Meet Ashley Zuk, Minnesota’s only female varsity boys hockey coach this season

Hockey Across Minnesota: Coming off a 1-22 record last season, Moose Lake Area looks to Ashley Zuk for a new beginning.

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• Olivia Hicks
• The Minnesota Star Tribune
• November 13, 2026 at

When high school boys hockey coaches from across Minnesota packed a conference room at a Best Western Inn in St. Cloud in early October for the annual coaches clinic, Ashley Zuk was the only woman in attendance.

Zuk, the first-year head coach of the Moose Lake Area boys hockey co-op, is the only woman head coach of a boys varsity team in Minnesota this season and is believed to be the third woman to coach a boys varsity program in state history.

“I think this is an opportunity for the state or for other school districts to see that there might be outside applicants,” Zuk told Strib Varsity. “Or maybe [women] see I’m the coach and then they might say, ‘OK, we need more girl coaches, I’m going to apply.’ ”

Making history, however, isn’t top of mind for Zuk. She’s focused on rebuilding a team that went 1-22 during the 2025-26 season.

“We have to start fresh,” Zuk said. “We’ve got to start with basics.”

A Chisago Lakes graduate, Zuk knows a thing or two about winning seasons. She carried the Wildcats to the girls hockey state tournament as a senior in 2010 and played Division II club hockey at the University of Wisconsin-Stout.

But wins are only part of Zuk’s definition of team success. While some coaches across the state have their sights set on ending state tourney dry spells or clinching three-peats, Zuk has a more realistic approach. It starts with a cultural shift, the new head coach said.

“Goals are going to look different for each team,” Zuk said. “I just want to turn the culture in the program around within Moose Lake.”

Changing the culture of a co-op that has struggled to keep its players is no easy feat, especially not for a first-time high school hockey coach. Zuk isn’t deterred, though. It helps that she’s a familiar — and friendly — face to Moose Lake Area’s roster of 16.

Six Moose Lake upperclassmen interviewed for this story expressed optimism about the program’s direction under Zuk.

“She’s a great hockey coach, probably one of the better ones we’ve had in this association,” said senior forward Chase Klavu, whom Zuk coached through youth hockey. “She knows the game, knows how to teach us. All of us know how to listen and learn and play the way we were taught by her.”