After playing his entire youth hockey career for his hometown Santa Rosa Flyers organization, Jack DiNardo will spend his senior year out of state playing junior hockey for the USPHL’s Minnesota Mullets.

DiNardo said that in the short time he has been in town so far, he’s enjoying every minute.

“I got an email about their training camp and info on the team early last summer and in August, I emailed Coach (Chris) Walby asking if there was any chance of me being able to get on the team and he said he’d be happy to have me. I love that the team is super inclusive and wants the new guys to be part of the team and wants to see everyone improve together. I like the league because they teams give the players the resources they need to be able to improve and be able to play at the college level.

“In the games I’ve already played in, I love playing with the team. We have a great group this year and I’m super excited for the rest of the season.”

Looking back, DiNardo said he got his start in the game pretty innocently.

“My dad signed me up for hockey when I was in first grade because I wanted to try every sport possible,” said DiNardo. “I’m from Santa Rosa but was never a big Sharks fan. I played in the Santa Rosa hockey club for every regular season from Mites to my junior year of high school until I left to be here my senior year. My coach Jesse Kofalk was the one who really pushed me and encouraged me to try getting to the next level of hockey over the last few years.

“Before then, I didn’t even know what junior hockey was.”

Moving forward, DiNardo has pretty reasonable aspirations.

“My goal is to be able to get picked up by a school in the next few years and graduate with a degree in a field I’m passionate about,” he said.

— Matt Mackinder

(September 17, 2021)