Besides the words “Cute” and “Girl” the two most important words to a high school player in Minnesota were Chuck Grillo.  You see, Chuck Grillo was a New York Rangers talent Scout and he was in charge of Minnesota.  If Chuck Grillo was in the rink to watch your game, this was your chance to shine. Over his lifetime, Chuck has scouted and seen just about every Minnesota player from Mariucci to Oshie.  YHH had a chance to meet Chuck (aka Gringo) this Summer and here are few highlights from our visit:

-Thirty Five years ago Chuck and then University of Minnesota coach, Herb Brooks opened Minnesota Hockey Camps.  It is still running today and Chuck is very active in the day-to-day operations.

-The camp sits in the middle of the woods on Clark Lake in Nisswa, MN.  A gorgeous setting with great lodging, great facilities and wonderful food for it’s kids. According to their website kids leave ” a quicker, stronger, faster, smarter & classier athlete.” Based on what I saw that is an understatement.  I left the camp after two hours wanting to go (an old guy can still dream can’t he?).

-Among several cool artifacts on site at MHC (Stanley Cup rings, Jerseys, pictures with every NHL great the last 40 years, etc), I got to see the original practice plans drawn up by Herb and Gringo.  Fittingly stored in red, white and blue binders.

-In two short hours, I met Ben Hanowski, Drew LeBlanc, and TJ Oshie.  LeBlanc said of YHH, “if they had that when I was a kid, I would have been on it every day!”

-Grillo became a scout for the Rangers after a successful high school coaching career, coaching both Bemidji and Rosemount.

-After years of being a scout, Gringo realized his dream of being an NHL General Manager in 1992 for the San Jose Sharks.  He served the Sharks for five seasons as GM.

-Grillo is still a scout today for the Pittsburgh Penguins.

-After years of coaching, scouting and evaluating talent. Chuck has a formula for success that he hopes to fashion into a book someday.

-For a 74 year old guy, he is one of the smartest and most innovative people I’ve ever met.  His camp is always looking for the most up to date, forward thinking training methods out there.  This year the camp added surf board balancing tools to their off dryland regime.

But what struck me most about Chuck, was his story of becoming a Scout.  As a long time high school coach (State coach of the year in 1973) in Minnesota, Chuck was asked to be a Scout for the New York Rangers.  Several people told Chuck not to do it.  ”Don’t give up your day job”, “Don’t give up your security”, and “You could hurt your family” were murmurs from some of his friends and fellow coaches around Minnesota.

In an effort to protect his security, Chuck petitioned the Rosemount School Board for a 5 year sabatical. In essence, if the Rangers gig didn’t work out, he could get his job back. After weeks of struggle with the School Board, they eventually held a public vote to determine his fate.  At the the School Board meeting, were his family and Rosemount players. The vote did not go Chuck’s way (well at least not the way he was hoping).  His request for the sabatical was denied.  To which Chuck stood up and resigned from his job as head coach of Rosemount. He said he gave a short resignation speech.  ”I said, I’d be lying to all of the players and parents in this room and all of the prior players who played for me if I don’t take this job.  Each day I’ve taught and coached, I have told these kids to chase their dreams.  Today, I am choosing to chase mine as an employee in the National Hockey League.”

And so the legend of Gringo was born.  In the last 30 years, Chuck chased his dream.  And the fruit of his labor has paid off.  He and his family (both biological and not) have touched so many lives.  Way beyond what he could have done had he not chased this dream.

It was a pleasure to meet with he and his family this past Summer.