His coaching resume is stellar, but Rob Weinmeister’s true measure of success cannot be found in facts or figures.

The coach of the Aberdeen Cougars girls’ hockey team draws on real-life experiences to help instill life-long lessons to all of the players on his team. While Weinmeister has guided the program to multiple state championships, he understands that hockey is just a game in the grand scheme of life.

“I think coaches feel a lot of pressure that we have to win, we have to win, we have to win,” Weinmeister said. “One of the things that I try to do, both with my girls and with my parents ahead of time, regardless of how the season is turning out, is lay down those expectations.”

For Weinmeister, there is a list of priorities and hockey is not among the top three.

“Family, school, religion come before this,” Weinmeister said.

Weinmeister knows a thing or two about life priorities. He served a 15-month deployment to Iraq. He also had a 26-year run in law enforcement, the last 25 years of which was served as a highway patrolman.

In short, he totally understands that a hockey game is not a matter of life and death.

He sometimes draws on his past experiences when he instructs his players.

“How do we deal with adversity and how do we deal with stress?” Weinmeister said. “Ultimately, this is just a game.”

Make no mistake, Weinmeister wants to win every game. He just goes about it differently than most coaches.

Instead of stacking his lineup to feature his most prominent players, Weinmeister believes that everyone should contribute. He deliberately divides his players into three even lines and is cautious not to treat one line better than the other. The lines, designated by color instead of number, rotate starting assignments throughout the season. No one player is greater than the entire sum.

“You develop them by giving them opportunities. That’s kind of my approach to it,”
 Weinmeister said. “There’s a little bit of learning that goes on during a game that you can’t mimic in a practice.”

Again, the philosophy goes back to every day principles.

“Sometimes, it’s just like we say in life,“ Weinmeister said, “we have to fail to learn and if we don’t give them that opportunity to fail, they’re never going to learn.”

Those positive results are visible on the ice, but equally as important off of it.

The Cougars are able to wear teams down with their superior depth, being able to rotate three solid lines throughout the course of game. There is simply no drop off in quality whenever there is a line change.

Perhaps of even greater value is that when you are a member of the Cougars, you know that you will play a prominent role. Weinmeister wants everyone to have an enjoyable experience.

“The girls want to be successful, they want to be good hockey players, but it’s also a social event for them,” Weinmeister said. “They are playing with their friends, and they want to talk to their friends and do those things.”

As a result, the program has flourished and had a great time doing it. Weinmeister has guided the team to three of its state championships and played a huge role in transforming the squad into a perennial contender for the state title.

It wasn’t always that way, however.

Weinmeister recalled his early days with the program. He said it wasn’t even a win that helped to spark a change in team culture.

“I still remember when we got our first tie. That was huge, because they hadn’t been winning in years,” Weinmeister said. “They were getting blown out in all those games. That first tie was a step in the right direction, and they were starting to see things working.”

The next confirmation piece occurred soon after during a state tournament. While the Cougars did not win the event, they knocked off the top seed, and ended up getting third, a major accomplishment for the fledgling program.

“That weekend, I think that was a defining moment, because they’re like, yeah every game you have to come to play and the little things do make a difference,” Weinmeister said. “That was a big part of that.”

That small measure of success has led to much bigger and better things for a program that has become the gold standard of girls’ hockey in South Dakota.

“That’s when things started to change,” Weinmeister said. “We slowly built up our numbers as well as the wins.”

Weinmeister, who got into coaching because his kids played the sport, took a brief break from the program. However, the culture he had helped form was already established and the team won three more titles in his absence. Three years ago, after his retirement from law enforcement, he decided to return to the sideline.

“I really enjoyed making a difference in those young people’s lives,” Weinmeister said, “and I felt that I could give something back to them and help them learn life lessons.”

Again, it is those life lessons that Weinmeister pays greater attention to than his team’s won-loss record or what happens on the ice.

Weinmeister isn’t sure how long he’ll continue to coach. He no longer has a family member on the team, but in reality he has a lot of family members on the squad.

“I don’t have a dog in the fight, but the girls become like my daughters,” Weinmeister said. “I care about them. I want to see them succeed and do well in life, and I hope to be able guide them.”

Weinmeister has certainly made his presence felt, as can be attested by the team’s stellar success in the past decade. But he has been of even greater value as he has helped to shape, mold and mentor the current generation of girls’ hockey players.

“It truly takes a village to raise children these days,” Weinmeister said. “I hope that I am a part of that  and being a positive influence, and helping parents set their daughters down the right of path of life.”