Our annual Prep Elite feature is one of the most popular stories we do each year, and it’s no wonder. Maple Grove is home to so many talented, hard-working and bright high school students.
The kids that we feature often go on to prestigious college programs and graduate to pursue successful careers. On that note, you may remember Dylan Steman from our 2011 Prep Elite feature.
As a senior last year, Steman captained the Maple Grove Crimson hockey team to its first state tournament appearance and led his team with 55 points (21 goals and 34 assists) during the season and added 12 points in 5 playoff games, including two goals and an assist in a memorable 15-1 win over rival Blaine.
But along with being a standout three-sport athlete (he also played football and tennis), Steman was a 4.0 student who already knew he wanted to study engineering in college. Well, he recently decided where he’s going to study and play Division-I hockey: Michigan Tech University.
Michigan Tech has prestigious engineering programs that consistently do well in national rankings.
“I want to be an engineer,” says Steman, “and I couldn’t really find a better place for that.”
Michigan Tech’s hockey program isn’t too shabby, either. The Huskies are in historically the most competitive Division-I conference in the nation: the WCHA (Western Collegiate Hockey Association). Since being founded in 1951, the WCHA has produced a record 37 men’s national championships.
The Huskies, who have won three national titles and six WCHA championships, were 16-19-4 overall last year and 11-13-4 in the conference, earning a WCHA Final Five appearance. After a 4-30-4 season only two seasons ago (and 8 conference wins in three years), Mel Pearson led the Huskies back to conference relevance in his first year as head coach in 2011-2012.
“I really think the program is heading in the right direction,” Steman says. “I really like the coaching staff and they seem to like me. I wanted to a school where I was wanted and I could make a difference.”
Steman says he considered some Ivy League schools, including Princeton and Yale, but his only Division-I scholarship offer came from the school he committed to in the end. Steman says he hopes to join the team after a year or two playing junior hockey for the Cedar Rapids RoughRiders of the USHL.
