The reality is it takes many, many people beyond the hockey coaches and players to keep the Air Force Falcons flying.Take another look behind the scenes with The Flight Path at people who help make the Air Force hockey program go.
Goaltender Billy Christopoulos was Air Force’s unquestioned MVP on the ice this past season, helping the Falcons reach the NCAA Tournament’s elite eight for the second consecutive season after fashioning the program’s third 20-win season in a row. Both were program records.
If there had been voting for the off-ice MVP, there isn’t much question veteran athletic trainer Erik Marsh would have won in a landslide. Marsh dealt with an unprecedented rash of injuries. Eighteen players missed at least one game, and the team’s total games missed exceeded 210.
The carnage was unlike anything Marsh, who has been at the Academy since 1994 and has worked with the hockey team that entire time, has ever seen.
“Not in quantity,” the Parker, Colo., native says. “(Forward Matt) Pulver had a shoulder (reconstruction). I’ll see one or two of those. We got hit right out of the game – (center Evan) Feno in the very first game. That isn’t good.
“It just kept rolling and rolling and rolling. I’ve never seen the number, and it wasn’t ‘he’ll be out tonight, should be back tomorrow.’ Guys were out four weeks, five weeks, six weeks. They weren’t just a couple weeks and a little rest. It was challenging.”
The hits just kept coming
Entering the season, the Falcons’ projected lineup was almost entirely juniors and seniors. In fairly short order numerous freshmen were not only thrust into the lineup but playing important roles because, especially in the first half, it wasn’t unusual for the Falcons to be missing multiple defensemen or as many as four centers due to injuries.
“When we were at Holy Cross we finally got 12 healthy forwards and it lasted exactly six minutes,” Marsh recalls. “(Trevor) Stone got hit in the hand, thought he broke his hand and he was just out. I looked at (head coach) Frank (Serratore) and said, ‘That lasted six minutes.’
MORE INSIDER STORIES
Part 2 of Keeping the Falcons in one piece
Part 1 of Preparing the Falcons for battle
Keeping the Falcons well equipped
“I just couldn’t believe it. I was in the locker room with Stone looking at him thinking, ‘Six minutes we had 12 healthy forwards.’
“It gets overwhelming, it gets discouraging. Frank got tired of seeing me. In the middle of the season every time I’d walk in to talk to him he was gun shy because I was always bringing bad news.”
Athletic trainer Erik Marsh is perpetually on alert during the Falcons’ season. Photo courtesy of Air Force Athletics
Yet the Falcons endured, managing an intricate lineup balancing act. As soon as some players would return, others would get injured. It reached the point that defensemen Dan Bailey, Kyle Mackey and Joe Tyran played multiple games at forward, sometimes forming a line. Bailey and Tyran stayed up front through the Atlantic Hockey and NCAA tournaments.
“The things the coaches did manipulating the lineup and the players coming in and playing with different people was remarkable,” Marsh emphasizes. “When (center Kyle) Haak is out, it isn’t just affecting him, it’s affecting the guys on his line, the guys he plays with on the power play. It all trickles down.
“It was amazing what we accomplished with all that.”
A trainer’s balancing act
Marsh’s job features a delicate balance – the players’ well being coupled with a high level of motivation to play through pain. It’s part of the hockey players’ DNA.
“The hockey mentality in general is they want to go. They’re very, very physically and mentally tough,” Marsh says. “They’re tougher than the average athlete. I always tell people the last of the true athletic warriors are wrestlers and hockey players.”
Add to that the Falcons typically are a top-echelon team in their league – and in the nation, so there is pressure to produce. When Marsh thinks back to when he arrived at the Academy it doesn’t take him long to note several differences.
“Now there’s more on the line, we’re in a league, which we weren’t when I first got here,” he says. “It used to be our last game was at the end of the season – senior night, that was it.
“Now they’re playing for something. When guys get hurt, there’s more on the line, the stakes are higher. That’s probably the biggest change. We compete at a national level now, which when I first got here we weren’t doing.
“The evolution Frank took us through has made it more exciting, but then there’s more on the line, so it gets more challenging because we can’t afford for guys to be out. This season was a prime example, trying to get guys back in quickly and safely, but when they’re out, six, eight guys for a game, there’s a lot on the line, not just tonight’s win.”
To play or not to play?
This raises the question of when is it safe for a player, one who will be a future military officer by the way, to return to the lineup? As you might expect, there is a lengthy list of protocols he has to pass through.
This is one of the most prominent areas of collaboration among the Falcons’ hockey staff, which is a factor Serratore credits for the program’s sustained success.
Marsh has ongoing contact with the entire team, and over the course of a season he sees the entire roster at one point or another. For injuries beyond the nagging ones that every player deals with, Marsh works in concert with the coaching staff, team physician Dr. Ross Schumer, any specialists, strength and conditioning coach Drew Bodette and equipment manager Robert Rush.
“It’s a combination effort,” Marsh says. “Once (players) progress through rehab they have to accomplish certain goals or tasks to return.
“(If they’re) coming back from a a lower-leg injury they’ve got to do a hop test. If they pass that, then we’ll take them on the ice and we’ll do some different challenges on the ice, stops and starts and changes of direction, different ways to challenge them in a controlled environment.
“Then we’ll have a doc look at them, and if he gives them his blessing, we’ll put them in a red (non-contact) jersey. They practice in the non-contact phase. After they go through that, we put them in practice, which is still semi-controlled. And if that seems to go well, then we make the decision.”
Even that doesn’t guarantee an immediate return to the Falcons’ lineup, and there are a couple of reasons for that. One contingency is the coaching staff’s feel, influenced by the feedback from the medical and training professionals.
“I’ll usually tell Frank (the player’s) available,” Marsh says. “Then he and his staff make a decision whether or not to put him in. They meet with the player, the team physician and me. It has to be a collective effort to give him the thumbs up.”
A second is the player himself. As Serratore likes to say, this is the men’s league and AHC games in particular can – and often do – resemble hand-to-hand combat. Every inch of ice is hotly contested.
“The player has to be mentally ready,” Marsh says. “They’ve got to trust and believe (the injury is) healed and fixed. One of the biggest things players ask is, ‘Can I get hurt again?’ And the answer is yes, but you could hurt the other ankle or shoulder, too. So I can’t give you any guarantees.
“We’ve got to make sure they’re mentally ready to go. If they’re physically ready to go and not mentally ready to go, they’re just waiting to get hurt.
“So it’s a huge protocol to go step-by-step-by-step to return. It depends how quickly they accomplish the steps. Then we as a staff say, “Yup, we’re comfortable with your return.’ ”
NEXT: Conquering the season’s grind
©First Line Editorial 2017-18
