Senior club hockey captain Sam Cehula’s send-off this season should be grand.
His tenure follows a stint as co-captain and co-coordinator for two seasons. But now a decade into his hockey career, Cehula has partially shifted his focus on hockey away from the ice.
“I’m trying to teach a couple kids how to run the team next year, that’s my biggest goal,” Cehula said.
The Anchorage, Alaska native does it all for Ducks hockey. In the athlete-as-promoter era of sports, Cehula is the anti-Ochocinco, yet he still promotes like a master. One of the senior’s many hats is as coordinator for Ducks hockey, a role he embraces by trumpeting the many special events the team is putting on in the coming schedule at the Lane County Ice Center.
“Skate with the Ducks,” a Friday evening session in which fans can share the ice with players after home games, has risen in popularity. Other promotions include “Chuck the Puck” and “Greek Night,” which is set for Dec. 4, when Cal visits the Ducks.
The unassuming Alaskan’s impact on the team includes some recognizable on-ice statistics as well— Cehula is fourth in total points going into the Cal game. But the intangibles make Cehula’s on-ice presence impossible to miss.
Head coach Scott McCallum reflected on the four years he has coached Cehula.
“Sam never goes halfway, whether it’s a drill or a game,” McCallum said. “He’s an impact player, whether he gets on the score sheet or not.”
Cehula’s deep respect for the game parallels his respect for others off the ice. Nevertheless, the emotions of a game can cloud basic societal principles, and he once received a five-minute penalty for fighting. McCallum remembers a situation at USC when a Trojan player disrespected the Ducks’ coaching staff in front of the Oregon bench, and the then-freshman Cehula promptly dropped the Trojan player.
Senseless aggression played no part in Cehula’s actions at USC, but the freshman’s respect for his own team and competitive spirit were working in his favor. The senior’s on-ice mentality is the product of a decade playing gloves-off, sweat-stain hockey in Anchorage.
“It was more gritty in Anchorage,” Cehula recalls. “More hitting and stick work … the rules changed the year I left.”
Soft-spoken Cehula has excelled in the classroom as well as on the ice. Cehula learned to balance a rigorous academic schedule with hockey in Anchorage, where he missed about 45 days of school each year travelling for games. He plans to graduate in the spring with a degree in accounting.
The Alaskan’s academic success becomes self-evident in simply watching his pregame routine. Cehula meticulously checks on his team, the broadcasters, the fans, and the concessions employees, all while wearing a suit just minutes before the puck is scheduled to drop. Senior play-by-play broadcaster for Oregon hockey Elliot Nathan described his relationship with Cehula as follows:
“Sam checks on (the broadcast), but his father will also call us during the game to let us know how we sound,” Nathan said. “I can see where Cehula’s dedication comes from.”
That uncanny altruism Nathan describes crosses over to the ice. Cehula sets the table for others before taking a shot himself— so often that Coach McCallum has actively endorsed Cehula taking more shots. Another breath of fresh air in the era of the me-first all-star.
Cehula pledges to hang up the skates with the University after this season.
“These last four years have been the most fun I’ve had playing hockey,” Cehula said.
McCallum refuses to believe it.
“He may never quit playing, even though he’s always been an education-first guy.”
The Ducks will miss Cehula, who has affected more lives than is immediately apparent upon meeting the senior. But shadow him from when he arrives at the arena before the game until he departs, and his presence will be manifested.
“People come out, and once they watch a game they know how much fun it is,” Cehula said. “It’s our job to get them to come out.”
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