Game day jitters
Posted Jan 5, 2011 02:30:52 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
You could sense the camaraderie immediately. These men may have only been working together for a little over two weeks but you tend to make fast friends at a tournament like the World Junior Hockey Championships.
“They pretty much become your family,” said Dan Lebold when we sat down at his hotel this morning.
Lebold, head trainer for the OHL’s Kitchener Rangers and the equipment manager with Team Canada here in Buffalo, was referring to the rest of the behind-the-scenes medical and training staff who, along with two dozen or so players and coaches, are going for gold tonight against Russia.
There were friendly jabs and one-liners exchanged by the crew, always the earliest risers, first to arrive at the rink and last to go to bed.
“People always ask me when we find time to sleep and I tell them that’s what July is for,” Lebold jokes.
But he’s only half-kidding.
The work of team staff often goes unnoticed by the casual fan but is as important as anything to the product on the ice. The idea is to leave nothing to chance, to allow the players to focus on one thing — playing the game — and then to go quietly into the night. Invisible.
Although Lebold admits, at this tournament, he’s taken some time out to savour the moment. Before every game, he drops what he’s doing so he can be at the bench when the Canadian players come down the tunnel and take the ice. The sound, he says, is unlike anything else.
“It makes the hair on the back of your neck stand up,” Lebold says. “There’s just such a passion behind this. And when we score, and that horn goes at the HSBC Arena…,” he pauses, his voice trailing off, at a loss for words.
Lebold is no stranger to this tournament, having represented Team Canada during a gold medal effort in 1997 and again when we won silver last year. He’d like to book end those medals with another gold tonight but the Russians will have other ideas.
Like the players, Lebold is nervous.
“You can’t allow yourself to get caught up in it,” Lebold says of the game day jitters. “There are skates to sharpen and equipment to get ready. You just have to keep yourself busy.”
It’s not even 9 AM when we part. He’s on his way to the rink even though the players won’t skate today until noon. All in a day’s work. Still, the privilege of being here is not lost on him.
“I’m just so appreciative of the Kitchener Rangers for allowing me to be away from the team and be here,” Lebold says. “And of course to my family. This is a lot of time away at an important time of the year.”
If Lebold comes home with a gold medal around his neck, his employer and his family might be even more forgiving.
Listen to the action of tonight’s game with Dan Dunleavy and Jack Miller on 570 News. The pre-game starts at 7 PM.
