Kelly Clymer Earns Walter Yaciuk Award for Impact on Hockey in Texas and Across the Country

In the last 60 years, Kelly Clymer has witnessed it all when it comes to hockey in Texas.

After years of playing hockey, Clymer became a dedicated coach and volunteer, leading to a big impact on other coaches throughout the nation.

Due to his influence on coaching across the country, USA Hockey is honoring Clymer with the Walter Yaciuk Award, presented annually to an individual who has made an outstanding contribution to the organization’s coaching education program during many years of service as a volunteer.

“When I first got the phone call, I broke down and cried,” Clymer said. “I’m blown away, and to win this award is just staggering. I don’t think I did anything special. I just did my job.”

The award is named in honor of the late Walter Yaciuk, who was USA Hockey’s first coach-in-chief. Throughout Clymer’s coaching career, he worked hard at development, but he worked harder to maintain positive relationships with former players.

“He is the epitome of a volunteer coach, and he’s someone who is in love with the game,” said Cosmo Clarke, the Rocky Mountain District coach-in-chief. “He’s someone who wants to see kids excel at the sport. He has a true love and passion for this game, and he’s a mentor to so many people.”

When Clymer played in the 1960s, he said there were about 30 kids involved in the game in the Dallas area. Now, there are more than 130 high school hockey organizations. He first took the ice in 1968, before an organized hockey association existed in Dallas. When the Dallas Junior Hockey Association (DJHA) started three years later, Clymer began playing there. 

Clymer eventually attended North Texas University and joined the hockey team for his last two years of college.

“Hockey was good for me,” Clymer said. “It really taught me everything and it kept me out of trouble. After the day you realize your career is over and you’re not going to the show is the saddest day of your life, but I still wanted to stay involved any way that I could.”

Clymer began coaching inline hockey when his son, Taylor, was born. He returned to ice hockey in 1999 as a coach with the Texas Aces Hockey Club before becoming an assistant coach within the DJHA a year later.

“I stayed with [Taylor] quite a bit, but there were years I coached more than one team because we were hurting for coaches in Dallas those days,” Clymer said. “As my son got older, he was 6-foot-7 and had to make the decision of playing basketball for his high school or hockey. I stuck with hockey and kept coaching. It has been the highlight of my life, and it has done a lot for me.”

For the next 23 years, Clymer coached at every level in the DJHA. Most of his coaching came at the U18 before retiring in 2023. 

“The one important thing I worked hard on, not just when I was coaching teams, but also in development clinics, and everything I did, was humility,” Clymer said. “I always tried to be humble.”

Clymer joined the USA Hockey Coaching Education Program as a coach developer in 2003. There, he led clinics and educated the next generation of coaches, helping them attain a USA Hockey certification. Clymer was appointed coach-in-chief for the Texas Amateur Hockey Association in 2018, where he served until his retirement in 2023.

Clymer taught coaching clinics to several significant names in the world of hockey, including former NHL All-Stars Joe Thornton and Joe Pavelski.

“You have a lot of wannabes and pretenders in these courses, but the real guys didn’t do a lot of talking,” Clymer said. “I told [Thornton], you’re not going to learn the x’s and o’s from me, but what you’re going to learn is how to keep your butt out of the courtroom because if something goes wrong, guess who they’re going to put on the front page of the paper.”

Clymer also played a significant role in Clarke’s transition as the coach-in-chief of the Rocky Mountain District in 2020.

“He’s a true friend and a guy you can call at any time of the night,” Clarke said. “It’s great to bounce ideas off him, whether it’s hockey or not, and he’s going to give you an unbiased opinion. He’s helped mentor me into this position.”

Clymer was instrumental in the growth of the game and made an undeniable imprint on the sport throughout Texas and Oklahoma. He started during a time where fighting was widely acceptable in the game and now the sport has evolved to the point where it features cutting-edge technology and structure models for coaches to follow.

“I want you to imagine hockey in a place like Laredo, Texas, where a father accepted a job to coach a hockey team because they don’t have anyone,” Clymer said. “The kids can’t skate, and he doesn’t know what to do … the USA Hockey structure is a great tool he can use to help.”

Clymer helped bring that structure to life, and throughout his career, made profound impacts on players and coaches that crossed his path.

“All I judged my kids on were passion and effort,” Clymer said. “My secret is always being humble. It has been flattering.”

Story from Red Line Editorial, Inc.

Source: usahockey.com