Submitted Photo Minot State junior forward Colby Joseph was named an assistant captain for the upcoming season. Joseph led the Beavers with 27 goals last season and was second on the team in scoring with 42 points. Photo by Sean Arbaut.

Colby Joseph was five years old when he first started playing hockey in Elkhorn, Manitoba, Canada, but his parents took him to a skating camp years prior to learn the basics.

Joseph hated the first day so much that he kicked, screamed and begged his parents not to take him back for the following session. They didn’t listen and Joseph can’t thank his parents enough for ignoring his plea because he fell in love with skating soon after, kickstarting a passion for hockey that would eventually bring him to the Magic City.

Now, not only is the junior forward a central figure in what the Beavers hope can be another championship-winning season, Joseph is also part of the leadership group, named an assistant captain by coach Wyatt Waselenchuk last week. Joseph joins captain Jay Buchholz and assistant captains Logan Rands and Christian Kadolph to lead Minot State’s locker room for the 2025-26 campaign. Buchholz, Rands and Kadolph all served their same roles last year. Joseph is the lone junior amongst the leadership group, with Buchholz being a fifth-year senior and Rands and Kadolph being traditional seniors.

“At first I was kind of shocked, not that I didn’t think I wasn’t capable, but being blessed with news like that, obviously I’m honored,” Joseph said. “There’s anybody on the team that could have it as well, which is why I was a little bit shocked, but I was pretty happy and very honored.”

Joseph replaces Reid Arnold as assistant captain following his graduation. Waselenchuk said Joseph is a perfect complement to the other captains.

“Colby’s a favorite in the locker room,” Waselenchuk said. “He’s just an incredibly likeable young man. He’s got a really bubbly personality. He’s always got a smile on his face and at the same time he knows when to turn that off and be a true competitor. He wants to win just as much as anybody. He’s a kid that’s as skilled as anyone on the team and when you can couple that with being such a hard worker, that stuff is contagious.”

Picking his leadership group isn’t something Waselenchuk takes lightly, and it’s not one he does by himself. Before deciding on which players will fill open leadership positions, he consults with the returning leadership members, both individually and as a group, to get their feedback. Waselenchuk believes that having good leadership is just as important as the on-ice talent.

“First and foremost you need good people,” Waselenchuk said. “You need good people that are going to lead by example. I’ve said this for as long as I’ve been a player, as a coach now, at this level your team is only as good as the leadership group. Basically, every decision I make goes through our captains and our veterans and we’ve been so fortunate to have these tremendous young men. Just well-rounded young men, great in the classroom, great in the community, good players for us, but at the end of the day it’s not always your most skilled guys, it’s guys that are going to work the hardest and set the tone the best and guys you trust to lead by example.”

Team captains are easily identifiable by fans on the ice with the respective ‘”C” and “A” patches sewn into their sweaters, but a lot of their responsibilities take place when the fans aren’t in the stands cheering on their team. They conduct biweekly off-ice fitness testing and this year have added an offseason running program, logging a certain number of mileage each week. They are also busy in the community, helping to run youth programs and meeting with team sponsors.

“I’ve learned a lot from those guys with how they carry themselves and do the work when nobody’s watching in practice,” Joseph said. “It was the same with Carter Barley in my first year. He was a great example. He helped get me used to what the college life is from juniors and I hope I can do that with the freshmen and younger people by leading by example and adding that extra presence that Jay and Bubba (Kadolph) and Logan have done.”

Joseph joined the Beavers as a freshman during the 2023-24 season and made an immediate impact. He finished with 20 points on 12 goals and eight assists, and scored twice during the ACHA National Tournament, which ended with a 2-1 overtime loss to Ohio University in the quarterfinals.

He took another step last year as a sophomore, leading the team with 27 goals in 36 regular season games before adding another in the playoffs. He finished second on the team in scoring with 42 points, five points behind Joey Moffatt in a season where the Beavers won the Midwest College Hockey championship in their inaugural season as a member of the conference. Joseph had four multi-goal games last season, including a four-goal outing against Illinois State on Feb. 22. He tallied his first collegiate hat trick that same year against Midland on Nov. 15.

Joseph was no stranger to the Minot area prior to signing with the Beavers. He spent the prior two years in the Magic City playing with the Minotauros along with Kadolph. That’s where he first met Waselenchuk, who serves as the team’s goaltending coach after serving as the Tauros’ assistant coach for five years before becoming head coach at Minot State. He would work with the goaltenders every Wednesday, and Joseph was there shooting pucks. They created a dialogue from the very beginning, but Waselenchuk never envisioned Joseph would be a future Beaver.

“When I first met Colby I didn’t think there was a chance we would get him,” Waselenchuk said. “He was having a tremendous year with the Tauros and was touring lots of schools and had some interest from Division I programs. Things happen for a reason and after his 20-year-old season he had lots of opportunities on his plate, but at the end of the day it was close to home and he loved it here. We ended up having a conversation around this time two years ago about being a great fit. We hit it off personality wise from day one and it all kind of worked out in our favor.”

Joseph had taken his second of two leaps of faith coming down to the states following a year of junior hockey with the Victoria Grizzlies of the British Columbia Hockey League. That was the first leap of faith, moving 22 hours away from home for the first time. It came during COVID during the 2020-21 season. The Victoria coaching staff wanted to bring him in for a tryout, but when COVID struck and that wasn’t a possibility, they wished to just sign him instead, and Joseph signed.

His opportunity with the Minotauros came when Joseph’s advisor knew the head coach at the time, Shane Wagner. When Wagner left before the start of the season to take a head coaching job at his alma mater Hamline University, new coach Cody Campbell elected to keep Joseph on the roster. That proved to be a wise decision, as he amassed 63 points in two seasons, leading all rookies on the team his first year with 23 goals.

Joseph had interest from other colleges following his final year of eligibility at the junior hockey level, but one thing became clear after all those campus visits: Minot was home.

“It comes down to the people,” Joseph said. “I explored some other Division III options and when I was driving home I just thought to myself that I’m not going to get the people and the connection and the support I have anywhere else no matter how long I’m there for. The people and the culture in Minot is what drew me and my family in and now it’s my second home.”

Joseph said he would receive text messages during winter breaks from families in the Minot area inviting him over on Christmas morning. Connections like that with the community was validation that he made the right decision.

Being part of a community is something Joseph knows well. Growing up in the small town of Elkhorn – a population of roughly 500 people – everybody basically knew everybody. Joseph described Elkhorn as a town with “two gas stations, a grocery store, a school and a rink.” He sold his hometown a little short, as Elkhorn is also home to the Manitoba Antique Automobile Museum.

Growing up, Joseph would text the owner of the community rink and ask if he could stop by and skate. He’d agree, as long as Joseph would turn off the lights and lock up when he was finished. Before coming to North Dakota, he played with the Yellowhead Chiefs on both the U15 and U18 teams. With the U18 team, he played in 144 regular season games, racking up 149 points on 77 goals and 70 assists. He added six goals and three assists across 10 playoff games.

Joseph still has this year and next year in a Beavers sweater, but he hopes to play professionally post-college, whether it’s here in the states or overseas. From there, he’d return home to Manitoba and play senior hockey while going back to helping his dad on the family farm, the place he was getting ready to check on some fencing when he learned the news he’d become an assistant captain.