Nick Hoth has been in the military for nearly a quarter century, joining after the events of 9/11 as a third generation Air Force member, and as the father of the five nears the end of his military career, he has potentially one deployment left.
Hoth is leaving soon for Southeast Asia, likely spending the entire summer and most of the fall away. It’s his 10th deployment, and while it will take him away from his family, it will also take him away from coaching in the Hopewell community.
Luckily for Hoth, the Hopewell community has always come together to support him.
It’s gotten easier for Hoth to deploy over the years (gone are the days of spending time waiting in a queue for a 5–10-minute phone call in the morale tent), but it’s still a long time away from family and friends. It’s easy to hop on a quick call and say hi to the kids, but it’s impossible for him to physically be there in the event of an emergency. So, he’s beyond grateful for the support of his wife, Kasey, and the entire community.
That’s part of the reason that when Hoth is done with his time in the military, when he’s able to retire from his day-to-day military job, he’d love to get into coaching.
“I have a bachelor’s and master’s in psychology and sociology,” Hoth told Vikings Sports Now. “So, just helping the coaching aspect of life, I love it. I want to give back to the people in a community that has helped me but also has entrusted me into mentoring and helping those kids in the community. So, yeah, if I could retire and if all I could do is coach, I would love that.”
Hoth has a background in coaching. He started coaching high school hockey while he played at Indiana (Pa.). So, he was an 18, 19-year-old coaching 15-16-year-olds. He had a break when he first joined the military, but when he returned home, he started coaching hockey at North Hills. And as his family has grown, with five kids ranging from elementary to high school age, he branched out. He does a little bit of everything these days.
The youngest Hoth children are in cheerleading, the middle son is involved in baseball, basketball and football, and the oldest two are now just playing baseball and soccer at the high school. So, that’s a lot of activity.
“We have a calendar and it’s highlighted and every day we talk about who’s going where, who has to get dropped off, where we can stay, what we’re having for dinner,” Hoth said. “Sometimes dinner is at 4 p.m., sometimes dinner’s at 8 p.m., sometimes we’re split up for dinner. It’s a whirlwind having five kids in different sports, but we have (Kasey’s) parents close by. When my parents are up here from Florida, they help and then just friends and other teammates and parents helping out take the kids wherever they need.”
If there’s one thing the Hoth family doesn’t do, though, is show up late. No matter what’s going on, it’s important to arrive 5-10 minutes early, and on time is late. Punctuality is just one thing that Hoth has tried to instill in his kids – and the community kids.
Hoth is big on mentorship, giving the kids someone to look up to while they’re still kids. He would never push the military on anyone, family or otherwise, but he’s grateful to be able to share what’s been instilled in him into others.
The dream is to be able to have those kids look back in 10,20,20 years and say, ‘You know what? Coach Hoth helped me get to where I wanted to be, but not just in sports, in life.’ It’s about dealing with success, of course, but also with disappointment and stress and failure. Just being a figure to turn to if needed.
It’s just that balance to give the players another outlet to someone to go to and talk, and it doesn’t have to be about the sport,” Hoth said. “It could be just about life. I love the fact that some of the kids I coached in hockey are in the military. Five of them went off into the military, and that’s something that I could be proud of because they’ve come back to me and said, ‘I wanted to join because I saw what you were doing, what you did.’ And then the accomplishments on having kids, getting married, all that stuff is just great to see that and see like how well they turned out.”
And while Hoth will have to hand the baton off while he’s deployed, it’s in service of something far bigger than himself. He joined the military to serve the country.
He knew another deployment was coming, just not exactly when. It happens every few years, and with his last deployment coming six years ago, it was just a matter of time. There was an initial shock, of course, but that quickly turned into formulating a game plan. How are we going to do this? Who are we going to ask for help? What if this happens? Everyone sacrifices.
“That’s a perfect word,” Hoth said. “Everyone’s going to have to make some type of sacrifice for the family, and some people are going to be okay with it, and for some, it’s going to be a little bit harder, but that’s kind of how we have lived the past couple of years because with such a big family.”
Hoth and his wife haven’t been able to make it to every game over the years, not when there are five kids involved in countless sports, so there’s trade off. If he goes to the cheerleading event that’s the same time as the soccer game, Kasey can be there. And the next time, they can switch.
The sacrifices aren’t limited to sports, though. The older kids may have to forgo spending time with their friends here and there if Kasey isn’t able to get one of the younger kids where they need to go. It’s a team effort.
“In order for us to get through this, what’s what we’re all gonna have to do, just like I’m sacrificing, missing vacations and birthdays and key sporting events and even just helping out the community to go fight overseas.”
Hoth does think he’s nearing the end, though. He’s talked to Kasey about it, and with everything going on in the world and at home, this could be his final deployment. And if this is the end, Hoth is grateful for the opportunity to serve his country – and the values that have been instilled in him from his friends, colleagues, mentors and commanding officers. It’s knowledge and experience that’s carried over into sports.
“It’s organizational skills and how to deal with different situations and positives and negatives, and then how to move forward from stuff and how to take the necessary risk that we need to.” Hoth said. “It’s just like in sports when you’re a coach, and you’re looking at who you want to put on the field to get the outcome that you want, things are not going to go always the way you want them to go.”
“So, you have to have different courses of actions, and you can go in thinking, okay, we’re going to use this pitcher because he’s throwing strikes or run this play in football and then all of a sudden, the run game gets stopped or they’re hitting off the pitcher because they can get a good tempo to it, so now you might have to go to a slower pitcher that does off-speed or you might have to throw more in football. You just have to have different courses of action to try to get the results you want.”
The military has instilled in Hoth to never go into any situation with one game plan, and that’s especially true in sports. It’s important to be able to use those around you, listen to the assistant coaches and ask questions and rely on them but to also have the confidence to take command and accept responsibility.
“Take accountability for your actions, step up and ask for help when you need it,” Hoth said. “Step up and say this was my fault. It’s on me and take the blame and then give credit where credit is due…no one person is the same, no one team is the same, and you’re going to be just put up against different situations where the same action will not come out with the same result.”
So, Hoth is off to Southeast Asia for his deployment, and while it will be tough to be away from his family and his community, he knows he won’t be alone. Hopewell is with him.
“I thank the community for entrusting me to help coach their kids in all the sports and am appreciative of them for helping my family when I am away because like I said, we have a lot of support in the community, not just from family, but friends also that have helped us. Thank you.”