practicing at the Frozen Four<\/a>. We had a ton of injuries that season, so I had served as a practice player most of the season, and just being on the ice in St. Louis, knowing that the team was only two wins away from a national championship, was something very special for me. <\/p>\n3. The hardest thing about being a student manager is the hours I have to keep. I have abandoned all weekends, arriving at the rink around 10 a.m. and leaving around 2 a.m. on game days. It is a lot of work, but it has been worth it. <\/p>\n
Rob Coppola, Merrimack Senior Student Manager<\/i><\/p>\n
1. One of the main reasons I became involved with Merrimack hockey was because I kind of fell into it. My dad has worked here my whole life as the director of the Physical Plant on campus, so I had always been a big fan and I went to high school down the road. After school I would come to the rink every day and just help the manager out that was here at the time with everything he needed. Because I had known the coaches for quite a while, they did not mind and I even traveled with the team everywhere they went, except for plane trips until my senior year of H.S. By my junior year I was the main person sharpening skates and doing a lot of the work associated with being a manager. When I got to college I continued doing it because I loved it so much, had met so many awesome people doing it, and have made hundreds of friends. There are not to many things that are better than being paid to watch hockey, and this being my eighth year doing it, working upwards of 50 hours a week much of the school year, I don’t regret a single minute of it. <\/p>\n
2. I would have to say that my favorite experience that was due to being the equipment manager is the traveling. I have been to Omaha, Neb., Detroit (twice), Anchorage, Ak., Minnesota and many other places in the past eight years. I had never flown in a jet coming into this, and when I was a junior in H.S. the team allowed me to travel to Omaha with them for the Maverick Stampede tournament. For me, Alaska was my favorite place to go by far. I love the outdoors and going to Alaska is one of the best places to go to really experience it. If I had never joined the hockey team I can’t imagine I ever would have been able to experience that. <\/p>\n
3. Probably one of the hardest things about being the equipment manager at Merrimack is the time that you have to put in to do it. At times I will be working almost 50 hours a week, if not more. There is a little bit of down time involved but when you are a full-time student, it is still quite hard. Being the one with the most experience at Merrimack when it comes to hockey equipment managing, there is also a lot of pressure from a lot of people. I have one person that helps me who is in his first year at Merrimack, and he takes a bit of pressure off, but between teaching him things and getting things done is still a lot of work. Even though it is a lot of work and the majority of it goes unnoticed, it feels good to know that I am helping out the team so much, and helping to make future professional athletes. When the team succeeds, I feel as though I helped in a big part to make that happen. So all the long days and nights, in the end, are worth it to me. <\/p>\n
Matt Nareski, Northeastern Equipment Manager:<\/i><\/p>\n
1. I have 11 work-study students and one volunteer.<\/p>\n
2. Basically everything besides skate sharpening and heavy sewing. I have taught one student to sharpen skates so that the women’s team would have coverage while I was with the men’s team. The students do laundry, locker room cleanup, locker room setup for games, inventory, light repair work and set up the visitors when they come to Matthews. Also, I take all the players equipment early to away rinks and set up the locker room there. So I always have one or two students with me at all times on the road and some of them keep me in check and organized. <\/p>\n
3. I have two students who work a tremendous number of hours a week, probably between 30 and 40, but after 20 hours, it’s volunteer time. The rest of them will work between five and 10 hours a week.<\/p>\n
3. I will get anywhere between 30-50 applicants in the fall. I send out emails to every one of them, but only 15-20 get back to me. I will bring them in and show them around and let them know the details of the job. I will normally hire every student who wants to work here, but there are students who just don’t work out or will quit after a few days.<\/p>\n
Providence:<\/i><\/p>\n
1. Three student managers — all sophomores.<\/p>\n
2. Their duties include laundry, keeping the locker rooms clean and various other tasks.<\/p>\n
Charles Mackey, Vermont Equipment Manager<\/i><\/p>\n
1. One.<\/p>\n
2. Skate sharpening, laundry, locker room setup, work practice, work bench during games, pregame setup and postgame breakdown, general staff support. 20-25 hours per week.<\/p>\n
3. Student manager is a volunteer position and is usually filled by referral.<\/p>\n
John Gobeil, Vermont Senior Student Manager:<\/i><\/p>\n
1. I love hockey. I played in high school at North Country Union in Derby, Vermont, and wanted to stay involved with the game. A lot of my friends at school were already on the team and roommates of mine. Also, this is something I may want to do in the future. I’m interested in maybe working on the business side of hockey.<\/p>\n
2. My favorite experience was making the Hockey East finals at the TD Banknorth Garden last season. I also have enjoyed the fun times with the guys on road trips and just being part of the team. <\/p>\n
3. The hardest part is balancing the time demands that come with being the manager along with my schoolwork and overall college experience.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
There’s more to a hockey team than the players and coaches. Melissa Wade and Melissa Parrelli give us a look into the dedication of some of those behind the scenes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":140328,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
Q&A: Working Behind The Scenes - College Hockey | USCHO.com<\/title>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n