Jennifer Kranz vs. Meredith Roth: Longtime friends, first-time faceoff

(Photos by Paul Swenson Photography, courtesy of Shattuck-St. Mary's)

Jennifer Kranz knows what she and her student-skaters at the College of Saint Benedict shall confront this coming weekend. She had a hand in making it happen, after all. 

The fifth-year coach at the St. Joseph, Minn., women’s college’s Division III hockey program has known her St. Norbert counterpart, Meredith Roth, since their playing days in the travel ranks. Two years her elder, she has since set a tagalong trail through Division I play, youth coaching and Division I assistant coaching.

“I have always looked up to her,” Roth stated in an e-mail to Along the Boards. “She has always been a great role model and sounding board for me in my development as a young person. Our friendship throughout the years has been impactful on me and some of the decisions I have made in my coaching career.”

That includes her latest decision to fill the vacancy with the St. Norbert Green Knights this past August. The most natural difference from past moves is that Friday’s faceoff at the Municipal Athletic Complex in St. Cloud, Minn., will be their first venture as opposing head coaches.

“Obviously, I know the hallmarks of the way she thinks the game should be played and what she expects of her players,” Kranz offered this week in a phone interview with ATB. “It’ll be interesting to see the differences (between her and predecessor Rob Morgan), the way her coaching style works with the personnel that she inherited.”

In a way, the two-game nonconference series will be a business-oriented catch-up affair. Nearly a decade has elapsed since the last time these two Midwesterners were both living and working in their native region, let alone for the same program.

But Roth’s offseason move was conducive to the first-of-its-kind reunion, and she knew it.

“When you are making a career change, there is a lot that goes on from a personal standpoint, as well as professional,” she said. “You are looking for things that are familiar to you or that will create excitement in your new role. This matchup was certainly one of them.”

Between Kranz and Roth, familiarity dates back to when women’s hockey was raring to join the Olympics and yet to be an NCAA-sanctioned sport.

Chasing challenges

Hailing from the Milwaukee suburb of Waukesha, Wisc., Kranz first crossed paths with Roth when the Iowa native joined the Wisconsin Challengers. A precursor to the Madison Capitols, the Challengers attracted collegiate athletic candidates to form national championship contenders. Their 19-and-under team had been to two USA Hockey title games, winning the crown in 1995.

Kranz maxed her eligibility with the local travel program, captaining the 1997-98 installment before enrolling at Providence College. At the time of her arrival, the Friars were at a proud peak in their history. They had just seen seven of their alums and incumbent players help the icebreaking U.S. Olympic team win the first-ever women’s gold medal in Nagano.

Roth, meanwhile, would break off to join a then-evolving elite prep program at Shattuck-St. Mary’s in Faribault, Minn.

Both schools would have a turn hosting a renewed alliance between the two former Challengers. When Roth had her turn exploring college options, Kranz hosted her first formal visit to the PC campus. By the 2000-01 season, women’s hockey’s first under NCAA auspices, they were both on the Friars blue line.

Their second and final campaign as teammates culminated in an ECAC playoff title, the last Providence would compete for. Roth proceeded to step up as an upperclassman keying a run to the inaugural and second Women’s Hockey East championships.

By that time, SSM had formed a go-to pipeline to Providence. Other Faribault-formed Friars riding along on Kranz’s last hurrah included Kelli Halcisak, Ashley Payton and Rush Zimmerman. When that voyage was over, multifold employment at the Episcopal prep school 50 miles south of the Twin Cities opened as an option.

Alhough she said other acquaintances with SSM ties influenced her choice, Kranz admits the smattering of teammates played a convincing role.

“I had known about the school from playing against them and having teammates there,” she said. “In talking to my former teammates at that time that had gone to Shattuck, they let me know what a great place it was, and to know what kind of people they had become, it was a no-brainer.”

Sharpening with the Sabres

In addition to serving in administrative capacities, Kranz assumed coaching duties for the SSM Sabres girls’ varsity squad in 2002-03. The team functioned as a farm system for the perennially Nationals-bound, 19-and-under “prep” team.

Down the hall from her hockey office, the status quo was already the goal. In that particular season, future NHL talents Sidney Crosby, Jack Johnson and Drew Stafford were carrying the torch passed along by the likes of Zach Parise and Patrick Eaves. They would deliver the boys’ program’s third national crown in five years.

The girls’ program’s efforts to emulate that dynasty and become its own standard-bearer would soon reach its zenith. And the two friends who once followed their appetite to the established Challengers program would co-lead the culmination.

While Roth was seeking her next path upon graduation from Providence in the summer of 2004, an in-house regime shuffle brought Gordie Stafford (Drew’s father) to the helm of the SSM U-19ers. He would elevate Kranz to the assistant position, and the reclassified “junior prep” team needed a new director.

“The position opened up kind of late,” Roth recalled. “(Kranz) was the one who tipped me off about it, and also gave my name to the Shattuck powers that be.”

And so began the sequel. This time, they had their own dressing rooms and schedules to attend to. But as far as they and the rest of their colleagues were concerned, Kranz and Roth were again teammates of sorts on SSM’s collective coaching staff.

To amplify the bond, the two girls’ squads would take joint bus trips to weekend tournaments and showcases. And with the bench bosses of six boys’ bantam and midget teams, the coaches convened every Tuesday to feed off one another for the common cause.

“We could talk about anything,” Kranz said. “To be able to have that opportunity to sit down with coaches who had coached and played at different levels, that was a big deal.”

So was the revolution those meetings amounted to. Roth’s second season on the job saw the farm team undergo another classification change. They were now a 16-and-under squad eligible to represent the Minnkota District at USA Hockey’s 2006 national tournament.

It was there that Kranz, Stafford and their players successfully defended their title from the previous season. Future household names in Jocelyne Lamoureux, Monique Lamoureux and Brianna Decker had helped to finish what the likes of Roth, Halcisak, Payton and Zimmerman had started.

“It has been really great to see the girls’ program evolve firsthand,” said Roth, who had played in SSM’s first national tournament in 2000. “To think coming that close was exciting, to experiencing where the program is currently, it is really neat to think about how much the program has grown.

“Knowing that the players I had the opportunity to skate with, and a few prior to my time there, helped shape the program to where it is now, it is really special.”

The U-19 Sabres have since logged a fourth eventual U.S. Olympian in Amanda Kessel as another one of their alums. They have hung up a total of five national championship banners, three-peating in 2007 with the help of the Lamoureux twins, Decker and Kessel. The younger squad has claimed four of the last six titles in its age group, including each of the last three.

But neither Kranz nor Roth could stick around for any of that. New challenges came calling in the summer of 2006, a testament to SSM’s propensity for precipitously honing hockey talent and tutors alike. 

Both were bound for Division I coaching cabinets. Roth returned to Providence, where she would spend seven nonconsecutive years as one of Bob Deraney’s assistants. She sandwiched those stints around two years on Doug Derraugh’s staff at Cornell, reaching the 2011 Frozen Four. Kranz would work in Jeff Geisen’s administration at St. Cloud State for five seasons before the Blazers enlisted her in 2011.

“It really formed my coaching philosophy,” Kranz said of her experience with the Sabres. “It was a gift that I don’t take for granted at all. With the caliber of players that we had, they may have taught me more than I taught them.

“We were fortunate to have a great group. With the players that they were on the ice and the people that they were off the ice, it was no surprise that we had so much success. It did a lot to help me learn how far this game can take somebody.”

New settings, old habits

The Green Knights enter this weekend’s action on a six-game winning streak. At 8-4-0 overall, their .667 winning percentage matches that of their final record in Morgan’s valedictory season. And they have firmly guarded their third-place slot in the Northern Collegiate Hockey Association standings.

Facing more of an uphill trek in the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, the Blazers can benefit from a rigorous close to their interleague slate. Of their nonconference opponents for 2015-16, only the 10-2-0 Wisconsin-River Falls team (on tap for next Wednesday) boasts a better record than St. Norbert.

Knowing her upcoming counterpart as well as she does, Kranz would likely see no harm in Roth’s spirit leaving a residual contagion in her ice house. “She thinks the game really well, she’s really passionate about it, and someone like that is really, really great for our sport,” said the Saint Benedict skipper.

Across the center-ice glass, Roth continues to reap rewards by emulating Kranz’s career path. Though maybe not a requirement, the presence of her longtime trendsetter can be another motivational booster.

Roth hesitated to proclaim any chalk-talk advantages in preparing her pupils to solve a personal and professional acquaintance. But she is more prepared than normal, if such a state is possible, to raise awareness of the bullseye her team brandishes.

“I think the only benefit I have in knowing Coach Kranz personally for this weekend of games is I know that the matchup will be very enjoyable,” she offered with a tone of unmistakable gusto. “I also know our team will get quality games out of her team, and push us to learn and grow.

“Once the game starts, it is about our athletes and the opportunity they have to compete, learn and grow from the experience. Should be an exciting weekend of hockey.”

One that is no fewer than six years in the making. During their simultaneous tenures as Division I assistants, Kranz and Roth’s teams locked twigs only once. The SCSU Huskies drew a 4-4 knot with the PC Friars in a Jan. 2, 2010 game at St. Cloud’s National Hockey Center.

Neither party recalls the more vivid details of that game, or even whether other team-related obligations kept either of them from being on site. Regardless, the upcoming series is a milestone on its own, as both coaches will call the topmost shots from the contesting benches.

And, as Roth will be swift to remind anyone, it lights the lamp on a career-building hat trick, with one of the assists on each play going to her friend-turned-temporary-foe. College player, youth coach and now college coach.

“Any time you have the chance to line up against a friend on the other bench, it always makes it fun,” she said. “When I was thinking about the coaching opportunity here at SNC, I discussed it with Coach Kranz. She went through a similar transition, from being a Division I assistant to being a Division III head coach. I value her insight a lot.”

She may want to hold off, though, on seeking tips for taking C-cuts around clichés. But their acquaintance has been long enough for Kranz to know what phrases fit Roth’s track record and her viewpoint of it.

“It’s been a joy watching her not only grow up, but to see her — ‘blossom’ is such a cheesey word — but really blossom as a coach,” Kranz said. “It’s absolutely time for her to spread her wings and be a head coach. There’s no doubt in my mind she’s going to be a success.”

“I hope she doesn’t excel too much this weekend,” she added with a laugh, “But she’s like a littler sister to me and a really good friend, so I’m excited for her.”

 

This article originally appeared on Along the Boards