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NU Steel’s Witta enjoying hockey life

NEW ULM – The game of hockey means a lot to a lot to New Ulm Steel hockey coach Jay Witta.

“It has been a big part of our family growing up,” he said. “With four boys who all played at once and one year we had four different teams. Bennett is the oldest at 19, Brody is 15 and Brooks and Griffin are 13. Three years ago Griffin stopped playing in squirts so that got us down to three playing hockey. So growing up hockey has been huge.”

Witta grew up in a hockey family, where his brothers all played even though his dad never did.

“Hockey has been a big part of my life since I was 6,” Witta said.

Witta, like his sons, all are playing or have played hockey for Minnetonka High School.

“I played JV in 1985 and then varsity in 1986 and 1987,” Witta said. “And Bennett played from 2012-2014 and then his senior year he began playing for the Steel.”

Jay Witta kept his hockey career going after graduating from Minnetonka when he played for St. Cloud State University in its first year as a Division I program.

“I was recruited by Herb Brooks who ended up taking the North Stars coaching job later that year,” he said. “When Herb left, Craig Dahl became our head coach and Mike Eaves was our assistant coach. I made the team as a defenseman.”

Witta was sent up to Humboldt, Saskatchewan, a town of less than 6,000 people to hone his hockey skills in junior hockey, where he changed positions.

“I played forward there and lasted about three months and came home and went to school,” he said. “That was it for playing hockey for me.”

But that was not the end of hockey in his life.

His oldest son, Bennett, began playing hockey when he was 3 years old with his father Jay coaching him.

“He has coached a ton of my teams,” Bennett Witta said. “He has always been there. Having him in junior hockey is fun – he is pretty fair as a coach – but at times he is a little harder on me.”

This season, even though they are father and son on the New Ulm Steel, they live separate from each other.

Jay lives and works in Minnetonka and commutes Tuesday through Thursday to New Ulm for daily practices and then to weekend games either in New Ulm on contests on the road.

Bennett is now billeting in Courtland with his host family after playing for the Northeast Generals of the NA3HL in Boston.

“I have always wanted to travel and it was a cool experience,” said Bennett, a 6-foot-3, 200-pound defenseman. “But I started missing everyone and that was difficult – missing my family, my girlfriend and all of my friends back here.”

Bennett also missed old teammates because last year he started playing for the then-Twin City Steel.

“I love the game of hockey,” Bennett Witta said. “Anyone who plays hockey has it. All of the life lessons that you have learned is from hockey. it is so much more than just a game.”

Coming back to play for his father for the Steel is also important.

“It is pretty cool,” he said. “It is a nice setup [in New Ulm]. Out East, there are a ton of different teams, here you have a community.”

And a hockey family.

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