As a fresh-faced defenseman in just his second professional year after a standout collegiate career at Bemidji State University, Riley Weselowski wasn’t quite sure what to think when he found out he was heading to the Rapid City Rush during the 2009-10 season.

Now, with his famous number six set to be retired forever when it’s raised to the rafters of The Monument on Saturday night, he couldn’t help but laugh when looking back on what a journey it’s been since he first set foot in South Dakota.

“Honestly, I came to Rapid City with one thing in mind my very first year here, and that was to finish that year, and then I was probably going to move back to the ECHL,” said Weselowski, now an assistant coach with the Kansas City Mavericks.

At the time, Rapid City was playing in the Central Hockey League. After spending the entire previous season with the Idaho Steelheads in the ECHL and starting the 2009-10 campaign there, going to Rapid City could have been viewed as a demotion of sorts. Instead, it put Weselowski right where he needed to be.

“We won the championship that year in the Central Hockey League, and I’ll be honest, the thought of coming to Rapid City, South Dakota, I was like, ‘I don’t know much about Rapid City, and South Dakota wasn’t really high on my list of places I wanted to end up staying in.’ In a very short amount of time, I fell in love with the area, and fell in love with the people. This has turned into home for me. That one season turned into nine out of the next ten years being here in Rapid City.”

Winning the CHL's Presidents Cup in his first season with the club was only the beginning. Weselowski followed that up with such accolades as the CHL’s Defenseman of the Year and Man of the Year for his efforts on and off the ice, winning both awards in 2011-12.

Even with his initial hesitations, the Pilot Mound, Manitoba native was quick to embrace the community, and vice versa.

“It starts with probably where I was brought up,” he said. 

“I was brought up in a very small town, a small community with a population of about 650 people, and when you talk about a community in Manitoba that size, that’s a total community. Everybody knows everybody, and everybody roots for each other and works together. That’s all I’d ever really known throughout my life, even when I went to college, that was a step up in size, but Bemidji, Minnesota is another somewhat small community.

“In terms of Rapid City, when I got here, that’s all I’d known, becoming part of the community. Some of the early summers when I stayed here, as great as the winters were and the support we had as a hockey team with the success that we had, the people that I got to know in the summertime on a deeper level, the families that became families of mine, it really started to feel like home.”

Weselowski estimates that a good part of that Pilot Mound community will be attending on Saturday, as will many of the kids he helped coach both back home and in Rapid City along the way. One of his requests for the ceremony was that those kids get to be on the ice for the banner raising.

Did you know Riley Weselowski holds the franchise record for games played in a Rush uniform? Throw your guess on the exact number of games in the comments ⬇️

? https://t.co/njTOynVRKU pic.twitter.com/iV8XJdh6qC

— Rapid City Rush (@RapidCityRush) October 25, 2022

It still took a while to get to that point, of course.

Once the CHL ceased operations after 2014 and the ECHL accepted their remaining seven teams, Weselowski got his initial wish–getting the best of both worlds by playing in Rapid City and in the ECHL. He played his final seven seasons in the “E,” including four with the Rush as well as stays with the Cincinnati Cyclones, Florida Everblades and Wichita Thunder, before ultimately calling it a career last year to move on to his next chapter in coaching.

Having spent the last six seasons of his career in a player/coach role, it’s been a natural transition for Weselowski, who retired as the Rush’s franchise leader in games played, points by a defenseman and penalty minutes. In all, Weselowski appeared in 720 professional games in his career between the CHL and ECHL.

“I’m very much at peace with how my career ended, and part of that is just because of the energy that I have to coach,” said the 37-year-old, who started to transition into a full-time coaching role in 2020-21 with Wichita.

“I loved to play, don’t get me wrong. I absolutely loved to play. There’s no better job to me at that time in the world than playing hockey, but I love coaching more than I loved playing. I love now trying to further other guys’ careers and be somebody that can maybe move the needle to help somebody else. As fun as that was when it’s your own career and you can have an impact on it, when you can have an impact on 25 other guys' careers and can be a part of something on that side of it, it’s pretty incredible.” 

The Kansas City Mavericks have named Riley Weselowski Assistant Coach and Josh Robinson Goaltending Coach & Video Coordinator.

Read the full story here: https://t.co/NlUw2kwm3N pic.twitter.com/ijlYAOA2YH

— Kansas City Mavericks (@kc_mavericks) September 1, 2021

In a unique twist to Saturday's ceremony, minutes after his number ascends to the rafters, Weselowski will position himself on the opposing team's bench as his Mavericks look to secure two points in an important early-season matchup against the team he spent so much of his playing career with.

Now, in the second act of his hockey life, Weselowski couldn't help but take one more opportunity to reflect on a storied playing career that’s officially coming to a close with the highest honor a team can bestow.

“Just thinking about it, it’s emotional, because of everything that went into it and all the people that went into it,” he said, expressing gratitude for those in the organization who made the night possible. 

“I lost my best friend in a snowmobile accident, [2010 Presidents Cup-winning teammate] Blaine Jarvis, and now the Rush have a ‘Heart and Soul Award’ named after him, so you think about memories from the early years.

"I think about my family a lot, I think about the sacrifices that other people made for that jersey to go up there. Anybody that’s not in hockey maybe doesn’t realize how selfish of a career it is and it has to be for you to be successful at it. The sacrifices my parents made all along the way, to see the look in my son’s eyes–he’s four-and-a-half now–when dad’s out there doing his thing, and my wife Kelly, the sacrifices she’s made along the way. 

To be able to share this moment with them, it’s going to be very special.”