Minnetonka coach Cassano makes history reaching 200 wins
MINNETONKA, Minn. (BVM) — For Minnetonka high school girls hockey head coach Tracy Cassano, the March 8 victory against Blake was just another game.
When the Cassanos got home following the Skippers’ win, Tracy went about her usual nightly routine: tucked her kids into bed, looked at scores from other games and began to look at film. That’s when her husband and assistant coach, Mike, came into the room.
“Congrats on the win, coach,” Mike said.
Tracy thanked him and congratulated him back saying that it was a good win. It was then that Mike explained why Monday night’s win was more than just another home win for Minnetonka.
The win was Tracy’s 200th in her high school coaching career, making her the first woman to do so in Minnesota high school hockey history. Mike had been keeping track secretly.
“I had zero idea,” Tracy said.
Even then it didn’t really hit her until the next day. That’s when the news hit social media and Tracy began receiving messages from former players, parents and athletic directors she had worked for and coaches she had played for, congratulating her on the milestone.
At practice that afternoon, in typical Tracy fashion, she did not bring it up. Instead she congratulated her team on being academic champions for section 2AA and tried to get right into drills, but her team had something else in mind.
Assistant coach Christina Lee-Balloy said there was another accomplishment she wanted to acknowledge. Lee-Balloy then handed Tracy a hockey puck with white tape on it that had the date of the game, the score and “200th win” written on it. It was old school and Tracy loved it.
“That was super special,” Tracy said.
The momentous milestone has allowed an opportunity to look back on a 17-year career, 14 as a head coach, that has been full of success but one that Tracy will always say has been about her players.
Hockey has always been a part of Tracy’s life. As a kid growing up in Willmar, Minn., she and her brother Lee were always playing hockey. That love for being out on the ice led to Tracy playing the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers.
A dream come true for a lifetime Gopher fan. It was there that Tracy first realized that she wanted to be a coach.
Up to that point in her hockey career, Tracy had only been coached by men, but at Minnesota she was able to play for legendary college hockey coach Laura Halldorson. Halldorson was the first woman to coach the Gophers women’s hockey team and being coached by a woman resonated with Tracy.
“Having coach Laura Halldorson at the University of Minnesota was my first experience playing for a female and I think that’s what really directed me to the profession I chose,” Tracy said.
Even now that experience motivates Cassano to do the same for her daughter and other young girls. To be a female role model they can look up and that shows them can accomplish whatever they put their mind to.
“Being a female role model for girls like my daughter,” Tracy said. “I want her to know that she can be confident, strong, beautiful, caring, gritty, and competitive – you can be it all.”
More than that, she was able to learn from one of the best. A two-time captain on Halldorson’s team, Tracy was also a part of the Gophers’ national championship team and paid close attention to how Halldorson ran her teams.
“Her positive attitude, her caring, her entire demeanor,” Tracy said. “She carried herself with class and integrity. Some of the values that she instilled in not only myself but my teammates is really what guided me into wanting to be a coach, to provide players some of the same experiences that she did for me.”
Following her playing career Tracy was an assistant coach for several years prior to taking her first head-coaching job at Rosemount High School. Those assistant coaching jobs were important to Tracy and she credits them for helping her learn the management side of running a high school hockey program.
“There is so much more that goes into being a head coach and I wanted to take some time to learn the ropes,” Tracy said.
Once at Rosemount, Tracy quickly began turning the program around. In her five years as head coach, she was able to take a program that hadn’t won a conference game in seven years to their first and only state tournament appearance in 2011.
That type of team success has followed her at all of her coaching stints from Rosemount, to Chaska/Chanhassen, to Burnsville prior to her taking Skippers head coaching job two years ago, and she credits her coaching style.
“My style, it really is all about my players,” Tracy said.
Once again inspired by Halldorson, Tracy has focused on building relationships with her players that go beyond the rink as well as creating family-like environments at each program she has been at.
“I’ve really tried to create those types of environments where kids cannot wait to get to the rink and they don’t want to leave,” Tracy said. “Creating that environment that they absolutely love to be part of and want to be a part of.”
This has allowed her the ability to really know her players and how to get the most out of them.
“Knowing your players and knowing how hard I can push them. How can you communicate with them, everyone is an individual and different. My job is to know those things,” Tracy said. “That’s something I pride myself on.”
A competitive person herself, Tracy makes sure practices are intense, competitive and fun. She has high expectations for her girls and makes sure that they are reaching those expectations on and off the rink.
“My goal is to push my players every single day,” Tracy said.
The results speak for themselves. Along with the team success that Tracy has had she was also named the Minnesota Girls’ Hockey State AA Coach of the Year back in 2014 when she led Burnsville to a state tournament appearance.
“Those types of awards are great, I was very honored, I appreciate it but I go back to I don’t need the spotlight on me,” Tracy said. “That’s not why I do this. … It really is about helping to provide the most positive high school hockey experience I can for the girls and to provide them with life skills so that they’re successful in their futures.”
All of it when put together shows why Cassano has not only been successful but also why she loves what she does.
“I think it’s the greatest job in the world,” Tracy said.
She is at 200 wins right now, but there certainly many more to come.
