the most experienced &
knowledgeable in the country

60+ years professional playing experience in over 15 different professional leagues
60+ years Collegiate coaching and playing experience
30+ years of Junior A (USHL, NAHL, & Other Leagues)
Minnesota Mr. Hockey Winner
NCAA Division National Champions
NHL First Round Draft Pick

STRENGTH

The Minnesota Advancement Program is the Elite division within FHIT Hockey. The MAP was created for individuals who want to compete alongside elite players and be challenged by elite coaches.

The MAP develops hockey players during the eight months of the off-season and mentors, scouts and recruits players during the four months of their season.

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BLAINE

SUPER RINK/HERB BROOKS TRAINING CENTER
1850 105TH AVENUE NE
BLAINE, MN 55449

HUDSON

FHIT HOCKEY TRAINING CENTER
1820 HANLEY RD
HUDSON, WI 54016

PLYMOUTH

FHIT HOCKEY TRAINING CENTER
3650 PLYMOUTH BLVD SUITE 100
PLYMOUTH, MN 55446

NORTHWEST CAMPUS

5898 LACHMAN AVE NE,
ALBERTVILLE, MN 55301

John Becanic

Director IQ and Advising

Proud to call Sault Ste Marie Ontario home, John hails from a small town that has produced countless NHL players, coaches and GM’’s. Current NHL GM’s, Ron Francis (Seattle Kraken) and Kyle Dubas (Pittsburgh Penguins), Florida Panther’s HC Paul Maurice, Rob Zettler (Tampa Bay) and former Minnesota North Stars great Lou Nanne all call the “Soo” home.

John began his coaching career in the early 90’s cutting his teeth under future Jack Adams winner Ted Nolan (Buffalo, NYI) winning a Memorial Cup together in 1993 with the Soo Greyhounds. In 1997 John and his family relocated to the US and began to etch out his coaching career with stops in North Dakota, Pittsburgh, Seattle and Texas. In Pittsburgh, “Coach B” led his 2003 Pittsburgh Forge to the USA Hockey Junior A National Championship. In 2003-2004, John was the Associate Head Coach with the Everett Silvertips of the WHL serving under former NHL head coach and MN native, Kevin Constantine. (San Jose, Pittsburgh, New Jersey). That year the Silvertips became the 1 st and only expansion team to make the WHL finals in the history of the CHL. John spent 6 years with the Tips, the last 2 years as the head coach. With two more stops in the WHL, one with the Seattle Thunderbirds and the other with the Vancouver Giants, John has coached over 40 NHL draft picks including 5 1st rounders.

After a year 30 coaching career, John stepped away from the bench in 2016 and Founded Pyramid Hockey. With a passion for helping players and mentoring coaches, Pyramid’s primary focus was twofold, player advising and player/coach development through Hockey IQ. The foundation of Pyramid’s Hockey IQ was based on John’s “4 Components of Hockey”. As this foundation took root in the hockey universe, the 4 Components Hockey quickly became the standard for teaching Hockey IQ across the world. John has been a featured speaker and writer several times for the Coaches Site at their annual conference in Toronto.

In 2019, John founded his second company, The Prospect Exchange (TPE). TPE, a player advancement software, was originally designed to help players be exposed to coaches all over the world through video analysis. That year, MAP Hockey became one of TPE’s original customers serving it’s 600 plus players with access to their game video and analytics. In 2022 TPE, acquired iceberg Sports Analytics which was a main player in team video and analytics with its customers ranging from the New York Islanders to the MN HS state champs, Minnetonka Skippers.

With great desire to get back to working with players and coaches, John is excited for the opportunity to be part of the MAP team and lead the Hockey IQ team.

Jason 'Bergie" Berg

Advisor

As the founder of FHIT Hockey and the MAP Hockey brands, Bergie is now back doing what he started out doing over 30 years ago. Bergie started the business with the sole goal of providing direction for young athletes and their families. He started this due to the fact that he did not end up playing college sports at a competitive level. He recognized through his trials and tribulations the many factors that play a role in an athlete’s life and that can change the path of a young student athlete. At the early age of 19 he realized it was his calling and he was meant to provide direction for athletes and families who need guidance in their journey to play sports at a higher level.

Bergie grew up a 3-sport athlete in baseball, football and hockey. He had great success in all three sports as the leader of all his teams. He was fortunate enough to play on many top teams and take part in invite teams and elite camps. Due to multiple concussions and a torn ACL Bergie was not able to continue playing football as a running back and linebacker. His most promising sport was baseball, but after he dislocated his throwing arm he was never able to get his range of motion back after his unneeded surgery. He played hockey for Bloomington Kennedy where he won a Bantam State Hockey Championship and was a captain of his High School team that played in two state tournaments. As a recruited hockey player playing on Team Minnesota at the ages of 14 & 15, Bergie always thought he would be playing for a D1 hockey power school of choice. However, he quickly learned by his senior year in High School his options were limited due to his skating, injuries and many other off the ice factors.

College Hockey & Juniors: “I looked down on playing Juniors or DIII hockey. Looking back on it I clearly had a bad attitude, along with an uneducated stance on playing anything but D1 at a top hockey program. I ended up attending St. Cloud State University, as they were one of the only DI colleges still talking with me. After my unofficial visit they informed me they wanted me to play a year of juniors. I was bitter and I didn’t have it in my head or heart to swallow my pride and put in the work needed to play juniors. I also wasn’t willing to talk with any other schools or even consider playing DIII hockey.”

Coaching & Scouting: Bergie was fortunate enough to end up coaching at St. John’s University while attending St. Cloud State. After college Jason lived in Chicago for 8 years where he was a head coach with the Chicago Young Americans where he traveled North America learning the AAA playing route. Bergie was also the Director at Heartland Ice Arena which was the home of the Young Americans. Jason started working daily with individuals on their skill training and individual playing goals. Bergie moved back to Minnesota in 2002 where he was a co-founder of Impact Hockey and co-coach of the 1990 Minnesota Icemen. Bergie then started the FHIT & MAP Hockey Programs where he helped many players with their player development and advancement needs. As a scout for the USHL and USA National Development Team Bergie quickly learned the landscape of junior and college hockey. This helped him provide the connections and direction needed to help players and families with their junior and college hockey playing goals and decisions.

Bergie’s passion for helping young players, along with his unmatched experience will provide any athlete and family the direction they are looking for.

Brett Stern

Lead Advisor

Brett grew up in Lino Lakes, Minnesota training at FHIT in Blaine, where he played his youth and high school hockey for Centennial. Stern was a first round draft pick in the USHL and played for Green Bay upon graduating high school early. In his rookie season he won the regular season championship before taking home the Clark Cup. Stern played four years of Division I hockey at Minnesota State and would be named captain his senior season. Immediately after, he began his professional career in the ECHL where he played 119 games and logged 17 games in the AHL. Coach Stern credits his development at a young age and now since retiring from the game feels a big pull to give back in the best way he can; coaching.

Sophomore year Brett played with the Junior Varsity team and where he took some big strides in his growth as a hockey player. By the end of his senior year he was a 1st round draft pick to the Green Bay Gamblers in the USHL and had committed to play Division 1 hockey at Minnesota State University- Mankato.

He graduated early from Centennial so that he could leave as soon as his senior season concluded to play in the USHL. His first season with the Gamblers his team won the regular season Anderson Cup and the team went on to win the playoff championship Clark Cup. During his second season in Green Bay he grew as a player and Mankato elected to call him in as a freshman the following year.

Brett played all four years at Mankato where he got two degrees in Sports Management and Marketing. His Junior year he was voted as the Assistant Captain, and his senior year he was voted as the Captain. During his four years he won two Leadership Awards, one Hardest Worker award and was on the WCHA All-Tournament team two times.

Immediately following his senior year in the spring of 2015 he left campus to pursue his hockey career with a quick stint in the ECHL for the Orlando Solar Bears where he got his first taste of professional hockey. That summer he signed a two-way contract with the Wilkes-Barre Scranton Penguins in the AHL where he played two seasons playing for both AHL and ECHL teams in Pittsburgh’s organization scoring 13 goals, 37 assists and 155 penalty minutes in 161 professional games.

Following his career Brett worked part time at MAP in Blaine for four years before finally making the switch to a full time lead instructor in the spring of 2023. The reason he believes in MAP and FHIT is because of how much it helped in his development at a young age and now since retiring from the game feels a big pull to give back in the best way he can- coaching.

Now give it up for Coach Sterno on a very average career……………… glad that’s over.

the most experienced & knowledgeable in the country

DAN DONNETTE

BRETT WAY

DAN DAIKAWA

GARRETT GRUENKE

BRAD THOMPSON

MATT LEITNER

RANDY MURPHY

Sean Flanagan

NICK BLANCHETTE

JAKE LAINESSE

CHASE KNUDSON

CARTER FOGUTH

CHRIS HOWE

ELIZABETH BAUER

JASON HILL

JOHN BECANIC

DOC DELCASTILLO

BEN CLYMER

MATT COOKE

JOHN BAZZACHINI

JASON BERG

TOM CHORSKE

BRETT STERN

JARRAD VROMAN

PETER DISALVO

ANDERS FRANKE

STRENGTH

Jon Eng

Antonio Colon

Pete Stepanian-Bennett

BLAINE

HUDSON

PLYMOUTH

NORTHWEST CAMPUS

April 7, 2018

DAN DONNETTE

MAP HOCKEY DIRECTOR

July 31, 2022

Brett Way

LEAD INSTRUCTOR

DAN DAIKAWA

ADVISOR

April 6, 2018

GARRETT GRUENKE

PROGRAM DEVELOPMENT | LEAD INSTRUCTOR

Brad Thompson

EAST CAMPUS DIRECTOR

Matt leitner

West Campus Director

July 31, 2022

Randy Murphy

Sean Flanagan

Lead Instructor

July 31, 2022

Nick Blanchette

July 31, 2022

Jake Lainesse

LEAD INSTRUCTOR

July 31, 2022

CHASE KNUDSON

LEAD INSTRUCTOR

July 31, 2022

Carter Foguth

LEAD INSTRUCTOR

Chris Howe

Lead Instructor

July 31, 2022

Elizabeth Bauer

Jason Hill

Strength and Conditioning Lead Instructor Hudson Campus

John Becanic

Director IQ and Advising

Doc Delcastillo

Advisor

Ben Clymer

Financial Planning

Matt Cooke

Director of Development

John Bazzachini

the most experienced &
knowledgeable in the country