Ahoy, Inferno fans!
Sorry for the delay, but it's been a really hectic week around the office. But to start everything off, I'd like let you know what's happening here with the rink. Our ice installer, Charlie, and his team of workers have gotten most of the framework done for the ice. Putting in an ice surface for an arena that was never supposed to have it in the first place is a little bit difficult, but I think we can all agree that it's well worth it. First, the installers must erect the dam; this acts as both pond and sandbox, and it serves as the foundation for the boards themselves.
You can sort of see the dam to the right of the boards.
Once the ring-like dam is up, sheets of styrofoam insulation are laid to cover every square inch of concrete arena floor inside the confines of said dam. Massive sheets of plastic are then put down to help keep sand and water off the floor and styrofoam.
On top of the plastic, a vast network of tubing is laid, with each tube being only an inch or so away from the next. This network will later be pumped with hundreds of gallons of antifreeze, or glycol. The glycol is supercooled in the massive chiller behind the Coliseum, and then pumped through these tubes. Once everything is inspected for leaks, weakness, and problems, the glycol can be pumped through and then we can begin to flood the dam with water. We're still about a week away from being able to flood, but after the ice is firmed, it's only about 12 hours before blades can hit.
On to other news... As most of you have
probably seen by now, the Inferno have hired Paul Marriott to be the club's Vice President of Business Operations. Paul has spent a lot of time in minor league baseball, most recently with the single-A Batavia Muckdogs in New York. It may seem like something of a stretch for a baseball guy to switch over to hockey, but the last several ECHL Executives of the Year have backgrounds in baseball. In fact, at the league meetings this year in Vegas (baby, Vegas), representatives from the Toledo Mudhens gave a seminar for clubs to use some of baseball's strategies in promoting hockey. Paul will pick up the nuances of the hockey business quickly, and I'm sure that his successful strategies for promoting and maintaining sports will wear off on the office just as fast.
This past week, Coach Mann, Brad Ralph and head trainer Jessica Judge went out on a golf outing with Golf the Midlands magazine. The story is about the parallels between golf and hockey, and why so many hockey players play golf, too. It will be published in the Oct.-Nov. issue of the free magazine, available at golf courses and chambers of commerce across the Midlands. I'll post another update once the issue becomes available.
Speaking of Coach Mann, he has been invited to help as an assistant coach with the Hershey Bears training camp this week in Pennsylvania. He joins Jared Bednar, coach of the rival Stingrays, as well as Inferno players Mac Faulkner and Tim Songin. You can follow all of the happenings at Hershey's training camp
here. It's quite the honor for Coach Mann to be asked to help with this camp, and especially with an AHL organization with the history and tradition of Hershey's.
For those of you who are morning people, be sure to watch WIS' Sunrise morning show. The co-anchor over there, Brian DeRoy, is a HUGE hockey fan. Don't just take my word for it. Here's a picture he sent me from his days in Raleigh...
Check out Brian's own blog
here. He's on the air from 5-7 a.m., so help support a good guy who supports your Inferno!
We have some player news, too. As you've seen
here and
here, the Inferno have recently brought in a pair of defensemen. First, as many of you are happy to know, Ren Fauci has returned to the Inferno. Ren's a great guy who lets his actions on the ice do most of the talking. Coach Mann has routinely praised his work ethic and his desire to compete.
Unfortunately, Ren wasn't the easiest guy to get a hold of the day we issued his release. So, that left the office to determine his graphic, which is
never a good idea. Ideas such as putting him next to Stimpy popped up, but Wendy Hennessy (the director of communications) drew the correlation between Fauci and faucets, hence this, um, creative graphic. I called Ren, and true to his easy-going spirit, he was A-OK with what happened.
As for Patrick Wellar, Coach Mann is pretty excited about this signing. Wellar has been described throughout the league as a good teammate and a great community guy, though you wouldn't know it based on his on-ice performance. Wellar is a big, mean player who's not afraid to knock the daylights out of someone. He doesn't fight all that often, but he enjoys laying the wood on big, open-ice hits. I called Patrick the other day, and he said he likens his game most closely to those of the St. Louis Blues' Barrett Jackman and the Atlanta Thrashers' Garnet Exelby. Having spent some time in the Thrashers' organization myself, I can promise you that if Wellar hits like Exelby, every fan in the building will love him.
The big fella (6'3, 210 lbs.) is from Saskatchewan, where he said he spent plenty of time in the province's vast grain fields. What better way to honor that heritage than by putting him back out in the fields?
Well folks, that's all for this week. I hope to have more information for you next week, and once training camp starts I should have updates daily.
Any questions or comments,
drop me a line or check out the
message boards.
