GRAND FORKS, N.D. -- In 2015-16, Dane Jackson was the associate head hockey coach at UND as the team won the national championship.

Last season, in Jackson's first year as head coach of his alma mater, his team won the league title and reached the NCAA Frozen Four before losing to end its season.

Clearly, Jackson has had direct involvement in building winners just as he did as a sophomore player at UND in 1988-89 when his team reached the NCAA Tournament quarterfinals.

So it is in Jackson's DNA on how winning rosters are assembled and succeed as his goes into second season in charge of a program he has such a long involvement in as a player and coach.

"We talk a lot about what is important in our culture,'' Jackson said in a one-on-one interview on Media Day this week.  "It's like raising a kid. You can set all the rules, but then what really matters is how you hold those rules accountable in the days to come.

"When issues that are below standard come up, you've got to stop, you got to address them and say, 'hey, we don't do that here. When things are outstanding, we also celebrate those.' "

As UND prepares to open the season this weekend with a pair of exhibition games at Ralph Engelstad Arena against Augustana and the University of Manitoba, version No. 2 of Jackson's team will be on full display with a large number of freshmen and transfers in UND's lineup.

In assembling his teams, he finds that players worldwide know of UND's program and the storied Ralph Engelstad Area built and donated to UND by the former UND goalie.

"We had a zoom (meeting) with a kid from Sweden,'' Jackson said. "We asked him what he knew about the University of North Dakota. He said he knows about this. He started going through all the videos he had seen and all the players who  have come here. He said he loves college hockey and North Dakota is one of coolest places to follow because of their fans and the facility. It is incredible the reach that our program has."

He mentioned how former UND and NHL player and coach Rick Wilson came back to UND a few years ago and addressed the team here.

"He said even in the NHL, North Dakota has a brand. You get all that when you're here. But there's also an expectation when you go to the next level, that if you play at North Dakota, then you are tough, you are a two-way player, you are a character guy. You're a team-first guy. He said that even in the best league in the world, there's an understanding that guys who come out of here are tough, competitive, hard-nosed, kind of pro-ready guys. That's a pretty neat message that he brought.''

So it is with that in mind that Jackson builds his rosters at UND. "I learned lot about that as an 18-year-old kid when I came here,'' Jackson said. "I learned a lot from Blaiser (Dean Blais), Gino (Gasparini) and Cary Eades. Guys who were tough, strong-willed guys.''

He looks hard for good character guys, he said. "Guys who are leaders. Guys who are selfless, tough competitors. Guys who have that 'it' factor about who they are,'' Jackson said. "If they're not willing to battle through hard times, hard things, you're probably not going to be successful.''

So North Dakota tough guys are high on his recruiting list.

"We put a lot of time searching kids' backgrounds. You see a player on the ice. We look for relentlessness, we look for two-way play, we look for body language,'' Jackson said. 

UND also talks to coaches, other players, trainers, (school) officials, the janitors at the rinks. The process is thorough, no doubt.

They've had prospects come on campus that ask about NIL money, if they are going to play on the power play right away. "We don't make promises to anybody,'' Jackson said. "At the University of North Dakota, you come in and earn everything you get."

Jackson and staff spend the time getting to know the person before they take them on board. "When you spend 48 hours with somebody, that's a good start toward figuring out who they are, Jackson said. "When they are around our players, our players are pretty good at knowing what we're look for. They do a really good job at helping differentiate that as well.''

One more thing. "It goes a long way when you have good people, when we are prepared, we're committed, we're together," Jackson said. "You can win a lot of games with that."

Virg Foss is in his 57th season of writing about UND hockey since 1969, first for the Grand Forks Herald, then for UND after his retirement from the newspaper in 2005.