If you ask hockey fans, parents and players around the state of Minnesota about which high school coaches they have the most respect for - many are likely to say Woodbury’s Wes Bolin.

Bolin is in his 22nd and final season with the Royals in 2025-26 after coaching boys high school hockey and teaching social studies for the past 43 years.

The native of Minneapolis played high school hockey himself for Minneapolis West before playing Division III at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. Bolin’s career as a coach and as a teacher started after he graduated from college in 1983 and he took his first coaching and teaching job in Hallock, Minnesota. He stayed there for three years and brought the Bears to two Northwest Conference championships until moving to Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, and coaching and teaching there for nearly two decades.

During his time in Wisconsin Bolin’s teams were eight-time section champions and two-time runner-ups at the state tournament. In addition to that, the Fond du Lac squad was given the Badgerland Conference Sportsmanship award five times and Bolin was named the 1995 Wisconsin Coach of the Year. Outside of his high school duties, he also served as President for the Wisconsin Hockey Coaches Association, so he was extremely involved in many aspects of the game.

Bolin made the move over to Woodbury in 2004 and has been with the Royals ever since, making him one of the longest current tenured coaches in the state. The Woodbury program isn’t an easy one to manage with plenty of private schools in the area competing for many of the same kids but despite that Bolin has found plenty of success with the Royals program over the years and has made a difference in the lives of countless athletes.

“Coach Wes is an exceptionally patient and caring individual who consistently leads with humility, life skills, and deep knowledge of the game,” says APX Athlete Aiden Grossklaus, who played for Woodbury from 2022-2024 and is now committed to play Division I hockey at Minnesota State. “I am very grateful for my decision to play for him at Woodbury, and I could not have asked for a better coach to guide me throughout my hockey journey.

Many athletes within the Woodbury Youth Hockey Association get to know Bolin from a young age and then follow him up through their high school careers.

“I have known Coach Bolin since I was 5 years old. He has been a very great coach and gave me the opportunity to play high school hockey as a 9th grader,” says APX Athlete Cooper Anderson, who is a junior defenseman with the Royals in 2025-26. “He was very supportive during my injury last season. It is pretty emotional that this will be his last year and won’t be there to coach my senior year. I’ve really enjoyed the opportunities helping him out with coaching the mites during his summer camp over the years. He will be missed.”

Whoever you talk to, it’s clear that Bolin has made an incredible impact on the lives of those in the community from the parents, to the players, to all of the students who have been in his classes at Woodbury High School. So although it is bittersweet that Bolin is in his final season as a coach and as a teacher in 2025-26, he’s taking it all in and simply enjoying his final year of high school hockey this winter.

“It’s been a really fun start to the season and just knowing that these kids are going to be the last group that I’m going to work with as a head coach, I feel really good about the kids as a whole and my coaching staff and I just want to enjoy this year, regardless of what happens in the win and loss column,” said Bolin to APX reporter Sydney Wolf. “I just want to appreciate being a part of high school hockey for one more season.”

Bolin and his wife Patty, who have been married for over 30 years, are excited about the new phase in their lives as they are both retiring from education next spring. Although Bolin won’t be head coach of the Royals anymore he’ll still be around the rinks plenty as he’s hoping to stay involved with Minnesota Hockey, maybe not quite to the same amount that he has in the past, and also watching and helping out his two grandsons who play youth hockey in Minneapolis.

Although Bolin will still be involved in the sport after retiring from Woodbury, he’s definitely excited to be able to take a breather from some of the hard parts about being a head coach in this day and age and having to constantly be available for phone calls, text messages and emails. Some of his advice to new coaches or aspiring coaches to be is that being a high school hockey coach isn’t just part-time from November to March, it’s essentially a full-time gig that comes with plenty of responsibilities around the clock. While extremely rewarding, it’s extremely challenging at the same time, which makes it even more of an accomplishment that the Minneapolis native has been a head coach now for almost 45 years.

From 1983 to 2025, the game has certainly changed and while some of the challenges of the job remain the same, Bolin also says that some things have changed quite a bit from his first day on the job.

“The game has certainly changed and the kind of importance that parents place on how their kids do has changed somewhat for sure and there’s so many opportunities for kids out there that, you know, the idea of being able to move from one school to another is a relatively easy concept these days,” he said about some of the tougher parts of the job. “When I first started coaching and when I first started at Woodbury about halfway through my career, that kind of movement didn’t really happen. There was a lot more loyalty to the local program and so you didn’t see that kind of change and I would say that’s the biggest change is the desire to move form one place to another without necessarily providing leadership for your own home program.”

When talking to Bolin about how he became a coach and some of his mentors and role models throughout his life he mentions the legendary coach Jim Baxter, who he played high school hockey for back in the day for Minneapolis West.

“A lot of the values that I’ve tried to model are values that he established in me and my teammates and hopefully I’ve done the best I can to fulfill that legacy,” he said. “I’ve worked with a lot of other coaches over the years too who’ve helped to give me ideas about how to work in the game and not just work in the game but work with other people. Over the last 22 years here in Woodbury, for example, my assistant coach Mike Tollefsbol has been a great partner and a great mentor for me as well and we’ve really enjoyed our time together and we’ve continued to learn and grow together and that’s what coaches have to do is continue to evolve over time.”

In his final season with the Royals in 2025-26, Bolin is currently 2-5-1 with the team but that overall record may be a bit misleading as the squad has three one goal losses, including two overtime losses to both Cretin-Derham Hall and one to St. Louis Park, and one tie to Chaska. Senior Jack Oleson currently leads the squad in scoring while senior Michael Pietruszewski has been the starter in goal. The team is extremely senior heavy and actually only has five athletes on the entire roster who aren’t listed as seniors.

“It’s been a really competitive start to the season, kind of what we expected, and you know we expect our team to be really competitive within games,” said Bolin about the Royals squad this year. “We really feel good about how we’ve represented ourselves on the ice and we’re extremely competitive. Our goaltending is solid and our defensemen continue to get better and we have a couple of really skilled forwards in John Eschweiler and Jack Oleson and we’ve got a good supporting cast around them and we’re just a really competitive team and hopefully we continue to show that moving forward.”

When taking a look at all of the accomplishments of Coach Bolin and of Woodbury over the years, there is so much to read about. One of Bolin’s favorite memories and proudest moments as a coach is the squad defeating the reigning state champions in Cretin-Derham Hall in 2006-07 to punch the programs first-ever ticket to the state tournament - which later earned him the Class AA John Mariucci Coach of the Year award. The Royals made the state tournament again in ‘07-08 and won the Class AA consolation bracket as well, so those were two extremely successful years for Woodbury hockey.

Bolin again won the Mariucci award in 2023 for Class AA. He has also won the Dave Peterson award (in 2013), which is an honor for those who have greatly helped to develop youth hockey at either the local or statewide level. Bolin recently was inducted into the Minnesota Hockey Coaches Association (MHCA) Hall of Fame as well in 2024. The Minnesota native coached in his 1000th game back in 2023 and has over 500 career wins. In addition to his coaching accolades, he has been a candidate for the Minnesota Teacher of the Year award as well, so he has excelled both on and off the ice.

As for the future of Woodbury hockey, there is currently no news on who will take over Bolin’s position once the season is finished. He said that the Athletic Director at the school will be taking care of that after the conclusion of the season so fans will just have to wait and see what happens.

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