The lobby of Ridder Arena looked a little different a few weeks ago than it did during Taylor Heise's playing days there. Instead of college hockey players roaming around the rink, young children filled the space, wearing Minnesota Frost t-shirts and hauling their own hockey bags as they arrived for camp.
Heise made her name in that building as one of the most decorated players to ever wear a Gophers sweater, and now she's using it to build something of her own. The building that once hosted her own rise through college hockey is now the site of the camp she has long dreamed of running.
For the kids packing the lobby in Frost gear, the setting carries its own weight. Ridder Arena has been home to championship college hockey for years, and getting to learn the game inside those same walls, from a player who once starred there, is the kind of experience that sticks with young skaters long after camp ends.
It's a full-circle turn for Heise, trading the role of college star for the one running the show, and doing it in the same arena where her own path through Gophers hockey took shape.