Former NMU Hockey Goalie Joins State Police

The Michigan State Police are in need of new uniformed troopers.

By this weekend, they’ll be receiving that help.

In August, more than 100 prospective troopers converged on the State Police Training Academy in Lansing.

83 of them are going to graduate.

That’s out of more than 1,000 people statewide who applied for the school.

This was the MSP’s 121st Recruit School, and it was the first class of new recruits to enter state police training since 2004.

For the last 19 weeks, the recruits were taught everything from firearms to patrol techniques to how to process a crime scene.

Dieter Kochan of Marquette is one of the recruits.

He was a hockey goaltender at NMU and in the professional ranks, including parts of 4 different seasons in the NHL.

The 83 recruits who completed the training are graduating in Lansing on Friday, and Kochan is one of them.