Velocity Hockey Center

Meet the Velocity Hockey Center Team of Instructors

Noel Rahn brings 25 years of hockey experience to the Velocity Hockey Center.  He has owned the Velocity Hockey Center for 3 years.  Under his ownership he has designed and developed one of the country's Top Hockey Training Facility.It is suited for all levels of athletes for both on and off ice training.

Rahn grew up playing his youth hockey in Edina where he played all 3 years of Varsity hockey.  During his junior season his Edina hornets won the Minnesota State High School Hockey Title in 1988.  Following high school, Rahn went on to play at the University of Wisconsin where he won the National Championship his freshman season. His final two years of WCHA hockey he played for the St. Cloud State Huskies. During that time, Rahn was drafted by the Quebec Nordiques in the 1989 NHL Entry Draft.

After his playing days, Rahn became a player agent with his brother-in-law Brian Lawton who currently is the GM of the Tampa Bay Lightning of the National Hockey League.  Rahn's duties as an agent for Lawton Sport and Financial included recruiting and identifying talent at all levels around the world.  During Noel's employment many of the young prospects he represented are currently playing or played in the NHL.  Noel was monumental in developing the agency which was later sold to Octagon.

Most recently, as an NHL amateur scout for the Phoenix Coyotes and Minnesota Wild, Rahn focused on scouting prospects in the High School, Major Junior, and College ranks around the world.

Coach Rahn is currently very active in coaching and assisitng many of his Boys and Girls AAA teams at the Velocity Hockey Center.  He has coached and developed some outstanding players/teams recently in the "1992", "1996", "1999" and "2002" Boys teams.  These teams have won numerous championships at the INVITE levels.  Many of his players have gone on to play Juniors, Division I College or are currently playing Varsity Hockey at a very young age.

Noel has a variety of experiences instructing as well as coaching all levels of hockey ranging from youth hockey to High School Hockey to College Hockey all the way to the NHL.  In the year of 2006 he led his Eden Prairie Peewee “A” team to the 2006 State Tournament Title with a 55-2 record.

Currently Coach Rahn is the Head Varsity High School Boys Coach at Holy Family Catholic School.

Ken brings over 15 years of professional hockey knowledge and hockey training skills both as a player and coach to the Velocity Hockey Center.

Ken has played all levels of hockey: Minnesota High School Hockey, USHL Junior A, Division I and Division III college hockey. Ken won a National Championship while playing with UW-River Falls and also received a degree in Health and Human Performance with a minor in Coaching.

Ken played professionally in the East Coast Hockey League (ECHL), United Hockey League (UHL), and Central Hockey League (CHL) for six years and overseas for six years in Sweden, Demark, France and Germany. Ken has coached at the Junior level in Sweden.

After completing his playing and coaching overseas, Ken returned to Minnesota and coached Minnesota High School Hockey as an assistant coach at Orono where he was voted Coach of the Year twice and was behind the bench for two State Tournament appearances. He was an assistant with the Faribault Falcons High School in Southern Minnesota where he was Section 1A assistant coach of the year in '08-'09. Ken is also the Director of Player Developmment for the Eden Prairie Hockey Association. Ken is currently an Assistant High School Hockey Coach with Holy Family Catholic School. 

He has instructed at many U.S.A. camps and worked with NHL players, both on and off the ice.

Jayme is currently in his third year with the Velocity Hockey Team after 10 years of experience in Division I Athletics. He has been under the tutelage of some of the most respected coaches in the field of training athletes through Strength/Speed/Conditioning and Performance Enhancement. He has also trained with and coached a plethora of Professional, Olympic and USA Champions.

Jayme has a double master’s degree in exercise physiology and cardiac physiology from Minnesota State University, Mankato. While obtaining these degrees he served as an assistant strength coach for the Maverick's Men's and Womenn's Hockey Teams. In this role, he was able to exercise and implement his knowledge gained from his education at MSU.

Jayme is currently the lead Strength and Conditioning Instructor at Velocity Hockey Center. He creates age specific hockey performance programs relative to each individual athlete. He is responsible for training a large spectrum of athletes ranging from the Squirt level to National Hockey League Level. Jayme is recognized for his ability to create and implement programs that have been and are proven to heighten and improve a player's athletic ability.

His Bachelors of Science was completed through the school of Kinesiology at the University of Minnesota.

DeRick O'Connell was a multi sport athlete in high school. He was the captain of the football team, a two way starter as well as playing all special teams. After high school, he attended UW-Stout for two years where he was a collegiate athlete before moving to the Twin Cities to focus on his education. He graduated with a Bachelor's degree as a Health and Fitness Specialist and is currently working on his Master's degree in Human Performance with a minor focus on Injury Prevention.

Though young in the field, he has worked with some of the best possible coaches both on the high school and collegiate level. DeRick spent two years working at Wayzata High School with strength and conditioning coach Ryan Johnson. Coach Johnson is one of the most well-respected high school strength coaches in Minnesota. During this time DeRick worked with over 600 athletes ranging in age from 13 to 19.

After leaving Wayzata, he then took a position in the strength and conditioning department at the University of Minnesota. While in this position DeRick worked with men's and women's Olympic sports under the guidance of strength coaches Sara Wiley and Cal Dietz. Sara Wiley was the 2008 National Strength and Conditioning Coach of the Year and Cal Dietz is a frequent presenter at local and national conferences, a nationally renowned strength and conditioning coach, as well as the owner of XLathlete.com. DeRick has taken a role in coaching All-Americans, Olympians, National Champions, Big 10 Champions and Professional level athletes. He is also actively coaching a 2010 National Olympic Weightlifting competitor.

The Velocity Hockey Center is happy to announce that we have added Craig Shepherd to the Velocity Hockey Center staff.  He brings a wealth of hockey knowledge to the program and will be involved in our Camps and AAA Programs.

Craig Shepherd will also be beginning his first season as the head J.V. coach and assistant varsity coach at Holy Family Catholic. 

He has over 16 years of hockey coaching experience including high school, Jr., and professional levels of hockey.  Craig has coached in both Germany and in Russia, and has coached in the USA Hockey/Reebok Select 16’s Festival. This fall Craig served as head coach for team Minnesota in the NAHL/NAPHL Showcase, as well  as being head coach for team Southwest in the Elite Player Development League.  

As an amateur player Craig was a member of the 1984 Edina Hornets State Championship team. He played college hockey at Michigan State University, where he helped the Spartans win two C.C.H.A. championships, and make two N.C.A.A. Frozen Four appearances.  Previous to Michigan State Craig played one season at U.S. International University helping the Gulls win the G.W.H.L. championship.  

Professionally as a player he attended N.H.L. training camps with the Calgary Flames, and the Pittsburgh Penguins, played professionally in Germany, and was also the first non Russian player to play for Dynamo, Moscow in the former Soviet Elite League.  In addition to coaching, Craig is an instrument rated commercial helicopter pilot, and F.A.A. certified flight instructor for helicopters; and has run his own business for the last 15 years.

Craig will serve as the head coach of the 2001 Velocity AAA team this upcoming spring.

Chuck Lobe enters his third season serving as Strength and Conditioning Coach with the Tampa Bay Lightning.  Lobe oversees all planning for in- and off-season player workout regiments to optimize performance.

Before joining the Lightning, Lobe served as the head strength and conditioning coach for Minnesota State University from 2004-08.   While at MSU he oversaw the strength and conditioning operation for all 23 sport programs at the school. During that time he was part of more than 23 conference championships, working with more than 60 All-Americans. Lobe worked with multiple national and conference record holders and helped the athletic department improve to fourth in the Director’s Cup for division II schools. He also helped build the foundation, which led MSU to the 2009 NCAA Women’s Basketball National Championship.

A graduate of the University of Minnesota, Lobe spent six years working in various strength and conditioning positions with the Gopher athletic program prior to joining Minnesota State.  Lobe began working with Gopher student athletes as an intern in 1998 and became a graduate assistant in 2002 and a full-time assistant in 2003.  During that time he helped train seven national championship teams in four different sports, training more than 120 All-Americans in a variety of sports.

During the off-season, Chuck resides in Minnesota and helps train hockey players at the Velocity Hockey Center.  His training duties include training players from the Tampa Bay Lightning as well as many local Minnesota players currently playing hockey at a Division I and III College level, High School and Juniors (USHL/NAHL)

Nick joined the Velocity Hockey Center Team in early 2011 as the Head Director of Goalie Development with over 15 years of hockey experience. 

Nick was born and raised in Winona, MN and his passion for hockey began at the young age of 5 as a forward.  He sees his forward training as a blessing because he learned skating skills, how to shoot the puck and also built stick handling skills; all of which are crucial for the modern goaltender.  Nick transitioned to goalie at age 13 through his persistency and was called up to Varsity in 8^th grade for the Winona Winhawk High School team. He was named Most Improved Player in '94 and MVP in '96. His success on the ice included a save percentage consistently above the .900 mark as well as a goals against average of under 2.00 spanning the majority of his high school career (he still shares the school record for most assists and penalties by a goaltender).  Nick joined the U.W. Stout Bluedevils in the '97-'98 season during their transition from a successful Club team to a Division III team. 

After graduating from U. W. Stout with a Business Degree, Nick trained and worked closely for over two years under the guidance of NHL Professional Goaltender Robb Stauber and his certified goalie instructors at Stauber's Goalcrease.   Nick became a certified goalie instructor himself in 2008.  Nick's responsibilities were working with goaltenders of all ages in various group sizes as well as different types of goaltending clinics around the state.  

Besides his expertise in goaltending instruction, Nick also was the Pro Shop Manager at Stauber’s Goalcrease from '07–'10.  His duties included sizing, fitting and recommending all the proper equipment needed for all young goaltenders to gain confidence and perform at their highest level.  He also currently works at Sports World USA as the Goalie Equipment Specialist.  Nick still plays Men's "A" level hockey three or more nights per week and is passionate about developing goaltenders and seeing them evolve.

Dylan joined the Velocity family in the summer of 2011 as the Assistant Coach in Goaltender Development.

 Dylan was a three-year starting goaltender in high school where he won All-Conference honors, and in his senior year he was voted team MVP and won the Matt Strelow Memorial Award, which is voted on by the team.  After high school, he moved on to play for St. Mary’s University in his hometown of Winona, MN; he also played baseball and tennis at SMU.  After college, Dylan pursued graduate degrees (MS and PhD) in Earth Sciences at the University of Minnesota.  Although school took up much of his time, he continued playing on various “club” teams and began his coaching career.  He has experience coaching boys and girls teams of various levels, the most recent being the Bantam A team in St. Louis Park; he was also selected to coach in the Minnesota Selects girls tournament.

More recently Dylan has focused on goaltender development.  In addition to training goalies at Velocity, he is the lead goalie instructor for Eden Prairie Hockey Association where he attends team practices throughout the season and runs clinics for all goaltenders affiliated with the association. 

The goaltending position is rapidly evolving and driven by innovative styles and techniques.  As a result, Dylan believes there is no one correct way to play the position and works to develop each goaltender according to their individual strengths. 

Tony brings over 15 years of officiating experience to the Velocity Officials School.

After graduating from Harvard University in 1993, Lancette continued his officiating career in District 8 through USA Hockey. He has worked several state tournaments at the youth levels, most recently the 2007 A-Bantam state tournament in Alexandria. In 2001, Tony was selected to officiate the National Tier I Bantam Tournament.

Lancette began his high school officiating career in 1996 with the Minneapolis Hockey Officials Association.

He has worked four boys' high school state tournaments, in 2002 and 2003 as a linesman and a referee for the 2005 and 2006 tournaments.

His experience also includes section finals for both the boys and girls. Lancette joined the collegiate ranks in 2000 at the D-III level. Within two seasons, he was selected to the playoff staff. In 2005, he refereed the NCHA Final Four in DePere, WI.

This upcoming season, Tony will be entering his fourth season as an Assistant Referee on the Men's WCHA staff.

In 2005, he worked the Sunshine Classic in Estero, FL that included Cornell, Northeastern, Maine and UMD. Last season, Lancette worked the CHA Final Five Championship in Des Moines, IA.