Joe Motzko's Leads Top-Ranked Men's Hockey With Hard Work
Dec. 11, 2001
By Marty Sundvall
SCSU Athletic Media Relations
In hockey, as in life, there are two types of people: those who need a bit of encouragement to try their hardest, and those who pour everything they have into everything they do.
When Bemidji native Joe Motzko took the ice for the Huskies it was easy to tell this was a player who never quit on a shift, never hung his teammates on a line, never took a play off. His familiar No. 19 was always on the move, skates dashing, stick flailing, stifling opponents on a penalty kill or digging a puck free from the boards on a tough forecheck.
"When we first saw Joe, we saw a skilled player who played the game hard. He's one of those guys you don't have to wind up. You just open the door," said St. Cloud State head coach Craig Dahl. " You can teach work ethic, but kids have to be willing to learn how to work. Joe had it coming in. He's an extremely competitive young man."
Like many players who have gone on to play Division I hockey, Joe Motzko learned his skills early. His brother is six years older then Joe and also played hockey. When they were kids, a small rink was made in the back yard of his childhood home.
"We used to come home from school every day and start skating in the back yard. We'd stay out there until it was time to go eat, and then a lot of times it was back out to the rink. I loved skating and shooting pucks," Motzko said.
But skills don't always translate into drive. In the case of Joe Motzko, that arived when he reached the bantam level of youth hockey. His bantam coach, Bob Fitzgerald, installed the beginnings of the work ethic that Huskies' fans have come to appreciate.
"He made me realize, and then later in high school too, that when you play hard and work every shift you can make things happen for you. Sometimes you don't get the bounces, but if you keep going something good might happen. That doesn't happen when you play lazy," Motzko said. "That's the way he was and you worked hard every shift."
He was the leading scorer in Class AA his senior year of high school before going to Omaha of the USHL for a year of junior hockey. He finished with nine goals and 15 assists his first season at St. Cloud State, then finished with 37 points on 17 goals and 20 assists as a sophomore.
"Last year at times I thought Joe had a little tunnel vision," Dahl said in reference to Motzko's drive to score. "This season, he's becoming a more well-rounded hockey player. He's more of a leader by example. When you watch the way he plays you see an honest hockey player. He doesn't cheat his teammates by giving up on a shift."
Even though the goals have been few this season, Motzko said that is not a concern at the moment. The Huskies have won 13 of 16 games this season and have reached the halfway point in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association regular season with 23 of 28 possible points.
More importantly, perhaps, the Huskies have played this season with a sense of purpose. While they were flat in nearly all phases of the game in a 5-1 loss at Colorado College last Saturday, it is not very often that the Huskies, as a team, have not skated hard for the majority of the game.
"I think working hard rubs off on some players. I think it motivates them and good things happen when you work hard," Motzko said. "If you work hard, it kind of feeds off itself. All this team has to do is show up and work hard every night."
And how far Motzko goes in his hockey career is yet another facet. He is majoring in business management and minoring in coaching, but a professional hockey career may not be too far off.
"The pros? That's the ultimate goal. We'll see what happens," Motzko said.
This season Motzko has 20 points, but only three goals, two of those have been game-winners. However, Motzko said he is not in the absolute best shape of his life. This past summer he had surgeries to help heal heel spurs and chipped ankle bones, and he could not skate or lift legs for half the summer.
"That was kind of hard because I couldn't skate," Motzko said. "That's part of the fun, coming out here with your teammates, skating, messing around."
Heading into tonight's game with Bemidji State, the Huskies were ranked No. 1 in Division I hockey for the second straight week. They have a five-point lead on Denver in the WCHA standings and have played at many times with a sense of urgency and purpose, led in part by Joe Motzko.
"Right now I'm just doing what I can to help out the team," Motzko said.
"It feels good to have your coach and teammates think of you as a
hard-working player. That's just how I play the game. I've been getting
chances to score, and if I keep working hard eventually they will go
in."
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