Daughter Of High-Profile Coach Carves Her Own Athletic Path
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – He is one of the highest-profile coaches at the University of Minnesota, and she is one of its most under-the-radar athletes.
There's nothing that would give it away, that the eyes behind the goggles belong to the daughter of one of the most famous men on campus. She's a Gophers athlete in her own right, and her path to campus actually preceded her father's.
"When I was little I kind of did it all. I tried out, obviously, hockey," Ella Motzko said.
Ella Motzko is the daughter of Gophers men's hockey coach, Bob Motzko.
But hockey is not the sport she is playing. She says her hockey background is "not super extensive, which disappoints a lot of people. I only really did it until I was in, I think, fourth grade."
Her love is lacrosse, which she started playing her sophomore year of high school in St. Cloud when her dad was still the coach there.
"It's an easy sport to pick up because everyone's just picking it up in high school, and I just kind of fell in love with it right away and I went full force, joined a club team that summer and kind of put everything into it," Ella said.
That continued into college when she joined the Gophers. It's a club team, not Division 1 like many of Minnesota's other sports, but it's a really good club team – nationally competitive.
"It's honestly been an incredible experience, getting to have this college athletics experience," Ella said. "Our coaches are great, my teammates are great – we just kind of go to practice and do what we love, and it's super fun."
Motzko's a midfielder, which for the uninitiated means:
"Basically I just run, and run and run for the whole game," Ella said.
Her decision to come to Minnesota predated her father's by a full year, a fact he jokingly pointed out in his introductory press conference, that she went away to college and then the rest of the family followed.
But the fact that they're all in one place again, even the same athletics building at times, is an arrangement she would never give back.
"I think the reason why I chose it is because I wanted to be a little close, and now I'm really close, but it's ended up being honestly the best," Ella said. "I love having my family close. I love running into my dad when I have class at Mariucci. It's super fun."
