Jason Jensen is used to helping other people — as both a Lakeville police officer and a hockey coach — but now the police and hockey communities are rallying around him and his family since he was seriously injured in a fall during practice.
Jensen, 44, has been hospitalized since Friday and remained in critical condition on Monday.
Jensen is a goalie coach for Chanhassen Boys Hockey, along with Holy Family Catholic High School boys’ and girls’ hockey teams.
He was coaching the Holy Family girls’ team on Friday when a player “lost an edge” and accidentally ran into him, causing him to fall to the ice backward and hit his head, according to Zack Friedli, Holy Family boys hockey head coach, and a GoFundMe for Jensen’s medical expenses.
Lakeville Police Lt. Jason Jensen (Courtesy of the Lakeville Police Department)
The impact fractured Jensen’s skull and caused bleeding in his brain. As of Sunday night, Jensen remained heavily sedated at the hospital but was able to give a nurse a thumbs up to indicate he could hear, his wife, Kelly Jensen, wrote in a GoFundMe update.
“I’m exhausted, but am thankful for the time I get to spend with him in the hospital,” she wrote. She said their daughter “has been resilient and just knows that dad is hurt and has a massive headache.” Their son, who is older, “is very much like his dad,” Kelly Jensen wrote. “He calls me every hour, gives me plenty of hugs, and keeps telling me dad is going to be okay.”
High school coaches aren’t required to wear helmets and Jensen wasn’t. That’s something the Chanhassen and Holy Family coaches decided to change since.
At the Chanhassen boys’ practice Saturday morning, head coach Sean Bloomfield put on a helmet.
“I’ve been coaching high school for 14 years, and I don’t know if I’ve seen a single coach wearing a helmet, but at the same time, these accidents do happen,” Bloomfield said. “… It’s just not worth it. Things happen fast on the ice and it’s not a forgiving surface, so it just makes sense.”
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Jensen is a modest man and wouldn’t want attention on him, said the coaches who know him and Lakeville Police Chief Brad Paulson. But they said for all he does to help the community, it’s important for them to support him and his family.
Jensen joined the Lakeville Police Department in 2006 and is now a lieutenant overseeing investigations.
“He’s a down-to-earth, good human being,” Paulson said. “He’s always there to do something for someone else, and so the script has flipped here, where now it’s time for all of us to give back and support him when he needs it here.”
Jensen was a goalie for Rosemount High School, the St. Paul Vulcans/Twin Cities Vulcans and Minnesota State University, Mankato.
“He downplays his accomplishments, but he played Division I and high-level junior hockey,” Bloomfield said. “You’ve got to pry him a little bit to get him to talk about his playing days.”
As a coach, “Jens focuses on the mental side of the game a lot, which is important for goalies,” Friedli added. “He’s really good at understanding the kids and building relationships with them.”
The GoFundMe for Jensen (gofundme.com/f/rally-for-jason-hockey-coach-in-icu) had raised more than $80,000 as of Monday afternoon.
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