Jackson Jutting, Mike Koster put friendly ‘bragging’ on the line as Beavers play Gophers

Mike Koster doesn’t visit Bemidji often.

The Gophers’ fifth-year defenseman and captain made his hockey hay in the Metro area. He rose through Chaska’s youth ranks before playing with the Tri-City Storm of the USHL. Koster stayed close to home in college and signed his National Letter of Intent to play for Minnesota.

Along the way, Koster formed a bond with Bemidji State captain Jackson Jutting. It started in youth hockey, and it is reinforced into adulthood.

So when Jutting pitched the idea of ​​bringing their hockey camp to northern Minnesota last April, Koster’s interest was piqued.

“I was excited to get up to Bemidji,” Koster said. “I actually stayed at Jutts’ house for the whole weekend. We went out and played golf, had dinner. I get to spend time with all the guys that Jutts lives with, and they’re all good guys.”

Jutting and Koster have shared the ice in more ways than one. They have been teammates, opponents and coaches.

During the off season they host the Jutting Koster Hockey Camp at various locations around Minnesota. Their development sessions come with the emphasis on being for players, by players. The camp made its first stop at the Bemidji Community Arena last spring.

But when the college hockey season rolls around, Jutting and Koster put down their coaching whistles and transform back into competitors. And this weekend they will play against each other for the first time since high school.

Bemidji State is set for a weekend against No. 3 Minnesota. This is the first time the two teams have played in a non-exhibition since December 28, 2019. The Gophers host the Beavers at 7:00 pm on Thursday before the sites flip on Saturday.

“I’m excited for this weekend against the Beavs,” Koster said. “They’re a tough team to play against and we’ve got to be ready. They’re tough and they defend really well as a team as well. They make you work to get out of your own end. We’re going to have to be ready to go.”

For Jutting and Koster, however, this weekend is rooted deeper than the typical Minnesota in-state nonconference series.

Jutting and Koster did not grow up in the same school districts. They never played high school hockey on the same team.

Instead, playing AAA hockey for the Minnesota Blades ignited their friendship. It is an offseason program designed for top players at their respective youth levels.

“It starts with the Blades team we were on,” Jutting said. “There’s a lot of guys who play Division I college hockey on that team and we were really close. We were on that team for six, seven years with the same coaching staff every year. Those guys were really together and pushed each other to become better people and better hockey players. Out of that core group, many of us are still close friends today.”

By the time they reached high school, their opportunities to play on the same team were limited.

Koster, who transferred from Marshall to Chaska at a young age, held down the blue line for the Hawks for four years. Jutting, a Savage native, also began playing varsity hockey as a freshman for Prior Lake.

Their first head-to-head meeting came sophomore year in the Section 2AA tournament, with Prior Lake earning a 2-1 victory in the quarterfinals. Jutting took home another win over Koster in his junior season as the Lakers beat the Hawks 2-1 in the Prior Lake Invitational.

Senior year, however, Koster finally got a win. Chaska beat Prior Lake 8-0 in the same tournament.

“My first two years — my freshman and sophomore year — we were really good and they weren’t very good,” Jutting said. “We beat them pretty good. He kind of flipped the script my senior year. They started getting a little bit better and we didn’t have that good of games against them. Bragging rights are definitely on the line this weekend.”

Their postsecondary paths split them further. While Koster played for Tri-City, Jutting found his groove in Cedar Rapids with the RoughRiders of the USHL.

The distance between them widened when they went to college. Koster returned home to play for the U of M, while Jutting went west to play for Colorado College. It was two seasons before Jutting got back to hockey mode. He transferred to Bemidji State prior to his junior year.

Despite the kilometers between Koster and Jutting, the two remained connected. In 2021, they turned their friendship into a business venture.

“I think we were hanging out at Jutts’ house in the hot tub when we thought, ‘We could start our own camp,'” Koster said. “It started rolling from there. We figured out how to start it and how to do the legal stuff. Once we got through all that, it was actually pretty easy.”

The birth of the Jutting Koster Hockey Camp followed many years of teaching experience. Both were asked by Dave Snuggerud, father of Gophers star forward Jimmy Snuggerud, to coach for Breakaway Academy in Chaska during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Eventually we ran our own practices for him,” Koster said. “It was kind of a good way to make some money during Covid.”

Once they found they were good enough to run their own camp, the ball started rolling.

“We started to get established in Prior Lake and the course manager has been great to us,” Koster continued. “Eventually we got a website out there and started marketing it to people. We didn’t really know what was a big camp or a small camp. We were just looking to get our feet wet and give a good development.”

The mark of a successful hockey camp is tied to its intentions.

“We wanted people to take us seriously as coaches, not guys who were still playing hockey trying to make a quick buck,” Koster said. “We pride ourselves on actually developing young players and we can personalize things with them. We were those kids once. We attended camps, looked for the right people to coach us for our development.”

JKH eventually expanded beyond Dakotah! Sports and fitness center in Prior Lake. It has done twice in Marshall, then it came to Bemidji.

Included in each camp is training on and off the ice, along with classroom sessions with guest speakers. Jutting and Koster have used their hockey connections to bring in current and former NHL players to speak with youth athletes, including the Minnesota Wild’s Brock Faber and 14-year pro Paul Martin — both former Gophers.

“You hear it all the time as a kid — and as you get older you hear it less and less — but it’s just about having fun playing hockey,” Jutting said. “I think that’s the big developmental opportunity for kids: If they have fun, they’ll keep coming back. … Making it an enjoyable experience for the kids where they can see the personalities of college hockey players and pro players we bring in is huge.”

Jutting and Koster also spend their share of time together away from the rink.

Five years ago, Jutting and his father, Tyson, began going on father-son gold rushes. They decided to add more fathers and sons from the Minnesota Blades teams.

Koster earned the invite, as did Minnesota’s Mason Nevers, Union’s Ethan Benz and Colgate’s Tommy Bergsland.

The group has taken weekend trips once in each of the past three summers, with the most recent being in the Brainerd Lakes area.

“It’s been the same group of guys since then,” Jutting said. “We’re a close group. We play pickleball all the time in the summer, we work out together, golf. We’re a close-knit group.”

Of course, the games are always competitive.

“This past summer I got him,” Jutting said of Koster. “His handicap might be a little lower and he might be mad that I’m saying this, but 90% of the time I’m beating him right now. He’s been better than me the last couple of years, but I think I got him more this past summer.”

“His biggest problem has been his driver,” Koster said of Jutting. “He’s had a huge disc the last couple of years and he figured it out this summer. His iron game is unbelievable and his wedge game is probably one of the best I’ve seen. Usually I drive him out because he hits a spinny off the tee. But he gave me his disc this summer and I gave him my fair ball.”

However, when the competition evenings wind down, Jutting and Koster become fans of each other.

“It’s pretty easy to see why he’s their captain,” Koster said. “The way he leads people, he’s one of the hardest working guys I’ve ever seen. I’ve seen it first hand. … He understands what it takes to win, how hard it is to win. His leadership through his actions and his words is where it shows.”

“He’s a great kid, his character is off the charts,” Jutting said. “He’s a really fun guy to be around. He leads by example, knows what to say. I’ve seen him around those guys in the summer during summer skates and stuff, he’s the consummate captain and the guy who you want to lead your team. He has a lot of the intangibles that make him a good captain.”