Evan Feno has been an every night player from the time he stepped onto the ice at Cadet Arena in 2015.
Heading into his junior season, big things were expected of him and of the Air Force hockey team, which entered the 2017-18 season with 15 upperclassmen and was coming off only the second NCAA Tournament elite eight appearance in program history. Feno brought skill, speed and versatility to a deep Falcons lineup, and the center has been lauded by coaches and teammates for his ability to thrive in any situation, anywhere in the lineup.
That’s part of what made his season-ending injury, a torn ACL, in Game 1 last season so difficult for all parties involved, but especially the Colorado native, who’d never experienced an injury as severe in almost two decades of playing the sport.
Today, the senior is good as new, maybe better. And he credits Falcons athletic trainer Erik Marsh and strength and conditioning coach Drew Bodette for that.
The road to recovery
“I wouldn’t be where I’m at without those two,” Feno said recently. “I’m 100 percent; I don’t feel any differently than before. I got my speed all the way back, now I just have to get my lungs back.”
Evan Feno. Photo courtesy of Paat Kelly (Pengo Sports) and Air Force Athletics
That’s a far cry from last October when hockey ground to a halt for Feno. Upon the team’s return from the season-opening trip to Alaska, Feno went through a battery of tests and it was determined surgery was the best course once some of the swelling in his knee receded.
“Right out of surgery I couldn’t bend my leg,” he recalls. “Marshy was great. I spent a lot of time with him initially, three hours every day.
“He always kept me level headed, told me not to rush things. He walked me through everything as many times as I needed. Eventually I was able to use balance machines and weightless treadmills. It was discouraging at times but he helped me focus on my progress.”
Just regaining some functional movement for everyday life was an accomplishment, but the highly competitive Feno left no doubt what the goal was – finish strong for the Falcons as a senior. Unlike other non-military programs, a medical redshirt isn’t an option for the Academy. So the hard reality was this season is it.
That’s where Bodette came in.
Rebuilding a Falcon
“Evan has his heart set on making this upcoming season his best ever,” Bodette says. “He’s been driven, so motivated. He’s always coming in to see me, asking what can we do next? … Sometimes the best advice is take a day off. I had to reel him back in at times.”
Feno was champing at the bit to get in the weight room post-injury, but until he had the green light from his surgeon and Marsh, he was limited to doing upper body work. That helped ease concerns about his leg.
“I lost a lot of leg mass in a short amount of time, it was slightly disheartening,” the former Colorado Thunderbird said. “Drew put together personalized workouts for me, always took time to show me correct ways to perform and modify the exercises.”
It was a long, tedious process, and one that isolated Feno from his teammates at times.
“When guys were doing their warm-ups on Friday nights, Evan and I were (in the weight room) doing rehab,” Bodette says. “Eventually we were working on speed, agility, quickness, doing plyometrics, everything we can to make him the best player he can be.”
The approach was perfect, Feno says.
“He knows exactly what he’s talking about. My legs gradually got back up to speed,” the senior says. “He pushed me, but in a smart way. We worked one and a half to two hours a day. Seeing the progress was great for me.
“I’m lifting more now than I had been prior to last season.”
Bodette is convinced Falcons fans have yet to see Feno’s best.
“He has never had a period like this,” the S&C coach says. “To see the physical transformation of Evan Feno – he’s put on a lot of muscle, he’s gotten a lot faster, he’s gotten a lot more explosive. … Evan’s going to be a rock star.”
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Keeping the Falcons in One Piece
Keeping the Falcons Well Equipped
Secrets to the Falcons’ Success
Declaring war on injuries
Bodette and Marsh worked overtime last season dealing with injuries of all varieties. The Falcons lost more than 200 man games because of injuries. Several players were able to return from serious injuries, while a handful – including Feno, senior defenseman Kyle Mackey and freshman forwards Shawn Knowlton and Max Harper were not.
It got so bad at one point that the Falcons were playing defensemen at forward and wings at center just to ice a lineup. On several nights having more than one healthy scratch was a luxury.
“This particular season made us look back at what we are doing to prevent injuries,” Bodette says. “In the strength and conditioning world, there’s not a lot we can do to prevent concussions, unlike ACL (tears). ACLs have lots of research to say this is how you can prevent them, this is how you could help strengthen the area.
“Concussions, not so much because there’s just now more attention and awareness of those, and we’re learning so much about them. So Marshy and I have decided to implement some more neck strengthening. We’re hoping it would help slow the impact of the brain on the skull a little bit, but there’s not a lot of research out there yet.”
That’s an anecdotal example of what Bodette has done for years. When he’s designing programs, or “the manual” for players, he takes stock of what injuries they’ve sustained, what team-wide trends might be developing, in hopes of mitigating them.
“When I first started working with the hockey team, the volume of shoulder injuries that they have, that was my target area, along with being explosive and training the metabolic pathways you need to use and those systems and main muscle groups for skating,” Bodette says. “We do a ton of shoulder (work) to help prevent those injuries.
“Every time one happens I go to Marshy and ask what could we have done to prevent this? This is a high-speed collision sport. If there was something we could do, we would do it.
“We do so much internal shoulder girdle strengthening. I like to think that helps. It becomes less of a weak area. So if there is a weak area, the strength will help the area heal faster. In theory, if they can be injured for less time I’ve kind of done my job.”
Creatures of habit
The military academy lift is far more rigid than a typical college life might be. And an NCAA athlete’s life has to be even more disciplined. Add it up, and there isn’t much down time for Falcons hockey players.
“If I could do anything to help them, I would give them more sleep,” Bodette says. “There’s no sleeping in. They’re up early for formation, they go to class to the weight room to the rink. Then they have more school work to do.
“The hardest thing is these guys don’t get enough down time to take care of themselves. They’re tired a lot. … You’ll find that when these guys have a break … when they could get sleep, it makes a huge difference.”
To that end, Bodette likes to keep a simple routine for game preparation.
If the Falcons are on the road, he’ll make sure they’re stretched out after their flight (which typically is on Wednesday night) and after Thursday’s practice. The pregame routines are more dynamic in nature – activate the muscles and get the heart rate up a bit.
The Friday night postgame recovery is crucial, and it begins within 15 minutes of the conclusion of the game. Ropes, rollers and lacrosse balls are the tools to begin the recovery.
“We go through some light plyometrics to bring their heart rate up, then we bring it back down slowly with some static stretching and partner stretching,” Bodette says. “Then we can flush some of the bad stuff and help promote healing for Saturday’s game.”
Pressing on
Every season brings unique challenges for Bodette, for Marsh and for equipment manager Robert Rush, but the payoff is more than worth it, the strength and conditioning coach says.
“We still don’t have a national championship, but with these kids the sky is the limit,” Bodette says. “These guys don’t go to the NHL – I’m sure they’d like to – but they want to serve our country, which is the bigger picture.
“These kids are great, they’re very disciplined, they work hard and they’re very respectful. It’s everything I want to be. They’re just great kids.”
Author’s note: This concludes our summer series taking you inside the Falcons hockey program. I hope you’ve it!
©First Line Editorial 2017-18.
