather quickly. Their success may influence other programs on the West Coast to look at their options, particularly given the growth of hockey in the West.

It opens up the market a lot. If you’re a lay person, there is simply a lot of parity. Anyone can beat anyone on any given night. That’s because there is so much talent. It makes for really great and exciting games.

Heather, thank you for your time!

©First Line Editorial 2022