Like GRAHA, Kolenda got deeply involved in high school hockey, simply for the love of the game. “When we got the program started, there were only a handful of guys who knew anything about the game,” said Kolenda, who would coach for 3-4 hours a night after working as a production manager in the corrugated paper business. He was well-liked as a coach. “He knew the game very well and the kids liked him,” said Jan Christian, whose son Tim played with Mike Kolenda at Ferris. “He never got upset, and that’s what you need in youth hockey when parents are pulling you every which way.” Kolenda said he was blessed with some very good players. Mike Knuble, who played at the University of Michigan before a long career in the NHL, was a member of Kolenda’s state championship bantam team in 1986-87. Harkness, who helped keep the high school hockey program going when he bought the Cascade Ice Arena in the mid-1970s, said Kolenda was gracefully following in the footsteps of Trudel, the former Rockets coach. Trudel passed away in 1971 at the age of 58,
but he was so influential that both Kolenda and Harkness believe youth hockey would have been better if had lived longer. When Kolenda wasn’t lending a hand to GRAHA or the high school program, he kept busy as an off-ice official with the local pro hockey teams. He was the official timekeeper during the Grand Rapids Blades’ lone season (1976-77), as well as the Owls during their stay in Grand Rapids (1977-80). He has served in the same volunteer capacity for all 17 seasons that the Griffins have been in existence (1996-present). Kolenda also volunteers three nights a week for the Griffins Youth Foundation, helping sharpen the 300 pairs of skates that the organization provides for area youth. “It gets me out of the house and gives me something to do,” said Kolenda, who also enjoys watching his two grandsons play hockey. None of which surprises Pierce, his fellow off-ice official. “Norm has done more for youth hockey in this area than people will ever know, because that’s just the kind of guy he is,” Pierce said. “You couldn’t ask for a nicer guy.”
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