Jon Ammerman, who led Moorhead to the state Class 2A championship last March, was among the featured speakers on Saturday during The Coaches Site Live coaching conference at the Roy Wilkins Auditorium in St. Paul.

Ammerman talked about how the Spuds rid themselves of the “elephant in the room” en route to winning the program’s first title in nine championship-game appearances among 21 trips to the state tournament.

“Year in and year out we made it there, and we could never get over the hump,” said Ammerman, a former Spuds player who is entering his 13th season as head coach. “Obviously that was something that was brought up and pretty real in our world.”

To address all those years of disappointment, Ammerman said he and other leaders in Moorhead’s hockey community, while acknowledging many of the fundamental pieces required for a championship program were already in place, asked themselves simple questions. Starting with, “What do we currently offer?” and “What changes should we make?”

In recent years the Spuds redesigned several of their off existing offseason programs, while also to the offereings. New additions included a human performance class, an off-ice shooting room that doubles as a hangout space, enhanced video resources and a nutrition program.

“We put together something, I think, has made a difference,” said Ammerman, who was named the state’s Class 2A Coach of the Year last spring by the Minnesota Hockey Coaches Association.

Minnesota Wild coach John Hynes was among the other speakers on Saturday during the conference, billed as the “Ted Talks of Hockey.” Another full day of presentations was set for Sunday.