Hockey players keep their heads on a swivel while out on the ice, and not just before their own benefit.
On Jan. 30, Omaha junior forward Matt Miller wasn’t just looking out for his own safety, but for that of around 50 five- and six-year-olds.
Since last summer, Miller has been involved with hockey training programs headed by UNO alums Billy Pugliese and Matt Smith. Every Monday and Tuesday this season, Miller joins Smith and several other coaches and volunteers to help put on initiation program practices at Grover Ice Rink, a privately-owned facility one mile south of UNO’s Baxter Arena.
Twenty minutes into what should’ve been a 45-minute session last Monday, Miller and the other coaches noticed water starting to drip down from a portion of the ceiling over where around 10 kids were practicing a station drill. A fire sprinkler line had broken, and it quickly started to look as though water was raining down from around a light fixture.
Quick thinking led to an evacuation of the rink, around a minute before that portion of the ceiling collapsed. No one was injured.
“A lot of water was starting to come down, and we knew we needed to file everybody off the ice,” Miller said. “We gathered all the kids and directed them toward the benches and locker room area while we were trying to figure out what was going on.
“We started rushing kids off the ice, and eventually even the coaches were like, ‘Hey, let’s just leave (equipment) on the ice and get off. A coach or two made it off the ice, and then myself and a few other coaches and dads that were out there helping were just leaving the ice and making it to the bench surface as the ceiling came crashing down.
“We sent the kids to the locker room, and hopefully they weren’t too scared from it,” Miller continued. “Being that young and just starting out in hockey, that must be tough because I’d never seen anything like that. They definitely witnessed something there.”
Grover Ice Rink was up and running again inside of a week. Learn-to-skate and adult hockey groups were back out on the ice two days later, and on the Friday of that same week, the facility resumed its regular schedule.
Evan Schinasi, the Grover Ice Rink general manager, credited Omaha’s hockey community with the fast turnaround.
“We had the water shut off in less than 10 minutes, but that’s enough to do some damage,” Schinasi said. “I probably had 20 guys here that night within an hour to help us clean up, and I didn’t ask a single one of them.
“It was employees, friends, customers. By the time I shuffled the news people out, I turned around and there’s 20, 25 guys there going, ‘All right, what can I do?’ Omaha’s big, but it’s not that big.”
Gratitude was also shared by parents of the young players that Miller helped supervise that day and again early this week.
“I wasn’t the first one to see it start to rain down, because I was on the near side of the rink, but it was a really cold day that day, and so I instantly thought a pipe froze,” Miller said. “That’s when you’re like, ‘Oh, this is not good,’ and when we saw that massive amount of water start compiling in the ceiling, we knew we needed to get out of there.
“Those rinks have a lot of electrical stuff and water lines going through them, and in that case, it was a pretty big thing to break, so it was good that everybody knew to make sure the kids were safe first.
“Most of the kids’ parents were there, and it’s most of these kids’ first year playing hockey,” Miller continued. “We got a lot of people thanking us, ‘Nobody really knew what was going on, but you guys stepped in and made the right call there.’ It was relieving to know that nobody really got hurt, because it all happened pretty fast. Everybody just jumped into action, and the parents were super grateful for that.”
Miller plans to keep working with youth hockey programs throughout and beyond his own playing career. He started by helping with kids’ hockey in his hometown of Fort Wayne, Ind., and his experience of helping to grow the game took on added significance last Monday.
“Matt Miller is a great person,” Schinasi said. “He’ll be successful at whatever he does in his future. He’s that type of person, and we’re thankful for him and the other coaches and everyone else who was out there.
“We work with all those guys and help facilitate everything they do, and they help us out. Our collective goals are to make sure people are having fun and to make sure the kids are getting better and help them achieve whatever goals they have out there, whether they want to play hockey and just have a good time, or become a great player and have a college or professional career. There’s a path for everybody, and we’re trying to help everyone have those options.”
Miller’s own experience has opened doors for him, and the efforts last Monday of himself and his fellow coaches gave him one more valuable thing to remember as his career continues.
“If there is an emergency, take action right away,” he said. “You’ve definitely got to get people out of harm’s way if you see something that’s potentially dangerous. Our first thought was to make sure everybody’s safe first, and to get the kids off of the ice. You never know what could happen if you wait too long, and it’s just important to flip that switch when things go into emergency mode.”
