The Peoria Rivermen coach founded a hockey academy for area kids. Now, it's growing

PEORIA — Jean-Guy Trudel is on the ice for three group sessions of his Tru Hockey Academy, then recruits in his role as head coach and general manager of the Peoria Rivermen, then hits practice with the junior hockey Peoria Mustangs and goes through planning sessions for Peoria Youth Hockey Association travel teams.

He calls that Monday.

No one has more fingerprints on the game in central Illinois than Trudel, who brought Peoria its first pro hockey championship in 22 years when he led the Rivermen to an SPHL President's Cup in 2021-22.

He is part owner of the tier three junior hockey Mustangs, and his Tru Hockey Academy is booming. In fact, Tru Hockey has been hired by the PYHA to organize and coach Peoria's seven youth hockey travel teams in 2023-24.

"It's seven days a week for me," Trudel said, laughing. "Technically I don't schedule practices for the Rivermen, Mustangs or the youth travel teams on Wednesdays. That's my day to be at home with my family. Although I admit I do watch and cut video clips for the Rivermen on that day, but it doesn't count because I do it from home.

"Why am I building Tru Hockey? Because I think every kid has greatness. We have to pull it out of them. But it's there in each of them."

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Tru Hockey Academy

Trudel played more than 900 games in a pro career that lasted 14 seasons from the NHL to the AHL, ECHL, IHL, and Europe. He is the only coach the Rivermen have had in their SPHL era, which began in 2013-14. And in his first shot as a head coach, he stands as the winningest coach in SPHL history.

But seven years ago, in the midst of all that, the 47-year-old was driven to do more about building the game in central Illinois. He was making a 19-hour drive back from Canada with his wife, Angie, seven years ago, when Tru Hockey Academy was born.

"A drive that long, you start thinking about things, getting ideas," Trudel said. "I knew I wanted to start a hockey camp, a school, really, for kids, get to them at the youngest level and teach them my terminology, my approach to the game and to life, too.

"I asked Angie what we should call it. She said, 'Tru Hockey, after Trudel.' That was perfect."

Seven years ago the camp opened with 55-60 youth players. This summer, there are 110 participants, skating in three groups divided by age and skill, ranging from 7-21.

"The demand is so high," said Trudel, a Rivermen Hall of Fame inductee. "We started out with two groups of kids seven years ago. I think right now, sitting in this camp this summer, we have 40-50 kids who could play NCAA hockey someday. We're going to help them on that path."

The academy lasts seven weeks now in June and July, with 75-minute sessions three days a week, on the ice, and fitness training downtown at Peoria's River City CrossFit. Players come from all over the area, Peoria, Pekin, Bloomington, Galesburg and some from Iowa and Missouri, too.

"In the past, central Illinois kids have had to leave the area and train and play in Chicago to get the quality they needed to get on a path to the NCAA," Trudel said. "My goal with Tru Hockey is to give Peoria a developmental program that is as good, so those families don't have to leave.

"I know those NCAA coaches, I work with them when I'm building the Rivermen roster. I have the connections to guide kids from our academy on a path to college hockey."

Dillan Bentley, who played last season at NCAA Div.-I UMass-Lowell, came up through the Mustangs in Peoria with Trudel. He was training with other players in the Tru Hockey camp this month and earned an invite to NHL Tampa Bay's rookie camp.

"Everything I learned about hockey these last three years or so is from Jean-Guy Trudel," Bentley said in late July of 2022 as he prepared for his freshman season at Lowell.

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Reid Lune was in camp Monday, too. Like Bentley, Lune is a Peoria-born youth hockey product who played for the Mustangs and moved up to the NAHL with El Paso last season. He has overcome a knee injury and could eventually follow Bentley — the fourth Peoria-born player to gain a spot with an NCAA Div-I team. That Peoria-born group includes, Bentley, Joey Olson, Ryan Klusendorf and Logan Bittle. A fifth player who grew up in Peoria, Bo Cheesman, was born in Great Britain.

"I'm so proud of Jean-Guy's commitment and passion to the game in Peoria," said Kevin Lune, Reid Lune's father and a former Peoria Rivermen player who coached the junior hockey Mustangs from 2001-2008. "Tru Hockey has taught kids the game, and they are doing it on a level comparable to what you can get in Chicago. It's a tremendous endeavor."

Trudel is assisted by Tru Hockey coaches Alec Hagaman, another Peoria-born former Mustangs player who just retired from a glorious career as Rivermen captain. Hagaman has been at his side since the program's inception.

Blake Ortman is on the coaching staff as well. And now former IHL-era Rivermen winger Mark Bassen has been hired as the organization's power skating and edge training coach.

Not only do they teach the 110 participants in the Tru Hockey Academy, but under the new deal with the PYHA they will do the same for Peoria's youth travel teams.

"I will be there to coach them for home games and three tournaments," Trudel said. "Each team has an associate coach who will take over on road games and implement our system and approach to the game."

The view from a 12-year-old

Trevor Vicary is a 12-year-old from North Pekin who is a Rivermen fan and a veteran of the Tru Hockey Academy.

"I think this is my third or fourth year in the program," said the Georgetowne (Pekin) Middle School student. "It gets my hockey IQ up. Every time I go through this camp, I feel like I'm getting better."

Trudel names a daily "Beast of the camp" winner to honor hard work and progress. His days are wave after wave of hockey, wedging in multiple media interviews as he skates on and off the ice between sessions at Owens Center.

It just never gets old for him.

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"I could say I want to give back to the game. But why I'm doing all this has nothing to do with giving back to the game, honestly," Trudel said. "I look at these kids, from youth hockey to the Mustangs and all the way up to the Rivermen, as being all mine.

"I just want to bring the best out in them. You look at a guy like Alec Hagaman, and the character he has and the leadership he has shown and how far that has taken him in his career and life."

Trudel is a pro hockey coach, a part-owner of a junior hockey team, and now a successful businessman building a brand with his own hockey academy.

But he wants that brand to go beyond skating and shooting.

"It's so important to deliver life lessons as well as hockey lessons," Trudel said. "We do that here, teach leadership, because it's going to have a huge impact on how successful these kids are later on.

"Kids are looking for mentorship, and I believe that we can provide that, create not just good hockey players, but good people, too."

Dave Eminian is the Journal Star sports columnist, and covers Bradley men's basketball, the Rivermen and Chiefs. He writes the Cleve In The Eve sports column for pjstar.com. He can be reached at 686-3206 or deminian@pjstar.com. Follow him on Twitter @icetimecleve.

This article originally appeared on Journal Star: Peoria Rivermen coach runs growing hockey academy for Peoria kids