×

Home Away From Home

Rebels Equipment Manager Has No Regrets Leaving Texas For NY

Steven Smith was behind the Jamestown Rebels bench as the team’s equipment manager during their first season in Jamestown. Submitted photos

Jamestown Rebels equipment manager Steven Smith did not grow up in what most people would consider a typical hockey environment — far from it.

A native of Mission, Texas, a city of 77,000 that lies just over the border from Mexico, Smith was always surrounded by a sports culture that revolved around football.

While he would spend some time on the gridiron in his youth, there were some important events along the way that helped put him on a path toward hockey and a career in the North American Hockey League.

“When I was 8 or 9 years old there was a project, they started building a new arena,” Smith said, “and along with it came a minor professional franchise in the Central Hockey League.”

That project built what is now know as State Farm Arena, a multisport facility in Hidalgo that hosted the Rio Grande Valley Killer Bees from 2003-12. Since the early days of attending games with his father, Andrew, a corporate pilot, Smith has traveled a journey through the hockey world that serves as an important lesson of how the game has grown in the past two decades.

Above, he is pictured with his father, Andrew, during the Rebels’ postseason.

Picking up the game at 10 years old and skating ever since, Smith was hooked from the start.

“People ask where you are from and say, ‘Hockey? The only ice you know about should be coming out of a freezer,'” Smith said. “It is a beautiful game and it has treated me very, very well and has taken good care of me. I love the fact that the game overall is still growing.”

Smith’s arrival in Jamestown is a testament to what many hockey fans have understood for some time — the sport doesn’t just belong to areas that are covered in snow six months out of the year.

The best players in the world come from all over — and more than ever they are coming from “nontraditional” regions of the U.S.

Of the top 15 players selected in the 2019 NHL entry draft Friday night, seven were Americans.

No. 1 overall selection Jack Hughes hails from Orlando, Florida, while 2016 No. 1 overall pick Auston Matthews is a native of San Ramon, California.

Hockey can be found in every corner of America today — even the warm ones.

“Look at the talent over the last three or four years that (the U.S.) has produced,” Smith said. “The growth of hockey in the United States, it is not something that’s been laughed at for so long. It is a legitimate thing and our development programs as you are going up through the ranks of youth hockey all the way up to the NTDP (National Team Development Program), they are obviously doing a tremendous job at recruiting and developing them into hockey players that these NHL teams want.”

After graduating from University of Texas at Austin, Smith started working for the Killer Bees, where he first made connections with current Rebels head coach Joe Coombs and assistant coach Josh Brown.

When the team moved, Smith spent two years on the staff of the Wichita Thunder of the East Coast Hockey League before heading back to work for the Amarillo Bulls of the NAHL.

“When the team moved here (to Jamestown), Joe called Josh and called me and said, ‘I’m getting the band back together, want to join?'” Smith said.

The answer was an easy yes.

“I just told my dad, it looks like I’m moving to Jamestown, New York.”

In the future, Smith has the hope of working for an NHL franchise, but right now his focus remains on helping the Rebels represent Jamestown as a hockey destination.

“We are here to win and to represent this town wherever we go … represent them proudly and to bring the Robertson Cup to the city of Jamestown,” Smith said. “What has been nice is that this transition, going into year 2, we have had more time to prepare. Everyone has worked so hard to find players to come here and play in the systems that we run and execute them and to make a run.”

Smith spent his youth hockey career and early professional life experiencing the growth of hockey in Texas, but his love for the game has brought him far from the Lone Star State.

“At one point (Texas) had the most professional hockey franchises and that was impressive,” he said. “That was a huge stepping stone to grow the Texas hockey community. That took a huge leap with the growth of the game.

“I’ve made a home in Western New York which has been a tremendous journey,” he added. “This past year has been awesome.”

Just like some of the games best players, today’s hockey coaches and staff have roots that stretch far away from the old cornerstones of Canada, Minnesota and Massachusetts.

——

The Jamestown Rebels are still searching for billet families for the upcoming season.

“If you want to talk about the foundation of a junior hockey team,” Smith said, “it is your billet families.”

For more information please contact the Rebels by calling Northwest Arena at 484-2624.

“You can’t run a junior hockey team without billet families. Not only finding billets but good billets that take care of these kids and make sure that they are getting well fed,” Smith added. “Those billet families, they are a part of our team, they are a part of our family and I think that is one thing I love about our team, the Rebels. We are one big family, whether it is our staff to our players to our billets, we are all one big family.”

Newsletter

Today's breaking news and more in your inbox

I'm interested in (please check all that apply)
Are you a paying subscriber to the newspaper? *
   

Starting at $4.62/week.

Subscribe Today