Mass Hockey: One of the most noble things in youth sports, is a coach or volunteer who keeps coaching or volunteering after their own kids have moved on from a particular age or the game. You have that template in your dad. What did it, or does it now, mean to have seen him still in hockey when all his kids were adults, some with kids of their own?

Kelleher: He had that love for all sports, all those sports I mentioned, and he did it for so long with all of us. 

I don’t think he would’ve known what to do if he wasn’t coaching after that. It was such a big part of his life and my mom’s life. 

He used to say, “When I coach these kids, I see you and your brothers’ faces out there.” It was something that was always huge for him. And you talk about communities and hometowns, and Belmont was his community. He was rare and he was uniquely dedicated to his community. 

It was just his way of giving back and doing good by all generations of Belmontonians.

Mass Hockey: Now you’re in this spot of significant influence within the game [Kelleher was named Executive Director in 2017]. Do you have a philosophy or an operating system on how you approach your role?

Kelleher: It goes back to loving the game at the core, remembering, as we’re at the World Juniors, that the international competitions and those things are really enjoyable, but, more, that parents are bringing their kids to rinks all over the country. 

To me, that’s what gets me out of bed or makes me excited to be a part of USA Hockey – the volunteers and all the people who do that. 

And when we’re at the World Juniors, coming up in the Olympics and Paralympics, when I talk about these things, I say these players didn’t just show up at this platform, this event or this place. 

Somebody tied their skates when they were six. Somebody drove them to the rink. A neighbor coached them. All of that stuff is really what makes it so great. There’s that connectivity that everybody who is a part of the game feels. And so it’s cool to be in the role that I get to have, just to try to make sure we never lose sight of that connectivity from the grassroots of Learn to Play to the World Juniors and international hockey.

Mass Hockey: This past calendar year for USA Hockey has been pretty spectacular. A quick look back: breaking 93-year-old droughts at Men’s Worlds, a Rivalry Series sweep for the women, the 4 Nations was a hit and in sled hockey Team USA won the 2025 Para Hockey Cup in early December. What has it been like to be the biggest fan for that international hockey over the past few months?

Kelleher: It certainly is a culmination for all these tremendous athletes, first and foremost. And we’ve had success along the way, certainly on our women’s and sled sides and in the World Juniors we’ve had success. 

And that has been great – coaches, athletes, people behind the scenes, so many of them, and such great depth of programs and people doing things the right way for the betterment of kids and players and athletes – but the thing we’ve really talked about is that on the men’s international side we have to win a world championship and, ultimately, have to win an Olympics and we have to have best-on-best, as well. And we haven’t quite done that. 

The 4 Nations was a great event right up until it wasn’t a great event at the very end. But it was incredible for our game across the country with the excitement and enthusiasm around it. We’ve been pushing the past four or five or six years, really focused on how we win the Men’s World Championship. We made a plan on that. 

John Vanbiesbrouck and I enlisted Billy Guerin to be really the GM of our men’s national team program over the past three years [Guerin, born in Worcester and raised in Wilbraham, is also General Manager of the Minnesota Wild]. That means 4 Nations and Olympics and World Championships in between. As an organization, it was a sticking point, a sore point. We’ve done so much and we’ve won a lot of different things, but we haven’t won at the highest level on the men’s side. 

We made a big step on the men’s worlds, for a little bit of relief, and it was a great year in 2025, the most successful international one in our history, and now we have to do it again. 

We have to ramp it up, and the stage gets bigger and the lights get brighter when you talk about the Olympics and Paralympics. But we feel like we’re positioned in our men’s and women’s and sled programs to do that. 

And our expectation, and I’ve said this many times publicly, is that our plan is to go to Italy and we want to come home with three gold medals. We are capable, and we believe we can do it. And I think sometimes we have to speak it out loud and not be shy to say that’s what we’re going for.

North Korea isn’t quite a traditional footballing powerhouse, but in recent years, the nation’s youth women’s national teams have been nothing if not dominant. 

The Hermit Kingdom. International Pariah. Terrorist State.

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The very name of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, or North Korea, evokes sentiments of dystopia, dictatorship, and backwardness. Compared to their cosmopolitan, larger-than-life neighbors to the south, the communist north presents as a gray morass of state-mandated conformity and suppression.

Its mercurial leader, Kim Jong-Un, is as close to an international boogeyman as exists in modern geopolitics, frequently portrayed as an unhinged madman with his finger hovering perilously above the nuclear button. North Korea’s citizens are subjected to an overwhelming onslaught of state propaganda in nearly all facets of life, attempting to convince them that the world is out to get them and that they stand alone against the capitalist monsters at their doorstep.

For more than half a century, soccer has been called, almost past the point of irony, the beautiful game. It emphasizes creative expression, ecstatic play, and the exhilaration of enigmatic moments and personalities above all else. So how in the world has North Korea, which embodies the very converse of these ideals, been so immensely successful in the arena of women’s youth soccer?

Unparalleled Success

It’s exceedingly difficult to brand any youth international team a “powerhouse.” After all, the nature of these teams is that players age out of them. You might get a golden generation here and there that wins big throughout various age groups, but those players invariably graduate to the senior level, where they either sink or swim (in many cases the former). The North Korean women’s youth national teams, on the other hand, have laid down a marker at international competitions in recent years that is not likely to be replicated by any team in the world.

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On November 8, 2025, in Rabat, Morocco, the DPRK’s U-17 women’s side went up against their Dutch counterparts for the world title. The Netherlands rode their luck to get to this stage, scraping by on penalties against the United States and France before eking out a 1-0 win against Mexico in the semifinals. The Dutch were considered a big, physical side that no one in their right mind would want to play against.

The final against North Korea, however, was a forgone conclusion. The young Dutch stood not a snowball’s chance in hell. They’d been drubbed in the group stage by their Asian opponents, arriving at an embarrassing 5-0 scoreline that left little doubt as to which was the better side.

It was over seemingly before it began. The ferocious and fearless North Koreans pounced on every loose ball and ran out to a 3-0 lead before halftime. The goals themselves were amateurish at best, emblematic of a supremely confident squad taking on an overwhelmed opponent who was truly out of its depth. The Dutch conceded via the failure to clear a looping ball, then by turning over deep in their own territory, and finally by playing an underhit backpass, which was gobbled up by North Korea’s Pak Rye-Yong.

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Star 16-year-old striker Yu Jong-hyang took home the Golden Ball award for best player of the tournament, and bagged the Golden Boot for her eight goals in the competition.

Following the match, Dutch coach Olivier Amelink was magnanimous, telling FIFA.com, “I don’t think we could have beaten them. I think the gap between Korea DPR and us is simply too big to compete with them at the moment.”

The tournament in Morocco was the fourth edition of the Women’s U-17 World Cup, won by the DPRK for the second time in as many years. It is the most successful team in the history of the competition, but the fireworks don’t end with that age group. The North Korea Women’s U-20 team has won the World Cup three times, most recently in 2024, with victories over traditional powerhouses the United States, Japan, and Brazil en route.

Pyongyang Academy

The crown jewel of the North Korean sporting establishment is the Pyongyang International Football Academy. Opened in 2012, the academy is a sprawling three-acre modern soccer training facility located just to the southwest of the national team’s home, May Day Stadium, in the heart of Pyongyang.

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The school boasts around 200 players between the ages of 7 and 17. They are identified by a massive, nationwide scouting network that brings the most talented youngsters and their families to the capital to undergo intense schooling and soccer training. This opportunity represents a sort of upward mobility for rural families, as life in the North Korean capital is described as far more pleasant than the far-flung agrarian lifestyle.

This state-level sporting investment can actually be traced back to the late North Korean dictator Kim Jong-il, who, in the 1980s, served as a sort of cultural decision maker in his father’s government. He tried his hand at everything, from filmmaking to music to sports. In 1985, the Kim family announced a program of state investment in women’s soccer, surprising many since the sport had been played exclusively by North Korean men up to that point.

Some assert that the burgeoning world of women’s sports had a lower barrier to entry than men’s sports and would be a field rich with propagandizing victories over Western rivals. This investment led little by little to a formalization of women’s sports in the country, organized under the banner of the central government in Pyongyang, which went on to found various high-level sporting academies that served a singular purpose: to create generations of high-performance athletes to be trotted out as proof of communist exceptionalism.

The Pyongyang Academy and North Korea’s investment in women’s sports can be seen as an early and prominent form of the practice that has been so prevalent in recent years: sportswashing. Currently, it’s a bevy of Persian Gulf oil states using massive investment in sports as a vehicle for rehabilitating their public image. FIFA and its cadre of satellite federations have only been too happy to accept their tainted lucre.

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At least the DPRK is claiming to educate its athletes! The North Korean state assures us that the education their players receive at the Pyongyang Academy is well-rounded. According to the DPRK’s official website, “Football players should be prepared physically and technically. However, they can achieve deserved results only when they are supported by independent judgment and other creative thoughts. A future football ace is among those who can anticipate two or more through the one taught by teachers and get into action promptly.”

Critics will point out the irony of a dictatorial, homogenous regime ostensibly emphasizing the importance of creativity and self-expression. Conversely, the militaristic training and overtly nationalistic environment of the Pyongyang Academy are common explanations for the domination of the North Korean youth teams. How, we wonder, can Western, African, or Middle Eastern teams compete with heavy-handed state control of the entire sporting establishment?

Young players in, for lack of a better term, capitalist countries are actually taught the value of expression and individualism on the pitch; it’s not just lip service. They aren’t, like the North Koreans, subjected to intense physical training that would make GI Jane sick to her stomach. Young Dutch, American, or English women aren’t subject to punishment at the hands of their own government if they fail to perform well in international competition.

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Some will point out that North Korea in international competition plays not only for individual glory or the success of a nation, but as a reflection of their entire communist existence, as a proof of concept of a social and economic organization that most of the rest of the world has eschewed. Is it possible that 16-year-olds have so enthusiastically internalized this struggle?

What’s worse, some outside critics have even levied accusations of gender-based cheating at the North Korean teams, asserting that some of their young women might, in fact, be young men.

It’s important to note that none of these accusations come with much merit. Although rumors circulated following the men’s disastrous 2010 World Cup campaign that various players and coaches had been thrown in re-education camps. These reports are dubious, with none of the major news outlets able to corroborate these sensational detentions. There were confirmed “criticism sessions” carried out at which players and coaches were made to explain publicly the reasons for their failure. But hey, does that really sound much worse than a press conference with British media?

As far as the gender thing is concerned, I don’t think anyone has offered much in the way of evidence other than the young North Korean women having short haircuts.

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This is certainly not meant to exonerate the oftentimes cruel and draconian North Korea regime. The DPRK has a long history of sporting crimes, principally maltreatment of athletes and doping. What seems a bridge too far, however, is devaluing the success of these teams because of the society in which they live, or using their particular way of life as a cheap explanation for their being very, very good at soccer. “Of course they’re good at soccer!” a critic might charge. “Their government will kill them if they’re not!”

It’s hard to watch the DPRK women’s youth teams play and overlay a collective fear of state retribution. Their play is not particularly rigid or drilled, and occasionally includes a type of flair and creativity that wouldn’t look out of place on the beaches of Copacabana. Upon scoring their myriad goals at this year’s U-17 Women’s World Cup, none of the North Korean players’ faces betrayed any sense of relief, but instead highlighted a heightened camaraderie and belief among the team. This is to say, it’s entirely possible that these young women are supremely talented, have a deep, abiding passion for the game of soccer, and just happen to live in a cloistered communist dystopia. Multiple things can be true.

What’s Next?

In the modern geopolitical climate, North Korean players are severely limited in terms of their soccer development.

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Before the pandemic, there was a smattering of male players from the DPRK who managed to make their marks in European club football. Notably, Han Kwang-song played for Cagliari in Serie A and became the first-ever Asian player to appear on the bench for Juventus, but had his European career prematurely shuttered by United Nations sanctions that prevented North Koreans from living and working abroad in response to Pyongyang’s insistence on pursuing its renegade nuclear weapons program.

Photo by Emilio Andreoli/Getty Images

Han reportedly spent two to three years trapped at North Korea’s embassy in China during the COVID-19 pandemic, unable to return to his home country due to travel restrictions. He finally returned to action on the pitch for April 25 Sports Club, a team based in Pyongyang, in 2023.

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This is a possible explanation for why the women’s team has been, as of yet, unable to repeat their youth success at the senior level. Players are limited in terms of moving abroad to foreign clubs because of international work restrictions. They also lack any sort of mechanism for receiving their salaries; any money players earn would be funneled directly to the North Korean state, which, in legalese, would amount to any foreign club funding “state terrorism.”

The litany of international sanctions levied against North Korea has rendered the nation unable to continue its upward trajectory in the world of international soccer. For talented North Korean women like Kim Phyong-hwa and Choe Il-son to make moves to major European or American clubs, the North Korean regime would have to make major diplomatic inroads, submitting to heretofore untenable processes like nuclear weapons and human rights inspections. That is why, as of this writing, each and every player representing North Korea on the men’s and women’s national teams plays their club football domestically.

The team is also limited in terms of opponents. The North Korean federation withdrew from men’s World Cup qualifying for 2022 because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and did not return to international competition until 2023. The women’s team similarly retreated from international play until recently. The country also suffers from a lack of willing opponents for FIFA friendly windows, and this past year, the men’s side was forced to play a series of friendlies against lower-division Russian clubs.

This came after the great shame of the North Korean women being banned from participation in the 2015 Women’s World Cup. Multiple DPRK players tested positive for prohibited substances at the 2011 Women’s World Cup after FIFA blanket-tested the entire squad. The North Korean federation came out with an absolute banger of an explanation for the test results, claiming that the banned substance in question was actually a traditional Chinese medicine derived from deer musk, used to treat people who have been struck by lightning. FIFA fined the North Koreans $400,000 and effectively cast them into the international soccer doldrums for an entire generation.

But if the North Korean women continue their success at the senior level at the 2027 Women’s World Cup in Brazil, the team’s immensely talented individual players will be impossible to ignore. It won Group H in the first round of Asian qualifying for the tournament, boasting a plus-26 differential after only three games. The 2026 Women’s Asian Cup actually serves as the final round of qualifying for the federation, with all semifinalists automatically qualifying and quarterfinal teams going into a playoff for the final two spots.

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International tournaments have always served as a springboard to high-profile moves at the club level, and it would come as no great surprise to see some intrepid European or American club seek to entice the regime with an irresistible offer.

What comes next is the purview of political scientists and analysts the world over. Will the DPRK regime decide that sports continue to be a low-cost way to showcase the exceptionality of its communist regime? Or will relations continue to freeze over with the rest of the world, condemning a golden generation of nascent North Korean superstars to stagnate in an unholy footballing purgatory?

The North Korean women will almost certainly line up at the next World Cup in 18 months’ time. It’s a safe bet that no one will want to play them. We can only hope that, from a soccer perspective, its brightest young stars are allowed to shine.

The Hopkinton High School girls basketball was tested by Milford in the championship game of Sunday’s Mary Korbey Invitational Tournament before pulling out a 41-33 win. The Hillers, who routed Medford in Saturday’s first round, take a 5-0 record into the new year.

Sofiah Wightman Kraus, who was named tourney MVP, gets to the basket. PHOTO/JEN DADAGIAN

Julia Chatten assesses her options while dribbling the ball. PHOTO/JEN DADAGIAN

Elena Valis keeps here eye on the basket while shooting a long jumper. PHOTO/JEN DADAGIAN

Murphy Chatten Guerette makes a pass. PHOTO/JEN DADAGIAN

Gabby Simulis looks for an opening. PHOTO/JEN DADAGIAN

Teagan Resteghini, who was named to the all-tournament team, lines up a free throw. PHOTO/JEN DADAGIAN

Abbie Rabinovich looks to convert a layup. PHOTO/JEN DADAGIAN

Coach Mike Greco watches the action. PHOTO/JEN DADAGIAN

The Hillers celebrate with the trophy. PHOTO/JEN DADAGIAN

The team poses for a photo with the trophy. PHOTO/JEN DADAGIAN

The Webster City Street Department will be picking up Christmas trees on Monday, weather permitting.

Trees should be placed at the nearest street corner prior to 7 a.m. on Monday as only one trip will be made through the city.

Please remove all stands and decorations and place these trees so they will not obstruct sight distance and not blow into the street to create a traffic hazard.

Bagged trees or trees with a stand will not be picked up.

Stockton students are making an impact in their community by participating in a police program that gives them opportunities to do community outreach and learn the ins and outs of what it takes to work in law enforcement.

From getting an athletic scholarship to joining the military to becoming police officers, the Stockton Unified School District Police Explorers’ mentors are helping students accomplish their dreams.

“It’s definitely an outlet,” Officer Anthony Tacardon said. “Coming up, growing up in Stockton, there’s not much to do. I mean, you can go around and hang around at the mall, but for how long does that get boring and a safe place…yeah, this place (Explorers) you just come in, you enjoy yourself, you learn, you not only build connections with people that you meet here, you build connections outside of it with the community engagement. And that’s one of the best things. You get to speak with people in your community besides being at home, stuck, locked up in your room.”

That’s where the Stockton Unified School District Police Explorers come in. CBS Sacramento was given access to a day-in-the-life of what a Stockton Police Explorer goes through and how they help in the community.

“Some kids have sports, some kids have clubs, but we have this,” explorer and sophomore Kylah Cadman said.

Since its inception in 2013-14, Captain Roberto Marquez said it’s the largest Explorer program in San Joaquin County. The program and its mentors are making an impact with students, like Officer Anthony Tacardon, who is an explorer alumnus.

“When I graduated, that was the best feeling,” Officer Tacardon said. “All the hard work I had put in, in the Explorer program that ultimately helped me better prepare for the Academy, graduating and getting to see my mentor.”

Officer Tacardon’s mentor through the academy and the program was Captain Marquez.

“I didn’t have anyone to teach me this stuff as I was growing up in south Stockton, and I know there are some other kids here that don’t have that type of upbringing, but having this program here, it allows us to be our role models for our youth,” Captain Marquez said.

That includes the 24 explorer cadets who are in the program now, who learn life skills, are given real-world police training, are able to learn from sworn officers and non-sworn staff, and volunteer at community events.

Heriberto Garcia graduated from high school and is an Explorer. Ever since he was a kid, he’s dreamed of becoming a police officer. He said before this program, he was shy, and now, he was leading his comrades in the roll call excellently and his peers wouldn’t even know he used to be shy.

“Some students, they be like, ‘Oh, there’s nothing to do in high school or like there’s nothing to do in Stockton, right?'” Garcia said. “But, when you engage to a program like this, most likely weekend, we’ll have a community service that we have to go and we will attend because we like what we do in this program. So, it’s nothing that they force us to do but it’s something that we like to do.”

Cadman said this program has helped her grow as a person and she enjoys being able to help people to better their community.

“I like the social aspect of our program, in that we get to help the community, we get to help fellow students and it’s just really nice to get to know people and to help out however we can,” Cadman said.

Freshman Madalyn Westervelt was inspired by her big brother, who was also a part of the program.

“It really helped me with my confidence, public speaking, my socializing skills…,” Westervelt said. “That was a really big part of me, going to the high school that I was going to and it just helped me succeed a lot with making friends and being able to introducing myself without being like stuttering or being uncomfortable around other people. It’s just a very big focus for me, like it helped a lot.”

Even for students who aren’t necessarily interested in pursuing a career in law enforcement, this program also gives students the opportunity to learn crucial life skills that are crucial and transferable to any career they dream of pursuing.

“The discipline that we learn from them, the leadership skills, the responsibility, it’s all taught all of us to become greater in our own personas,” Maritza Matias-Pablo, a junior and explorer, said.

Captain Marquez is proud of these explorers, including knowing how the community gets to see the positive work they do.

“I think a program like this makes them realize that it’s a person that makes themselves and it’s not where they came or where they grew up or people around them,” Captain Marquez said. “It’s the actual person and what’s inside of you. If you want to be positive, if you want to be a good leader, a good role model for other students, you can do that.”

The camaraderie, communication, and connection to mentors, peers after school, and throughout the community have led these explorers to some healthy competition, winning multiple awards conducting mock real-life scenarios. They have around 30 trophies they’ve won at competitions against other explorer teams throughout California, where police officers give out the scores. 

They’re looking to add more trophies, along with more explorers. If you or your kids are interested, you can stop by their police station at 640 N San Joaquin St. in Stockton on Thursdays from 6-8 pm, where you can shadow what their classes are like and learn more.

Las Vegas Golden Knights to host autographs, photos with Deryk Engelland, and mascot on Jan. 4

By Jen Clancey STAFF WRITER 

Youth hockey players will have the opportunity to learn to play, or sharpen their skills in the game starting Sunday, Jan. 4 at the Marty Pavelich Ice Rink in Big Sky. The Las Vegas Golden Knights team, on their 10th season in the National Hockey League, will lead a five-week clinic, teaching players from ages 4-11 how to play hockey each Sunday from Jan. 4 to Feb. 1. The Golden Knights will also hold a free clinic for players aged 9-13 on Sunday, Jan. 4, at 11 a.m.

For both clinics, players need prior skating experience. Those who registered for the paid clinic for ages 4-11 will receive a full set of complimentary hockey equipment shipped to them ahead of the first session. Participants in the free clinic should bring full gear to use. 

Steven Reid, recreation manager for Big Sky Community Organization, the nonprofit that operates and maintains the ice rink, estimates that between 20 and 25 kids are registered for both the five-week session and the free clinic. Families pay $275 for the five-week session with new hockey gear included, which is subsidized by the NHL to keep costs low for participants.

“You know, anyone who’s been around the sport of hockey knows that hockey gear is not cheap,” Reid said. “And to get that much brand new hockey gear out to these kids, that’s huge and hopefully will get them interested in playing the sport.”

Reid is glad to see families signed up for the five week session. 

“The fact that we have 20 to 25 kids signed up for that alone means that’s a potential 20 new hockey players in our community right there and the hope is that they feed into the local youth hockey program and continue to grow there with those coaches,” Reid said. The local youth hockey program is organized by the Montana 64’s Hockey Association, which recently formed as a nonprofit.

Sheri Hudspeth, director of youth programs and fan development with the Las Vegas Golden Knights, reached out to BSCO with the hopes of scheduling the youth clinic in Big Sky to engage younger kids in the sport and reach further audiences for the Golden Knights. From there, BSCO and the Golden Knights sorted out use of facilities and local involvement. 

Outside of youth learning, the clinic will also train coaches on how to teach hockey, with local community members Cassie Dietz, Keelan Grupe, Brandon Maki and Jack Murray participating in coaching the clinics, learning practice plans and leading kids throughout the five-week session.  

BSCO hopes this clinic can become an annual tradition with the Golden Knights. 

“My hope is to not only bring new kids into the sport of hockey, but get some adults interested in coaching and being good role models in that sport for the kids,” Reid said. 

From 9-10 a.m. on Jan. 4, Deryk Engelland, a former ice hockey defenseman for the Golden Knights will be at the rink to meet fans and give autographs. Chance, the team’s mascot will also be there as well as Hudspeth, who has more than 30 years in playing and coaching hockey. Reid said Sunday’s events will be a fun atmosphere for families and participants.