A new hockey team will call the Manchester Ice and Event Centre in McCall home next season.
The Bakersfield Roughnecks of the United States Premier Hockey League announced today that the team is relocating to McCall and rebranding. Starting next season, the team will be known as the McCall Smokejumpers.
“We wanted to rebrand our program to something that would fall in line with McCall and the hardworking people supporting us,” said Chris Gregory, who owns the team. “McCall is a community known for its wildland firefighting and smokejumping base, among other things.”
The team will have about 20 home games at the Manchester next season, starting in October. Homestands will include games on Friday and Saturday night, as well as Sunday afternoon.
“When we heard that these guys wanted to come here, we were like, ‘Yeah, let’s do this,’” said Pete LaGrange, the rink’s general manager.
Mountaineers to stay
Rob Lyons, the general manager for the McCall Mountaineers, said the team will continue to compete and is excited to have a new team in town.
“I think it’ll definitely be complimentary to each other,” Lyons said. “In the wintertime when the sun goes down, there’s nothing to do for families, so I think there’s enough of a draw.”
The Mountaineers play in the Mountain Hockey League (MHL), which is a semi-professional league for the Rockies region.
The Smokejumpers could help develop players for the Mountaineers, who currently roster several former Junior Steelheads, Lyons said.
The USPHL is a developmental league for players between the ages of 16 and 20 who hope to play Division I college hockey or professional hockey.
The Smokejumpers will play in the league’s Northwest Division, which includes junior teams in Washington, Utah, and Colorado. McCall is the league’s first team in Idaho.
Junior Steelheads ties
The relocation marks a return to McCall for junior hockey after the Idaho Junior Steelheads, also known as the IceCats, folded following the 2018 season. The team had won six championships since being formed in 2009.
The departure of the Junior Steelheads was lamented by many, including McCall resident Brian Keeffe, who spent the past several years trying to find a way to re-establish junior hockey in McCall.
“I decided to make it my job to try to get a junior team back here,” Keefee said, citing the experience his own two boys had growing up playing hockey all over the country.
Keeffe started by knocking on doors and asking anyone who would listen if they missed the Junior Steelheads.
“It was kind of amazing how everybody was on the same page,” he said. “Everybody missed the Steelheads.”
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Eventually, Keeffe got in touch with Gregory, who was looking for a change of scenery after starting a team in Bakersfield four years ago and struggling with attendance.
Gregory and his wife, Sarah, visited McCall earlier this winter and quickly decided it was a good fit for their program. The Junior Steelheads also had made a good impression on them years earlier when raising their own children through junior hockey.
“We’d heard good things about the town of McCall and their facility and their fan base,” he said.
Gregory expects six or seven of the team’s current players to stay with the team through the move. Several local youth hockey players are also expected to join the team. Up to 30 players could be on the roster.
The players will live in McCall full-time and are expected to be involved in community events as well as the McCall Youth Hockey Association.
“Our hope is this grows our youth hockey program and we get more skaters involved,” LaGrange said.
Former Junior Steelhead named head coach
Auggie Kuzara, a former Junior Steelheads player, will be the head coach of the Smokejumpers.
“I am excited about the change to build something special from the ground up,” said Kuzara, 27. “I look forward to teaming up with the players and the community to create a winning culture from the start.”
Following his career as a Junior Steelhead, Kuzara went on to Division I hockey at Merrimack College in Massachusetts before a three-year stint playing professional hockey in Germany. He was a member of the Mountaineers this past season.
Kuzara credits his experience playing junior hockey for helping him succeed at the collegiate and pro levels of the sport.
“That’s where guys learn to be professional, eat healthy, train properly, and take care of their bodies,” he said. “I still take those lessons with me in my day-to-day life.”
Keeffe, who will remain involved with the team’s operations, echoed that sentiment.
“Hockey is a path, not an end,” he said. “My boys benefited greatly when they were involved with things off the ice that weren’t necessarily related to hockey, but we’re definitely a part of making them who they are now.”
The United States Premier Hockey League was founded in 2012 as a junior league that prepares players to play collegiate hockey. The league has produced more than 300 NCAA Division I players and 18 players drafted into the National Hockey League.
