No, the Metro League does not consist of juvenile delinquents. Nor does it host thugs that are out on the ice looking for their next cheap shot, scrum or brawl.

The Metro League is better known as the largest Junior Gold hockey league in Minnesota, and if a young man is playing Junior Gold, it means he’s not playing for his high school hockey team. As Slaird knows, that can be tough for a parent, and a Minnesota kid, to take.

“The challenge with parents who have kids playing up through Squirts, Peewees and Bantams is that they don’t want to know about Junior Gold,” says Slaird, in his third year as commissioner, and 12th overall on the Metro League Board. “The dream for them is that their kids will play varsity hockey. So they don’t want to be taught about Junior Gold. They feel it’s a bad omen, or bad luck to even think about it.”

Playing in Junior Gold means you won’t be getting a hockey patch on your high school letter jacket. You won’t be playing in front of a packed Xcel Energy Center crowd in March. You won’t be interviewed by a local TV personality after helping bring a State title back to your school.

Perhaps parents and their kids would take more comfort with their son playing for a Junior Gold team if they knew a bit more about the League’s founding father, the late Wes Barrette, and his disciples, the current Junior Gold coaches found all over the state.

Taking their cue from Barrette, who saw the need for playing options other than high school, this tightly-knit group of long-tenured coaches provides both a league to play hockey, and a prep course for life beyond high school.

“Wes always said, ‘they’re better off playing with us than roaming the streets,” remembered Bruce Kruger, whose history with Barrette and the Metro League spans four decades.

But the Metro League doesn’t serve as an outlet for high school castoffs, so they can whittle their teen years away by goofing off at the rink. Whether he intended to or not, the League Barrette helped create has shaped the futures of young men for 45 years by his ability to balance discipline and caring.

Barrette’s rules for his players were etched in stone, and they included: No cussing, no drinking and no one refers to their parents as “my old man,” or “my old lady.”

On the flip side, there were some unwritten rules, such as players were welcomed at Wes’ house at any time, for dinner, or just to talk hockey and life.

High school can be a cruel age, and in Minnesota, the shattered dream of not making the high school team can affect a kid profoundly. Junior Gold coaches learn quickly how to manage the emotions of each player, and get them to enjoy playing hockey again.

Barrette knew his rock-crushing hands – well-known for their vice-like hold during a handshake – needed to be used more to give encouraging pats on the back.

The coaches, who are carrying his torch, have cultivated those skills in their dealings with today’s Junior Gold squads.

“Every kid is different, and you don’t know how each of them is going to handle their entry into Junior Gold,” said Rick Barnes, a long-time assistant to Bill Smith with the Edina Junior Gold program, and one of two recipients for the 2009 Wes Barrette award, which is given annually to the League’s Coach of the Year. “They all handle the disappointment of a high school cut differently. At that first practice of the season, you can tell who is fired up, and who is hanging their head. You really have to pay attention to that when you’re pushing them.”

“What I’ve found over the years, is that by the end of the year, they are so happy that they did it. It turned out to be a great thing for them.”

Barnes is sensitive to that feeling of disappointment, having been cut from his Edina high school team as a senior. After playing junior varsity hockey at St. Cloud State, he returned home where he partnered up with Smith for a coaching tandem that is still going strong 20 years later.

“I often hear parents say that the best years for their kids in hockey were either Squirt B’s, or Junior Gold,” said Barnes, who tackles more of the on-ice and bench duties, while Smith handles the mentoring role. “Neither level has that pressure of making the ‘A’ team, or the varsity team. The kids begin to relax and have fun. They enjoy coming to the rink.”

Barnes, and other Junior Gold coaches appear to be cut from the same cloth as Barrette, returning each year in a volunteer role, simply for the love of coaching and seeing a youngster come back for another year of playing for him.

But in the fraternity that is Junior Gold coaching, the 39-year-old Barnes is just a kid.

“I’ve been around for a long time,” said Barnes of receiving the Barrette award. “It is an honor because I know all of the other winners, and I look up to those guys. You look around the League, there’s going to be guys that have been around 15 years or more. They keep coming back.”

Among those who keep coming back is Randy Schmitt, the other 2009 Wes Barrette award winner, inherited “Wessy’s Boys,” the team Barrette coached right up until his death in 1998 at age 70.

Schmitt’s son played for Barrette, and a friendship based out of mutual respect and admiration led to Schmitt being entrusted with Wes’ team, and eventually, Wes’ award.

“(The award) really means a lot to me, because Wes…I get emotional when I talk about Wes, and I don’t really know what to say,” said Schmitt.

Schmitt does his best to live up to the standards that Barrette set, realizing these are kids, but not treating them that way.

“What Wes did was he treated every kid like an adult,” said Schmitt. “And that’s how he earned their respect. He knew how to treat them with kid gloves, but he got them to respond by treating them like adults. My son, who’s now assisting me, and I try to remember that when we work with these kids.”

Barrette spent 45 years in hockey, and was the inaugural inductee into the Herb Brooks Foundation Hall of Fame in 2005. If you didn’t play, or didn’t have a son that played Junior Gold hockey, there’s a good chance you hadn’t heard of him.

Yet, his legacy of developing good citizens, who are also good hockey players, is still being passed down from Junior Gold coaches in the 65 Metro teams, the three Northern Minnesota teams, and the six to eight B teams in Southern Minnesota.

Slaird says he is always looking to grow Junior Gold hockey in Minnesota, and their is always several challenges, especially as kids look to other activities. Coach retention doesn’t appear to be one of the challenges.

Why do these men, who have full-time jobs and full-time family lives keep coming back? They know, and they see, what happens as these boys develop their character and grow into men through hockey’s lessons.

“To this day, I can only come up with one answer about why he did this for so long. And it’s very corny, but he just loved those kids. That’s why he did it. He just loved the kids, and that’s what I see with this year’s winners of the Wes Barrette award.”

“When Wes died, his funeral had people lined outside the church for blocks. During the service, a speaker asked that all of Wes’ former players stand up, and 75% of the congregation was on its feet, some of them in their 50’s.

It’s safe to say that a large number of those sitting down, were parents of Barrette’s former players, and all were glad they, along with their sons, learned about Junior Gold hockey.