Fine art of recruiting is Osiecki’s gift and passion
November 24, 2016 | Men's Hockey, Andy Baggot
Associate head coach Mark Osiecki is leading the charge in building Badgers’ talented future rosters
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BY ANDY BAGGOT
UWBadgers.com Insider
MADISON, Wis. — Mark Osiecki didn't know it at the time, but his gift for persuasion came to life at a pretty young age.
He was your average teenager in the early 1980s, a kid who loved hockey in large part because his father, Tom, was the coach at Burnsville (Minnesota) High School.
One summer Mark was taking part in a popular hockey camp in Brainerd when he struck up a friendship with Don Granato that endures to this day.
"We were camp counselors, so we were there for multiple weeks," said Granato, who was 15 at the time. "Mr. Osiecki was coaching, so Mark and I would stay in the dorms with the younger kids.
"On the weekends we'd stay in the dorms, but it would just be us and maybe a couple other counselors."
Osiecki, a rugged defenseman, and Granato, a swift center from Downers Grove, Illinois, found they had much in common as they skated and trained during their free time. They shared a passion for the game and its countless nuances. They were similarly intense and driven. The only thing better than playing hockey was talking about it.
"Fun times," Granato said. "We connected."
At some point in their discussions, Granato mentioned that he might take his skills to Northwood Prep School, a highly regarded hockey power located in Lake Placid, New York. It's where Granato's older brother, Tony, had become an elite college and NHL prospect. Younger brother Rob was looking at it, too.
"Why would you go to Northwood when you could come to Burnsville?" Osiecki asked.
The question gave way to Granato agreeing to join forces with his friend. They won a state championship together as prep seniors in 1985. They found their way to Wisconsin where they won an NCAA championship in 1990.
Now they've come full circle. The two friends work together as associate head coaches at their alma mater with Tony Granato serving as the UW head coach. The three men are 10 games into their first season, a project that currently has them getting the Badgers (6-4 overall) prepared to play non-conference games at Colorado College on Friday night and Denver on Saturday night.
The three coaches comfortably share duties on every level, including recruiting, which is the top priority for a six-time NCAA championship program trying to regain its footing among the national elite after two subpar seasons.
But both Granatos refer to Osiecki as the staff leader on talent acquisition.
"He's the director of recruiting," Tony said. "It's not an official title for him, but everything that Donny and I do we go through him." This makes Don Granato something of a milestone.
"I was Oz's first recruit," he said with a laugh.
The pitch was vintage Osiecki: A mix of persistence, seriousness and friendly banter.
"It felt like the right place, the right decision," Granato recalled of his temporary move to Burnsville, where he lived with a billet family a block from the Osieckis. "Complete comfort."
Osiecki is known for tutoring NHL-caliber defensemen, but also as one of the premier talent evaluators and salesmen at the college level.
From 2004 to '10, he was an assistant under former UW coach Mike Eaves, overseeing the blue-line corps and helping to lure world-class talent to Madison as the recruiting coordinator.
Osiecki was onboard when the Badgers won the NCAA title in 2006 and reached the national championship game in 2010.
He was so accomplished that 22 players brought in on his watch went on to play in the NHL, including 10 defensemen.
Of those drafted by NHL teams from 2005 to '10, five were first-round picks and six were selected in the second round.
Osiecki spent three seasons as head coach at Ohio State from 2010 to '13, then moved to the pros as an assistant with the American Hockey League affiliate in Rockford, Illinois.
Recruiting can be a grind — winter travel to see prospects in Canada and the Midwest is a crapshoot — but Osiecki relishes it in part because it represents a daily, all-out challenge with other schools.
"The recruiting side now has evolved into a competitive state, so it's a competitive game," he said. "I like it. I like it a lot."
What makes Osiecki such an effective recruiter? The answer plays out every day when Granato and Co. arrive at their Kohl Center headquarters.
"It consumes him," Don Granato said. "It's every day. We'll walk in there and he'll be talking about recruiting with someone.
"He's a great recruiter because he's always at the forefront. He's driven on that front. He's passionate about it.
"There's never a doubt that the University of Wisconsin is interested in you when he's recruiting you."
Tony Granato said Osiecki is a gifted teacher of defensemen whose ability to communicate with his charges is distinctive.
"You might have all these good ideas, but how do you get the player to not only hear you, but be able to play it?" Granato asked rhetorically. "With Mark there's a well thought-out plan to get the player to understand the message very quickly."
But Granato said recruiting is "where Oz will have his biggest impact" on the future of the program.
"It's the work you put into it," Granato said of connecting with recruits and their inner circles. "You've got to be there to see him. You've got to be there to meet the family. You've got to be there to get to know his coach. You've got to know what kind of character the kid has.
"There's no short cuts with Mark Osiecki. He doesn't know what that means."
Osiecki has said his idea of the ideal Wisconsin recruit would be a mix of Adam Burish, Ryan McDonagh and Blake Geoffrion.
Burish was captain of the 2006 NCAA title team and played nine seasons in the NHL after signing as a free agent. McDonagh, a first-round NHL draft pick, is the captain of the New York Rangers. Geoffrion, a second-round NHL draft choice, is the lone Hobey Baker Award winner in program history (2010).
"I thought they were three incredible leaders who bleed red and white," Osiecki said. "Maybe not the most gifted player on the ice, but their intangibles are off the charts."
Peter Goloubef remembers how Osiecki recruited and landed his son Cody, a second-round NHL draft pick of Columbus in 2008.
"Who's going to mentor your child as he continues his hockey evolution?" Peter said. "Mark did a great job of providing a solid understanding of what he would do and how he would mentor Cody."
Lester Smith said his son Brendan, a first-round NHL draft pick of Detroit in 2007, appreciated the environment Osiecki created for all UW defensemen.
"He's Brendan's favorite coach of all-time," Lester Smith said of his son, who was a Hobey Baker finalist in 2010.
The elder Smith referenced the amazing fact that all six UW defensemen who played in the NCAA title game in 2010 — Goloubef, Smith, McDonagh, Jake Gardiner, John Ramage and Justin Schultz — reached the NHL and had the same college instructor.
"He demands 100 percent. He gives 100 percent," Lester Smith said of Osiecki. "You realize that he walks the walk.
"He was serious. I've got your back. You've got my back. It's full on."
Lester Smith credited Osiecki with introducing his charges to the art of blocking shots.
"That's the way it is in the NHL now," Smith said. "Mark was cutting edge there."
Don Granato said Osiecki approaches recruiting the same way he takes on projects like updating pictures and displays in the UW dressing room.
"He's a perfectionist," Granato said. "He knows how he wants something done and he demands that it be done that way."
The former Burnsville teammates are a lot alike.
"If we're going to musky fish, we're going for the biggest fish in the lake and we're going until the sun goes down," Don Granato said. "If we're doing something, it's 'What's the best?' and that's what we're going after."
Like recruits.
Like championships.
