5 minute read
Potato Puckheads
PHOTO BY MARK OLIVER
Steelheads help Idahoans fall for hockey
BY MIKE MCKENNA
In Idaho, we usually associate ice with fishing, winter roads, and cocktails. But our view of the cold, slick surface has been changing, Idaho is in the midst of a growing love affair with hockey, one that first caused a twinkle in many a spud’s eye over 20 years ago, when professional hockey found its way to Boise and the Idaho Steelheads team was born.
TWO MINUTES FOR HOOKING
Way back in 1996, well before Boise was discovered by the masses, it was announced that a minor league hockey team would be moving to town. Folks from all over southern Idaho were asked to vote on a name. Steelheads was the winner.
It was the ideal name for a hockey team playing in the rugged Northern Rockies. The tough and tenacious fish make a 900-mile trek from the sea to the heart of Idaho to spawn each year. They don’t let predators or dams or even the hooks of anglers keep them from their goal.
When the Steelheads started playing together in 1997, the rink at The Grove was packed with rowdy fans like myself. The team was tough, the crowd was raucous, and a unique brand of Steelheads hockey was born. Now in their 24th season, the scene is still the same just about every night the Steelheads take the ice.
“We’re tenacious. We’re a team that’s always going to give you our best,” says Steelheads Captain, A. J. White. “There are no easy games when you’re playing us.”
The three-time captain from Michigan says that there’s no doubt about their home ice advantage at Idaho Central Arena.
Photo by Mark Oliver
“Our crowd is arguably one of the best in the league,” says the forward. “We feed off the crowd. It’s a great place to play.”
Part of the Dallas Stars minor league system, the Steelheads average over 4,000 fans per game and one of the highest occupancy rates in the ECHL.
“We have a really unique atmosphere here. It’s not like bigger venues. It feels like the fans are right on top of you,” Head Coach Everett Sheen says. “The players feed off the fans. It’s so intimate in here.”
HAT TRICKS
They say everybody loves a winner, which makes it really easy to love the Steelheads. The team has managed to make the playoffs every year since they started and have also claimed two Kelly Cups as league champions.
Of course, in the old days of minor league hockey, fans didn’t care as much about who won on the scoreboard as they did about who won the fights. But those “Gordie Howe Hat Trick” days are part of a bygone era. While hockey is still a tough and physical sport, “putting on the foil” and bone-crushing hits have given way to speed, skill, and teamwork.
A. J. WHITE
PHOTO BY MARK OLIVER
The Steelheads’ key to success is being a great team.
“Hockey is a very team-oriented game,” Steelheads Assistant Captain Will Merchant says. “At the end of the day, we’re a family. We step up for each other, help each other out.”
Coach Sheen, now in his fifth season behind the Steelheads bench, explains that what makes the Steelheads good is really what makes the sport so special.
“It’s such a true team game. Not one guy can go out there and win it. It takes every guy in that dressing room to win a game,” Coach Sheen says. “You have to come together as a group of people who have different personalities, beliefs, and backgrounds. You all have to become united for one goal.”
– Coach Everett Sheen
ICE, ICE, BABY
There are only 11 hockey rinks in Idaho, but new rinks are in the works for Moscow and Idaho Falls. Meanwhile, the state’s youngest rink, the Campion Ice House in Hailey, is starting its sixth season and both the youth and adult hockey programs it serves are seeing record numbers. Hockey is thriving from Coeur d’Alene and Lewiston to McCall, Salmon, and the Treasure and Teton Valleys.
The Steelheads have been a big part of that. New NHL teams arriving in Las Vegas and Seattle have also helped. But the pure joy of playing the game is what pros like the Steelheads say really gets all the credit.
– Player A.J. White
“It’s really growing everywhere. It’s such a great sport. You meet a ton of great people,” says Will, who grew up in Minnesota and played college hockey at the University of Maine. “Some of the best times of my life have been going out skating and having fun with friends.”
One of the great things about hockey is that its gliding nature—and abundance of padded equipment—makes it a bit easier on our bodies.
COACH EVERETT SHEEN
PHOTO BY MARK OLIVER
“It’s a game you can play forever,” says Coach Sheen, who grew up in British Columbia and played at the college level for Holy Cross. Despite not coming from a hockey family and even wearing the wrong gear to his first practice as a kid, Coach Sheen quickly fell in love with the sport.
Hockey is not an easy sport, but part of its appeal is the constant challenge it provides.
“Hockey is a very challenging sport. I was told at a young age that it’s a marathon, not a sprint,” says A. J., who grew up in Michigan and played college hockey at UMass Lowell.
“You’ve got to enjoy it and have fun with it,” Coach Sheen advises to new players of any age. “If you’re enjoying something, you’re going to want to put in the extra effort.”
“It’s taken a while for the game to grow,” adds A. J., “and once people reach out and try it they realize it really is for everybody; everybody can play hockey.”
It has taken hockey a bit of time to catch on here in the Gem State. But thanks in good part to the Steelheads, it certainly seems like hockey has taken ahold of our hearts and more Idahoans are jumping on the band—or Zamboni—wagon.
