Varsity Head Coach is Laddy Tresl

Coach Laddy begins his second year as Grapevine’s Varsity Coach.  Coach Laddy has over 20 years of professional hockey experience who started playing hockey at age 3 in Czechoslovakia.

Players attribute much of their success to Coach Laddy, the quiet and humble teacher who was once blessed with an opportunity to play in the National Hockey League. The game he has known for so long, though, also granted him freedom.

Coach Laddy grew up in Brno, Czech Republic, a city of 390,000 located about 2½ hours south of Prague and an hour from Vienna. At 26, the Quebec Nordiques drafted Coach Laddy with the 183rd pick in the 1987 draft. It was a chance of a lifetime: A shot to play in the best hockey league in the world.

But it wasn’t an easy decision. The communist Czechoslovakian government wanted Coach Laddy to stay home and play. Coach Laddy won’t elaborate, saying he wants to keep much of the “long story” to himself. However, he revealed that he defected to Canada with his family. He left everything else behind.

Looking back, Coach Laddy said he never imagined a day would come when he could return home to a free country.

“The time changed, the government changed,” he said. “Everything changed for good, God bless for that. That’s all what it is. Everything changed there. People were given a lot more freedom.”

Coach Laddy played for the Nordiques for three seasons, then went to the Los Angeles Kings from 1990-91. As a player, Coach Laddy was a really good stick-handler and playmaker.

After a brief stint with the Kings, Coach Laddy played minor league hockey in North America and ventured back home to the Czech Republic for the first time in 12 years to coach and play. He finished his pro playing career in Waco of the Western Professional Hockey League.

Grapevine is very happy to have Coach Laddy lead the team again in 2009-2010.

Varsity Assistant Coach is Court Ludwig

Coach Court, a Grapevine HS Mustang alumni joined Grapevine early in the previous season.  Coach Court is back for his second year and looks forward to the upcoming season.

Coach Court has played hockey since he was 8 years old.  He was part of the state championship tournament as a freshman with the  1999 North Crowley team that finished third.  Court began to play  travel hockey at the age of thirteen (13).   He starting on the B team and played through his senior year at the AA level for the Lone Star Wolves.  Court spent many summers in Canada in his early years training and playing with Canadians and other hockey enthusiasts.  Court played for Grapevine HS during his last two years of high school.  Court enjoys working side by side with Coach Laddy and loves the game as his enthusiasm comes through at every practice and game.    Court feels that “Its the best game in the world and I’m privileged to get to coach the boys in the sport we all love”.