joy.

The Russia armed guards story: 'Another item that left an impression...was playing in the Six Nations Tournament in Russia. "There were German Shepherds, armed guards and it was creepy," Leopold said. "We had one phone in the whole place to call home every night." Leopold said they drank bottled water because they were told to not drink the tap water. Political protesters met players at the game and held signs that read, "Get out of Iraq" and "Go home Americans. Our eyes are on you." And there were more armed guards surrounding the rink.' x

You know the iconic win song? "OH MAMA, DON'T YOU CRY" (example: WJC 2025 Ryan Leonard x, 2024 Rutger McGroarty x, 2021 Cam York x)

Well, it's a military cadence call: "Kirk Culik is a cross-training coach and former Marine who’s become a legend with the program since arriving 18 years ago. He’s responsible for the call-and-response military chant Team USA sings in the dressing room." x

They literally sing it while they’re working out, like soldiers. "It’s a chant that the players learn during their training sessions, spat out like the shout-and-repeat songs heard during basic training." x

NTDP’a list of corporate partnerships includes Army National Guard & United States Air Force. x

USA Hockey Arena (remember, "the purpose of the hockey arena is to provide a wholly owned home for the National Team Development Program" x) has giant letters for AIRFORCE.COM plastered around the arena:

NTDP's power play is called the "U.S. Air Force Power Play." x

Side note: there’s a funny old video where the NTDP started using a training aid used by the Air Force...and there was just endless slides of different fighter jets for way longer than one would think necessary for, you know, a hockey video. x

Origins of the NTDP

From "Inside stories behind the start of the United States National Team Development Program": x

An overall lack of international success forced USA Hockey to confront why it was struggling to even reach the podium, let alone win tournaments. [...] He knew from personal experience, having coached the USA at the 1995 World Juniors, where the team struggled due to a lack of continuity between players. [...]

DeGregorio said Jackson came up with the concept that became the NTDP. Jackson presented USA Hockey with a plan: They would take the strongest American male talents between 16 and 18 years old and develop them into players who could excel at the next level. Jackson said doing "it the right way" meant hiring a staff that could recruit players, find billet families (local families who players live with) and enroll the teenagers in high school. [...]

Jackson said the biggest unknown they faced in creating the NTDP was the number of people who spoke out against the program. "Someone said to me that no one knew what we were doing. That's not true," said Mancini, who is now USA Hockey's assistant executive director of hockey development. "It's not that we didn't know what we were doing. There was just no precedent." Jackson and his staff heard how the program should be a six-week summer course. Jackson said the only way to make change was if the NTDP were a year-round program with two teams separated by age in the form of a U-17 and a U-18 squad.

Proponents against:

Jackson said there was infighting among different factions of USA Hockey, high school hockey and those at USA Hockey's headquarters who were against doing a year-round program. There were states that held meetings with their high school associations about the NTDP. Herb Brooks, coach of the legendary 1980 U.S. Olympic Team, urged Jackson to not go through with the NTDP. [...] Mancini said the logic for using Ann Arbor as the home base is that it was centrally located. But he said there were college coaches who felt like the NTDP being in Ann Arbor was a recruiting tool for schools like Michigan and Michigan State.

From How USA Hockey went from failure to hockey factory:

Coming up with a blueprint was hard enough, since no such program existed in hockey. And to this day, Monaghan refers to the NTDP as a pilot program – essentially a pair of all-star teams made up of the best under-17 and under-18 players in the country. [...] “People couldn’t get their arms around what we were trying to do,” Monaghan said. “Those first couple of groups of kids, I call them the pioneers. They took a chance. They took a chance on their own development.” 

One of those players was Jordan Leopold. [...] Leopold signed on but then had to deal with the fallout: Minnesotans didn’t take too kindly to having some new team in Michigan poaching the state’s best high school talent. “It was very controversial at the time,” Leopold said. “I remember being invited on to a radio show to talk about it, me and some veteran media guys. They fed me to the wolves. I was 16.” 

A 'funny story' from recruiting:

Jackson said recruiting players came with the challenge of competing against agents, major junior teams or even some colleges that may have wanted a player to develop elsewhere before coming to their school. He remembers when a low-level agent held a party for 16-year-old players at an airport hotel where there were kegs and exotic dancers. "The one positive thing for me with that airport hotel story is we had a young man, his name was Joe Goodenow on the U-18 team," Jackson said. "His dad was the executive director of the NHLPA and all it took was one phone call and that agent got fired. But there are multiple stories like that. Some are funny and some are not so funny."

USA Hockey

Hiring process (or lack thereof):

'Approximately five months after leaving the Chicago Blackhawks amid sexual assault allegations in June 2010, Brad Aldrich joined USA Hockey as a video coach. [...] Though USA Hockey requires background checks for coaches, the organization did not contact his previous employer to check his references or inquire about the nature of his exit. “We have no records/knowledge of anyone from USA Hockey calling the Blackhawks for references of Brad Aldrich,” USA Hockey said in an email in response to a number of questions about his employment history with the organization.' x

Why would USA Hockey be so quick to hire Brad Aldrich? Well, his uncle, Scott Aldrich, is a beloved long-time equipment manager for the U.S. National team. x

(Side note: Brad Aldrich's father, Mike Aldrich, is the equipment manager for the San Jose Sharks who suggested everyone take their shirts off for the infamous group photo. x x )

Safesport probe in 2020:

May 2020: "USA Hockey president Jim Smith is under investigation by the U.S. Center for SafeSport concerning his handling of allegations of sexual misconduct and abuse by a youth coach." x

"According to the report, Smith was told in 1989 that Chicago-area coach Tom Adrahtas had sexually abused several junior players. Through a spokesperson, USA Hockey acknowledged that Smith, among others, is under investigation for not taking action as a result of that complaint." x

"The matter was closed by SafeSport, but Smith later announced he would not seek re-election, referencing the allegations [...] Smith has since rejoined the organization." x

Safesport probe in 2023:

March 2023: USA Hockey employees 'alerted an accused party of an investigation and provided the accused party information “about the underlying allegation of misconduct” and coordinated communications surrounding the matter.' x

Reid Boucher (NTDP player) assault case:

Note: this story contains information about sexual assault of a minor. Please proceed with caution, or feel free to exit this post since this is the final section of this chapter.

From "What a police report shows USA Hockey knew about ex-NHL player's sex assault case" (excerpts):

-> In 2021, Reid Boucher, a former NHL player, was brought to the attention of police and arrested in a decade-old sexual assault case involving a 12-year-old girl in Ann Arbor.

But back in 2011, USA Hockey removed then-17-year-old Boucher from the scene of the reported assaults — the residence of his USA Hockey National Team Development Program host family, according to an Ann Arbor police report and a USA Hockey spokesman.

The police report suggests Ann Arbor Public Schools had at least enough information to conduct an interview back then. And it shows USA Hockey had a note about that conversation. The report does not indicate that police or Children's Protective Services were called — something USA Hockey spokesman Dave Fischer confirmed Monday. 

A USA Hockey program executive, when interviewed by police last year, said he didn't recall the gravity of Boucher's removal from the so-called "billet" home. And Fischer said the school only alerted the program to a girl saying she had a boyfriend on the team, an allegation that, at the time, was deemed to be unfounded. 

But the woman believes USA Hockey and Ann Arbor schools should have called police. 

"I am so disgusted that the solution was only to remove him," the woman said. 

The woman told the Free Press that, back in 2011, Boucher twice pressured her into use of her mouth for oral sexual assaults at the age of 12. A witness told police that she told her stepfather and he, in turn, contacted the USA Hockey team coach, according to the Ann Arbor police report. 

Fischer said the girl's school contacted USA Hockey after the school heard that the girl was telling friends she had a boyfriend on the team. The woman recalls that she was pulled from school one day and, by the time she got home, Boucher was gone from the residence.

But the information provided to police by the current assistant executive director of the USA Hockey development program, Scott Monaghan, suggests a counselor did interview a seventh grade student around that time, and that USA Hockey was given a note about it. Monaghan spoke with police multiple times, according to the police report.

The first time, in early April 2021, he said he recalled moving Boucher from the home but said he did not have any recollection of the gravity of the situation, the report showed. He said he'd look for any documentation and contact the program's lawyers about releasing it.

He then called police back later that month and said the only complaint he had after the move was about the house not being cleaned up, the report showed. But he also said he found a note from a middle school counselor about a student with a boyfriend on the hockey team. He sent police a copy. 

Fischer said the school conducted an investigation and found nothing. However, he said the program also spoke to Boucher, his parents, and the girl's parents, he said. Despite the finding that nothing happened, he said USA Hockey decided to move proactively. 

"We still felt it was the best to remove Reid from the billet home," he said, later adding: "There was never anything of any kind .. that there were any sexual (assault) allegations."

The woman's parents denied that they were ever interviewed.

Boucher was removed from the woman's home around the same time as the notification and interview, the police report indicates. An email included in the report and dated March 16, 2011, discusses picking up "the rest of Reid's stuff." 

One witness, believed to be another friend of the woman from back then, and the woman's parents both told police they believed USA Hockey changed a policy regarding housing players following the incident with Boucher. Details of the change were not included in the police report. Fischer said he did not immediately have information on the policy Monday to comment.

The woman said she has to recognize that views and handlings of sex assault has changed, somewhat, since the timing of her incident, a decade ago. But she raised concerns about whether that school counselor was equipped for a trauma-informed handling of a child sex abuse report, and said she feels USA Hockey buried it and should have done more. 

From "Ex-NHL player from Michigan gets deal in sex assault case — and survivor is 'disgusted'" (excerpts):

-> Reid Boucher has pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting a minor in 2011, when the girl was 12 and he was a 17-year-old in the USA Hockey National Team Development Program. Boucher, 28, pleaded guilty to third-degree criminal sexual conduct involving sexual penetration with an individual between the ages of 13 and 16 years old.

Boucher was originally charged with first-degree criminal sexual conduct, which carries a sentence of 25 years to life in prison. However, during the December hearing, Circuit Judge Patrick Conlin agreed to let Boucher enter a plea for the lesser charge and agreed to sentence him with no upfront jail time through the Holmes Youthful Trainee Act, or HYTA. Under HYTA, the case won’t appear on Boucher’s public record if he successfully completes his sentence.

Boucher was the woman’s “billet brother,” she told the Free Press. 

Her family served as a host family in Ann Arbor for several members of the USA Hockey development program when it was based there. Boucher was one of them.

His attorney declined to discuss details of the case, but the woman said Boucher quickly became close with her family — much closer than her prior billet brothers, with whom she recalled some awkwardness. 

But she said he made her uncomfortable at times, that he played songs with overly sexual lyrics, told her about his sex life, tickled her, roughhoused with her to the point of a bad rug burn, and once took off his shirt and hit her with it to wake her up.

But the worst came when he found videos she had made on her mom's computer of herself dancing and he called her down to the basement, where his bedroom was, she said.

"He just kept giving me the idea that he was going to post them," she said. "He was like, 'I'm going to show everybody.' "

It felt like the end of the world to a 12-year-old who’d grappled with bullying, the woman said. Then the situation escalated, with Boucher showcasing a stash of alcohol in his room, pressuring her to drink, then turning the conversation to sex, all while teasing her, she said.

Ultimately, the now-23-year-old woman said she recalls then-17-year-old Boucher on two occasions pressuring her into the use of her mouth for an oral sexual assault. She said when the first time took place following the discovery of the videos, Boucher coaxed her to continue despite a plea that she wanted to stop, and the second time, on a different date, he pressured her by saying that he would tell people about the prior time.