Knute Anderson

And I and I certainly do want to get to kind of your coaching that you're doing right now.

But I wanted to make sure that we kind of dove in because it's not that you're just a hockey director, but you you are you work in the ice rink industry.

OK, so as far as you coming on board and kind of getting your feet wet, you know, because you had been around rinks forever.

you know, you, you had done a little bit of coaching, but as far as like actually working at a rink and being, um, you know, a rink industry guy, um, what was kind of that like, because, you know, I, I had, I've really done nothing except work in ice rinks, except for me opening up the played against sports store, which I'm doing now.

Uh, but I, you know, my dad ran our rinks back home.

Um, so I essentially, I, I grew up in rinks.

That's all, you know, I've ever known.

Um, So when people say like, well, how long have you been in the industry? It's like, well, technically, I started ringing people up at the concession stand when I was 13.

I learned how to sharpen skates when I was 14.

I learned how to drive a zinc when I was 15.

And I'm 40 years old now, so I don't know.

quite some time here, but can you kind of talk a little bit about not just the hockey aspect of it, but once you started working at the rink and kind of realizing what it all takes, it's not just, you know, cause you can't just focus on the hockey part of it.

You're working at a rink and when you work at a rink, it's kind of a all hands on deck type situation to where I'm sure that you learn some things about how rinks actually work.

But do you understand my question or maybe what I'm trying to get to? Yeah,

no, it's a great question.

And I think, you know, I was working with the Dallas Stars for a few years.

and really enjoyed it and I had nothing but good things to say about my time working with the stars I had an opportunity to become a a hockey director and run my own programs at Nitex with Frank and Sal Trezera and really become actually a minority partner with them and invest in it and in hindsight it was like I didn't know what I was getting into because it's difficult when you you know I don't know where you're from Adam I where you where you from

Tulsa, originally.

Tulsa, Oklahoma.

So, you know, in the nontraditional marketplace, it's not a municipality that owns it.

You're responsible for the bills, you know, the electrical, all the way down to if your ice plant's not working properly, to Zamboni maintenance, to locker room.

Make sure that it's everything.

So the hockey becomes a real big part of it.

And I think for the first five or six years, we really focused on getting back into our building.

And what was great about that was everything we made, we put back in the building and we carry that on now for our 20th year anniversary.