The Detroit News’s MacKenzie Thompson has posted a profile of USA Hockey’s director of player personnel for the National Team Development Program, Rod Braceful. Braceful is a Detroit native, and his godmother, Judy Richardson, is the reason why he became a hockey player, coach, and now, an important executive for the U.S.’s developmental hockey pipeline:
Rod Braceful’s first on-ice hockey experience was at Jack Adams Arena in Detroit after his godmother secretly stepped in and signed him up for learn-to-play lessons at four years old.
Barbara Yancy-Braceful, Braceful’s mother and longtime school educator, didn’t think that he was serious about wanting to play hockey, so she didn’t sign him up.
In true fairy godmother nature, Judy Richardson stepped in, signed him up, and requested that his mother just let him try it out. Now, more than 30 years later, Braceful has made USA Hockey history.
Last month, the 35-year-old Braceful became the first African-American to be named the director of player personnel for USA Hockey’s National Team Development Program, which has produced more than 200 players in the National Hockey League during the organization’s 27 years based in Ann Arbor and now Plymouth.
“If you’re good to the game, it’s good to you,” said Braceful, who left his job as an amateur and pro scout with the Chicago Blackhawks to take the prestigious USA Hockey position. “I’m just fortunate that the game has still been giving back to me all these years.”
Continued (paywall); if you can read the story, it’s worth your time.
