By SAM ROBINSON · Hockey in the desert has grown in the last decade, thanks in part to the Vegas Golden Knights coming to Las Vegas in 2017, but hockey up north has al…
Hockey in the desert has grown in the last decade, thanks in part to the Vegas Golden Knights coming to Las Vegas in 2017, but hockey up north has always been big.
More specifically, North Dakota, where four Skatin’ Rebels call home.
“The hockey is basically the football in the South,” said junior Dillon Kuntz, who is from Grand Forks, North Dakota.
The rest of the Rebels from the Roughrider State are junior Dylan Jensen, from Fargo; freshman Michael Coleman, also from Grand Forks; and Zachary Boren, from Devils Lake.
All four come from towns within roughly two hours of each other, but their connections to hockey and to one another go back much further than their time in Las Vegas.
Playing in North Dakota
Before making the journey to Sin City, Jensen, Kuntz, Coleman and Boren all got their starts playing hockey in North Dakota.
For Boren, hockey was a constant part of growing up in Fargo.
“Hockey was everything we did in the winter,” Boren said.
With outdoor rinks throughout the community, the cold weather gave them plenty of time to spend on the ice. As Boren got older, hockey became less seasonal, eventually taking over his spring, summer, and fall.
In Grand Forks, the hockey culture was just as strong.
Coleman grew up playing alongside many of his friends, including Kuntz, whom he has known since they were around 8 or 9 years old.
“Growing up in Grand Forks, it’s a hockey town, and the community’s super involved,” Coleman said. “All my buddies grew up playing hockey, so it was really fun, and the friendships we had were great.”
Kuntz had a similar experience growing up in Grand Forks. He started playing hockey at 3 years old, and outdoor rinks were a regular part of his childhood.
“You bring your hockey skates to school, and you walk to the warming house that opens at 3:30, and you leave at 9 o’clock, and then go home and repeat, basically,” Kuntz said.
Hockey was also woven into the communities surrounding the players’ high schools.
Kuntz attended Grand Forks Central High School, while Coleman attended Grand Forks Red River High School. The two schools have a long-standing rivalry, but their relationship away from the rivalry began years earlier.
Coleman went on to have a standout senior season at Red River, earning North Dakota’s Senior Athlete of the Year award.
However, he viewed the recognition as a reflection of the team around him.
“My hard work and all my teammates around me that year,” Coleman said. “We enjoyed going to the rink every day, getting better with each other. So that was a big part of it.”
For Coleman, the environment at Red River and throughout Grand Forks played a major role in his development.
“It was just the environment that Grand Forks and Red River have around hockey,” Coleman said.
Meanwhile, in Fargo, Jensen and Boren were on opposite sides of another high school rivalry.
Jensen played for Fargo Davies High School, while Boren attended Fargo Shanley High School.
“They were like our rivals,” Boren said of Davies. “We’d go at it, but it was always fun.”
The rivalries were only part of the players’ North Dakota hockey experience. They also had opportunities to play alongside many of the players they would normally face during the high school season.
A connection that goes back years
Kuntz, Boren and Coleman all spent time playing for Team North Dakota, a AAA program that brought players together from different communities across the state and beyond.
For Boren, the experience offered a different kind of hockey than he was used to playing at Shanley.
At the high school level, Boren said the focus was more heavily centered on winning. Team North Dakota gave him a chance to develop his game while playing alongside players from different towns.
“You play with all the people you play against during the year,” Boren said. “So that was a cool experience just to get to know guys from other towns around you and get close with them, and then it kind of made the battles more fun when you’d play them in high school.”
Kuntz and Boren were among those teammates, a relationship that would continue long after their time with Team North Dakota.
Kuntz remembers playing with Boren as far back as when they were around 10 years old, and the two eventually became junior teammates with the New Mexico Ice Wolves.
Coleman also shared years of history with both players. He and Boren played together from a young age, including when they were around 10U, while Coleman and Kuntz grew up playing together every other year.
“I’ve known him since I was really little, and we grew up playing hockey together,” Coleman said of Kuntz.
For Kuntz, seeing those relationships eventually lead all the way to UNLV was something he never expected.
When the Rebels began looking at Boren as a potential addition to the roster, Kuntz was quick to endorse his former teammate.
“I just couldn’t say a bad thing about the kid,” Kuntz said. “Best guy.”
While playing junior hockey took each of them outside of North Dakota, they carried the lessons they learned at home w…