HighSchoolHockeyForums.com

dangla wrote:anyone read that topic about dixon? never seen anyone from minnesota high school sports in there

Johnny_Murphy wrote:When SI did the "50 states" deal a few years ago, where they focused in on a different state every week for 50 weeks, Minnesota's top article was on the State High School Hockey tournament.

ghshockeyfan wrote:Here's another great story from the most recent edition of Sports Illustrated:

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/h ... index.html

Crease Is the Word
Ashley Nixon keeps up the tradition at 'Goalie High'
Posted: Tuesday February 6, 2007 1:03PM; Updated: Tuesday February 6, 2007 1:03PM

By Yi-Wyn Yen

BLAINE HIGH
Blaine, Minn.

During humid Minnesota summers Steve Guider oversees "goalie boot camps" at which players jump tires or trudge across four-foot-deep padded mats in full gear. Guider wants to be "the best goaltender coach around," he says, and these drills are among his favorites for building endurance and balance. Guider, 38, came to Blaine (Minn.) High in 1992, first to work with boys' goalies, and added the duties of girls' goalies coach in 1994 and girls' head coach in 2003. During that time Guider, a former Blaine goalie himself, has seen four boys and four girls become Division I goalies. His latest and perhaps his greatest pupil is senior Ashley Nixon, headed to nearby St. Cloud this fall.

Nixon, 18, excelled last June at USA Hockey's Junior National Olympic development camp in Lake Placid. Over five days of scrimmages, she didn't give up a goal until her 102nd minute and had a goals-against average (0.80) twice as good as anyone else's. At Blaine she has led the Bengals to a 15-7-3 record this season, including eight shutouts. She'll excel in college, Guider says, because "she plays her best against elite players."

Nixon, the daughter of Scott, a construction foreman, and Mary, a secretary, first tended goal in youth leagues at age nine. She now emulates the butterflying style of the New Jersey Devils' Martin Brodeur.

Of her exacting coach Nixon says, "We make fun of him a bit -- when he writes plays on the board, every letter has to be the exact same size." Scott Bjugstad, a former Blaine coach who played center for the NHL's North Stars, says Guider "gets results because he's relentless." But though she may sigh at the prospect of yet another drill, for Nixon it's a system that works.

ghshockeyfan wrote:http://www.startribune.com/526/story/953230.html

The puck stops here, year after year after year
It's more than luck that has allowed Blaine to produce nine Division I goaltenders in the past 14 years. Some great athletes had their skills refined by the philosophy developed and the drills devised by coach Steve Guider.

By Pam Schmid, Star Tribune

Last update: January 22, 2007 – 8:43 PM

Pipeline between the pipes

Prep Sports



Nixon

In his 14 years spent coaching goalies at Blaine, Steve Guider has figured out a thing or two:
Fundamentals rule. The mental game has as much to do with it as the physical. And outstanding goaltenders tend to be made, not born.

Guider can back up the last tenet nine times over -- the same number of male and female NCAA Division I goaltenders Blaine has turned out under his guidance. It's a stunning total for a single school.

Jim Moellman, who graduated from Blaine in 1992, was Guider's first success story. Ashley Nixon is his latest. A three-year starter with outstanding technique and a fiery disposition, Nixon is headed to St. Cloud State next season.

"It's hard to make a good goal-scorer; you can't create a Wayne Gretzky," said Guider, a 1987 Blaine graduate. "But if you have a kid who can skate and is athletic, you can make them a goalie. That's what we've had."

For the past decade, the Bengals girls' program has enjoyed an unbroken string of stellar goaltenders. Katie Beau- duy (1999), a four-year starter who played for Minnesota State Mankato, came first. Jody Horak (2001, Gophers), Kim Hanlon (2005, Gophers) and Nixon have followed. Guider also coached Dauphne Barnes, a 1993 graduate who played on the boys' team and later competed for Princeton.

"We've been pretty lucky," Guider said. "There's been quite a bit of talent that's come through here."

Guider has had something to do with it as well.

He spent nine years working with the goaltenders in Blaine's girls' and boys' programs before becoming the girls' head coach five years ago. While his duties have expanded, he hasn't strayed from his philosophy of developing goalies: Teach the basics, drill the heck out of them and set expectations sky-high.

Before each season, Guider tells his goaltenders the same thing: You must do everything possible to stop every puck, or you won't play for us. Instilling that attitude develops a rock-solid work ethic, he believes. He backs up his talks with a multitude of examples.

"He's taught me never to give up," Nixon said. "He's definitely a perfectionist, and he wants you to be that way, too."

Movement drills are another Guider trademark. Every day, for the first five or six minutes of practice, his goaltenders work on drills, inside the net and out. Guider has developed nearly 20 of them: shuffle drills, T-glide drills, backward push drills, drills that simulate breakaways and other game situations.

"To stop the puck you have to be able to move and be agile and quick," said Hanlon, the 2006 WCHA rookie of the year. "Right before every practice, we were always doing tons of different movement drills. They really helped."

Guider, who played hockey and football at Blaine, has picked the brains of NHL and national team coaches he's crossed paths with at Olympic development camps, symposiums and USA Hockey programs.

Churning out nine D-I goalies is "unheard of," Centennial girls' hockey coach Mike Diggins said. "But Steve does that good of a job with the kids he's gotten."

Guider believes Nixon, a three-year starter who split time with Hanlon as a sophomore, might be his finest goalie yet.

Last year, she turned heads at the Junior National Olympic development camp in Lake Placid, N.Y., where she was the top-rated goalie in her age group with a .970 save percentage.

Despite her team's less-than-stellar defense this season, Nixon has a .939 save percentage. Out of her 12 victories, seven have been shutouts. Her finest game came against Blake, ranked No. 6 in Class 1A, when she stopped 44 of 46 shots in a 3-2 victory. Guider, whose team is 12-6-2, hasn't had to worry about his goalie for the past 10 years, but next season that will change. With Nixon graduating, his choices in net will be a raw sophomore and an even less experienced freshman.

"Until we get these other kids ready, we'll have to improve our defense," Guider said. "We can't give up the quality of shots we've given up and expect to be successful next year."


Pam Schmid • pschmid@startribune.com