Head Coach: Colten St. Clair
The Minnesota Wilderness announce 30-year-old Colten St. Clair as the 6th head coach in the franchise’s history. Before joining the Wilderness, Colten spent the last season as associate head coach of the USHL’s Sioux City Musketeers. In his first season with Sioux City, he helped guide the team to a Clark Cup championship. Before the start of the 2022-23 campaign, the role of assistant general manager was added to his duties. Prior to joining the Musketeers staff, St. Clair spent two seasons as an assistant coach with the Omaha Lancers of the USHL, one season as a volunteer assistant with the University of Maine. As a player, St. Clair played 4 years at the University of North Dakota capped off by winning the National Championship in 2016. He played his junior hockey for the Fargo Force in the USHL for 3 seasons.
Assistant and Goalie Coach: Patrick “Packy” Munson
Assistant Coach and Goalie Coach Patrick Munson returns for his second season with the Minnesota Wilderness. Prior to joining last year’s team, Munson played 4 years of professional hockey in the United States and Europe. Before playing professionally, Packy played college hockey for the University of Denver and Michigan Tech University. Munson was a part of the 2017 National Championship team at DU and was the WCHA playoff MVP while winning the WCHA Playoffs at Michigan Tech. Before playing college hockey, Packy was a two year member of the Fairbanks Ice Dogs in the NAHL and won the Robertson Cup in 2014.
Director of Player Development: Steve Pitoscia
The Wilderness are excited to have Steve Pitoscia join on as Director of Player Development. Steve has been coaching hockey for over 25 years. Pitoscia spent many years developing some of the best players to come out of the Duluth area. In 2019, he was named a scout for the USHL Omaha Lancers while coaching their U16 and U18 teams. Since 2021 “Pit” has been the Head Coach for the Duluth East Greyhounds while continuing to scout for the USHL and NAHL. We are very excited to have Steve be a part of the Wilderness staff and be an intrical part in scouting and recruiting future players.
Head Scout: Sean Fish
Sean Fish is back for his 8th season with the Minnesota Wilderness as the team’s Head Scout. Sean has been coaching and scouting for the past 11 seasons following his collegiate career at University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point. Sean is currently the head coach for Orono High School and continues to be a staple of the Minnesota Wilderness organization in finding future Wilderness players.
Midwest Scout: Shaun Meinke
Shaun Meinke joins on with the Minnesota Wilderness as the teams Midwest Scout. Shaun has been around the game of hockey from a young age and has a diverse post playing career as a coach, GM, and scout at the youth, junior, and college level. Shaun’s role of being on the road scouting and recruiting top Minnesota High School talent as well as covering top U18/U16 AAA hockey events for the Minnesota Wilderness.