Thunder Ice Arena’s impact on community, athletics growing

In the six years since its opening, Trine University’s Thunder Ice Arena has already served thousands of youth and college students, with its impact on the local community as well as the sports of hockey and skating continuing to grow.

Nearly 3,000 children and youth have participated in the facility’s programs over the past four years, including nearly 1,000 last year alone. Trine will have more than 300 students from 11 states in its skating and hockey camps this summer.

“It’s increased every year,” said John Mihalik, youth program director and assistant rink manager for the Thunder Ice Arena.

The arena recently graduated its first class of Angola High School hockey players who have spent all four years in that program. Three of those graduates are moving on to college- and junior-level hockey, including David Ernst, who will play at Trine.

University alumni are also making their presence known in the hockey and skating world as professional athletes, coaches and facility managers.

Trine’s Brad Jenion and Garrett Hallford are playing in the Southern Professional Hockey League, Jenion with the Fayetteville Marksmen and Hallford with the Macon Mayhem.

Chris Garrity, an NCAA hockey player at Trine, was head coach of the Angola High School team and now serves as the head coach for the university’s ACHA D3 team. Another NCAA player, Max DiCiccio, is now head coach for the Angola High School team.

Hannah Nelson, who played for Trine's women's NCAA team, is an assistant coach for Buffalo State.

Brenden Lambert, a student coach at the ice arena and an ACHA D2 player at Trine, is director of hockey operations at The Ice Box Skating Rink in South Bend.

Zakareya Yousef, who was part of Trine’s synchronized skating team, is serving as an intern at Miami University’s rink.

Athletes first

Opened in fall 2017, Trine University’s 46,200-square-foot, 700-seat Thunder Ice Arena has expanded the university’s community presence from its inception, hosting not only Trine and youth hockey teams but skating and hockey classes and open skating.

In addition to the beautiful facility, Mihalik attributed the growth and success of the arena’s programming to an athlete-first culture.

“Everything we do is for the best interest of the athlete,” he said. “In our house leagues, we’re focusing on the kids having fun, we’re focusing on the development of ice skills and skating, and we’re focusing on making sure that they leave here better than they were.”

Mihalik also credits the Trine student and parent coaches.

“The program has a good mix,” he said. “I’ve got about 10 student coaches that I’ll hire who are athletes here. And then we have the parent coaches. They’re always helping out and the combination is unbelievable.”

The arena does not offer a travel hockey team, but sends many players on to those teams, Mihalik said.

“A lot of families want to play travel hockey, so we develop players and then a lot of them go and play in Fort Wayne,” he said. “We enjoy their presence here and they appreciate everything we’ve done, but if we can get them to that next level, that’s the goal.”

The Angola High School team plays in a junior varsity league based in South Bend, facing teams from Indianapolis to Michigan.

“They’ve come a long way,” Mihalik said of the program.

Life lessons, relationships

Mihalik said it’s rewarding to see the growth in the ice arena’s programming. He sees sport as a vehicle for kids to learn life lessons.

He also enjoys seeing the relationships develop between Trine student coaches and the youth in the program.

“We have some great athletes who are coaching, who maybe want to do that in the future, and it’s good leadership for them,” he said. “And then the kids look up to them.”

Often, he said, families involved in the programs come to Trine hockey games or skating competitions to cheer their coaches on.

Moving forward, Mihalik said he hopes to see the university continue to build on its youth programming, particularly in areas such as figure skating.

For now, in addition to the summer camps, open skating has returned on Saturdays from 3:30-5:30 p.m. for the rest of the summer. It will move back to Wednesdays and Sundays once the fall semester starts.

“With camps I pretty much use the ice from 8 a.m. until late at night,” said Mihailik. “We have so many kids and we get them on the ice all day.”

For more information on Thunder Ice Arena programs, visit thundericearena.com or follow Thunder Ice Arena on Facebook or Instagram.