As ASU Hockey gets set to play its first season as a member of the NCHC, head coach Greg Powers sits down with Petey to reflect on the history of the program. Powers looks back to his own playing days on the club team, the days at Oceanside, the phone call that led to the Sun Devils becoming D1, and the new era at Mullett Arena.
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(upbeat music) - Welcome into the PHNX hockey show. As always, I'm PD. Leah's got another day off. And today on our audio only edition, we're gonna have a special conversation with ASU head coach, Greg Powers. And we're gonna talk about how hockey came to the desert. - Coach Powers, first of all, thanks for taking the time. - It's always a pleasure, PD. Thank you. - Well, here we are sitting at Molotarina in the bowels of Molotarina talking about college hockey, and not just college hockey, but NCAA college hockey. Was there ever a point when you were playing and going to school here at ASU and playing club hockey that you thought, gosh, this would be a really good place to have NCAA hockey. - We always talked about it. We always talked about how cool it would be, you know? But it was like an urban legend, and everybody's mind. Like, what if one day this could happen? How could it happen? We didn't know. Realistically, did we ever think it would? No, absolutely not. - Well, take us back to what that was like when you played, first of all, when? - Yeah. - In the years. And what was it like? Like, really, what was it like? We did students embrace it, meaning non-players. Kids go to games, like, what was it like being a club hockey player for ASU? - Yeah, it was so much fun. You know, I grew up in Indianapolis, played Triple A hockey my whole life, was gonna play junior, just wanted to go to school. And I was gonna go to St. Mary's in Minnesota and play Division III hockey. And then the coach here at the time saw me play in Chicago at a tournament. And I played really well, and he called me up, and he said, hey, this is Arizona State. I'd never been west of the Mississippi in my life. And I came out and visited campus, and I called my mom, and I said, there's no way I'm not going here. I'm going ASU. - Wait, did you see Oceanside before you showed up? - You know, this is a funny story. I landed, and the kid that picked me up, they had somebody pick me, his name was Duane Pollan from Calgary, picked me up from the airport, and they had me, he'd drive me by a construction site saying that that was gonna be the arena that they were building, and clearly they did not build it because we just built one 30 plus years later. And so, I didn't care. You know, like, look, I wasn't getting a scholarship anywhere. I wanted to play hockey, and go to a school, and get an education at a place I wanted to be at every day, and wake up at every day, and this ended up being that place. And it was a ton of fun playing club hockey. You know, we took it serious, but we also understood what it was. And I wouldn't trade anything. - When you go back to those times, too, and I think it's important for people to understand what club hockey is, that you're not getting a financial commitment from the university. - No, they're not paying for the ice. They're not paying for the uniforms. They're not paying for the coaches. It is a club. - Yes. - Financially, how did that work for you and the other kids that were playing? - It's hard, you know, because back when I played, we actually had game programs, printed programs, where if you didn't want to pay to play, you could go sell ads, you know? So I had two gusses pizza and bojos. (laughing) Two, two, two, two local establishments. - Exactly, so I never paid a penny because I had two full page ads in our program to pay for my dues, but a lot of guys did that. But, you know, you have to support, even today, I mean, we have three men's club programs and a women's won, and they have to fundraise, and the players have to pay over $4,000 each a year to play, and that's on top of their tuition that they have to pay for, and they have to pay for their own sticks. So it's truly, you know, what's great about club hockey is it is a genuine level. It is a level of hockey that the love of the game is the biggest thing that there is. You know, these kids just want to continue to play the game they love while they're getting their education, but they take it serious, and there's a lot of really good players. People forget in hockey is different than basketball. There's 64 Division I programs. There's no Division II. There's not that many Division III programs. Basketball, there's over 300 Division I programs. Football, there's 111 Division I programs. So in hockey there's not enough stalls at our level to feel how many good players there are. So the domino effect goes down, and you see it, some of the best club hockey programs are schools where, you know, I would rather go to Arizona State when I was a coach for the club team. It was, hey, do you want to get a real big time college experience, and go to football games, and basketball games, and go to Arizona State, or do you want to still pay tuition, go into Wisconsin, Superior, in the middle of nowhere, at some small liberal arts college? Like, what's it worth? What do you want out of your experience? And so, you know, it's a good level of hockey. There's a lot of really good players, and it can shape somebody's life. - Yeah, it's funny when you're talking about that, back when you played, where did you guys play? Who would you play? Who were the competition? Who were the other schools you were playing against? - Yeah, my freshman year we played at Oceanside, and Oceanside back then was incredibly humble. You know, obviously it wasn't what it became when we put money into it for NCAA hockey, but we beat U of A, my freshman year. U of A at the time had a powerhouse program. Had a guy by the name of Leo Golan Bieski who's passed away in the last couple of years, but he started that program down there. He really ran a successful minor league franchise without having to pay salaries. He would pack the TCC every night, 7,000 people. So U of A had a really good program. They had a 68 game win streak against ASU. We snapped at my freshman year. It was so cold at Oceanside that after the game, our coach, Gene Hammett, a couple of the seniors dumped the Gatorade jug on his head, and it was a solid block of ice, and it knocked him out. And so it just slid out and knocked him on his head, almost knocked him out, but so the next two years, we played at the Coliseum downtown, and we were playing Penn State at the Coliseum, and the entire lower bowl was packed. And playing U of A and the entire lower bowl was packed. So some really good memories and just great guys, some of my best friends, and I'm still best friends with today, and it was awesome. So we take you to pass forward a little bit. So you always have the dream, and I think anybody whoever puts on this sweater wants to play, and you want to play at the highest level you could possibly play at. So how does it go from sitting at Oceanside, everybody paying their own way to even becoming just a glimmer of, hey, maybe we can do this. Maybe we can actually become an NCAA team. Yeah, so I was completely out of hockey. I was in the corporate world, and content with that. Missed hockey, but never thought I'd want to be a coach, never tried to be a coach, and a guy by the name of Jeremy Gulz got the head coach and job at ASU, and he shot me a text and said, hey, meet me for a beer, I met him for a beer, and he wanted to bring-- he went to U of A. Gulz played and coached at U of A, so he got named and had coached at ASU. So he wanted to bring somebody that was passionate about ASU's program on board, and so he talked me into coming and being his assistant coach. It was a volunteer position. Didn't know how much time I could commit to it. I did it. I fell in love with it. Gulz runs a great program out in the West Side Mission, and just coaches a million teams, and does a great job, and couldn't juggle everything. So two years into that, here I am, the head coach. At the time, no idea what I was doing. I had no idea, but I had passion for it, and the players talked me into staying on. And so five years into it, 169 and 23, we won a national championship. We beat Penn State's Division I team. This is exactly how Division I hockey happened. And that summer, after we won the national championship, I remember I ate lunch, a place called Carl's Bad Tavern on Hayden, one of my favorite restaurants. I was leaving. It was 120 degrees out. A student journalist called me up to cover the hockey team. And he said, hey, I just interviewed Ray Anderson, the new AD, and told him all about the club team, and blah, blah, blah, blah. What would it take for them to elevate to Division I? And Ray said if the money presented itself, he would seriously consider it. So Justin, the student asked me, how much would it take to elevate this? And I said, I don't know, 30 to 40 million. I was just spitballing a number. I should have said 80. You should have. A day later, 32 million showed up. And I went and met with Ray and his team of athletic directors, and Jim Rund, who's still in President's Crow cabinet on campus. And 90 days later, we had a press conference, and announced we were going to Division I want. And even at that point leading up to it, I didn't know if they were going to give me a chance. But I told Ray exactly these words. I said, don't hire me if you think I'm the best guy. Hire me if you think I'm the only guy. And it's going to take somebody with a lot of patience, because we don't have a rink. Not only we don't have a rink, we have an incredibly subpar rink to play out of at Oceanside. So you want to go get a premed honor that's going to need this, that, and the other. It's not going to go well. So luckily, Ray saw the value and keep me on board. And I owe everything to him for that. And he got a lot of criticism for it, but here I am. And here we are. Yeah, so you look at that first few years, too. And it was selling a dream. Because we've both been inside Oceanside. For those that haven't, it's an old public rink. Like it's old, and there's no seating, and there's no good locker rooms. And it's cold. How do you get a kid and bring him into that rink and try to sell him a dream? Well, most visits that we had, we tried to avoid going to Oceanside. We showed him the campus, the uniqueness of Division 1 Hockey at a place like Arizona State, and just talked about what our mantra was. And that's be the tradition. It still is today. So you get to go to a place like Arizona State, the largest, most powerful public institution in the United States. And you get to set a standard. You get to be a founding father of a program that has so much potential. When you look back on your college career, 20 years from now, that's going to mean something to you. Sounds a little cheesy, but you could go to a blue blood, and there's nothing wrong with that. You could go to North Dakota or Michigan or Minnesota, or BU or BC, the great programs. You grow up dreaming of that. I get it. But anything you go do there, it's already been done. Anything you go do is already been done. Here, you can set standards that will exist forever. So we want kids that really buy into that. And I can honestly say that every kid that has worn our jersey, I think, would tell you that's probably the biggest thing and the biggest reason they wanted to come here. They see how unique this is. And they want to be the tradition. And kids that come here today still can accomplish first that we haven't accomplished yet. It's funny because I just looked out at the names on the wall, outside your office, and be the tradition is on top of all these pictures. And one of the names jumps out is a goaltender, Joey DeCord. A guy that the people may know is now in the NHL with Seattle, and he had to play an ocean sign. And what was his journey like to go from an ocean side to now playing in the National Hockey League? Yeah, it was crazy. I mean, Joey took a chance. He'll say we took a chance on him, but he took a chance on us. And he just really bought into that mantra. And I remember-- and he's even said this-- walking him through on his visit. He was the second ever official visit that we had as the Division I program. The first official visit-- this is great trivia for you-- was Ryan Lombberg. Oh, yeah. And he almost committed to it. We almost got him. Stanley Cup Champion. Stanley Cup Champion, Ryan Lombberg. So Joey was the second. And we went into the CSAC, the Hall of Fame over at the football stadium, and he was looking around, seeing pictures of Barry Bonds, and all the great legendary athletes that have played any sport at ASU. And he literally was like, this could be me. This could be me. That's what be the tradition is. And now, in the Hall of Fame, in the front of the football stadium at the Carson Student Athletes Center, we have a hockey kind of section. And Joey Descartes is the big mural in that section. And so he did a hell of a job. And he helped elevate the program. It's freshman year. We weren't very good. It was our first full season. His sophomore year, we won a few more games, had more buy-in. His third year, his junior year, and his last year, we had complete buy-in. And we broke records and were the fastest start-up program to ever make the NCAA tournament. Joey signed early. Then I'll forget, it was at Buffalo. He played for Ottawa at Buffalo. And I flew out with our then-associatedie, Frank Ferrara, and Melon, our ops guy. And to see a guy out on NHL, I started a game and he had all of his ASU gear on. It was pretty remarkable. It was a great moment. So we talk about the Southwest. And I know when I was a kid growing up, the thought of there being hockey, let alone college hockey in Arizona was ridiculous. The LA Kings were playing at that time, but they weren't the Gretzky LA Kings. Do you think, is there ever a time that we're going to see another school from the Southwest that becomes the new rival to ASU? I hope so. And I think so. I think that we're showing that it works. We're a revenue sport. So it's hard in college athletics for a sport in the revenue to exceed their expenses. It's very hard to do. We're only one of three on our campus. So I think, and I hope, that other schools out here will take a look, especially now that we're settled in a mullet. We're in a great conference, and all the great things that I think we're about to happen here, and be that first domino. I've always said, I think that we need to establish ourselves in an arena and in a conference before the growth can actually take place. There's not a person in college hockey that doesn't want to see it. We want the organs, and the USCs, and the Utahs, and the Colorado's to do this. And I'm convinced if they do it, they'll be just as successful. Yeah, I think that that's one of the things. Hey, let's face it. There's money involved here. This is money. This wasn't cheap to do what you guys did here. No, it wasn't. And to start this dream, but you're right. I think when you see somebody else, the next team that dips their toes in the water, I think it's going to be really important. And I think it's going to be important for SU, because I think it's going to be your new rival, or hey, there's another new school, because we saw it. When I was playing, it was like University of Nebraska, Omaha. That was a new school. And you're like, yeah, have you been to Tempe? Yeah. Go outside and see what this is like. And we've had growth, right? Since ASUs come on as a Division I program, we've had Lindenwood and Long Island and Augustana. And those are great. It's great for college hockey that we're adding Division I programs. So we need more power for schools to do it. You know, a Texas, an Alabama, a Florida. It will work at those places. Somebody just has to have the balls to do it. And the money. And I think you're right. And I think you're right. At some point, it's going to happen. Once they see this as the example, we talk about recruiting, and it's very important in this sport. As of any college sports, now that you're no longer in Oceanside, you have a beautiful facility. You just got to go through the locker room a few minutes ago. Is this a facility? Is this a program? Is this a university that can attract blue chip players? Not just blue chip players, but blue chip Canadian players. Blue chip Minnesota, Michigan, Wisconsin. Can you get those kind of players coming to the sport? Yeah, we've already started to, you know. And you think, you know, Colin Potter's here this year. And then there's a handful of kids that will sign in November. One other one that we can't talk about names because they're not signed yet. It's an insatably rule. But one other one that has a really, really good opportunity to be a first-round pick. So, I mean, we could, as a program this year, have two players drafted in the first round. There's a very strong possibility of that. So it's already happening. And, you know, players want resources. And now we have them, you know. And their advisors, they want to send their players where they know they're going to develop. And they're going to have the resources and the expertise around them to accomplish their ultimate goal. And we have all that now. We have the support from the university. We have the physical resources here at MOLLET. We have an incredible staff. We have unbelievable fan support, which we're grateful for with, you know, a waiting list for season tickets. There's nothing we don't have, you know, and it's starting to show in recruiting. One of the things I look at your office, nice to your name, Greg Powers behind you. And I look around this office, by the way, it's a phenomenal office. Like this is, everything here's first class. - Yeah. And would you, when you look back between the pipes at Oceanside, wearing that ASU sweater that you paid for, on ice that you paid for, could you ever have imagined and dreamed that you would be sitting behind a head coach's desk in a beautiful arena on campus? Was that even in your realm? - It wasn't, you know, and that's the honest truth. We never, you know, I get asked so many times by different, you know, club programs, hey, what was your blueprint? And we didn't have one. The blueprint was honestly, just become the very best club program that we could be. And we became the premier club program. And my five years as head coach, if basically if you played us, you lost. And we had really high end players that could have played at higher levels. They wanted to come be a part of our program in this university. And I think that the lesson is, you know, it's twofold. Focus on what's in front of you, right? What you can control. And we did that and good things happened. And passion always trumps logic, always. - Yeah, and it's funny. I do feel this, I look at my background. My dad was the head coach of the midge state. And that was another program, smaller program, but it was about Beaver Pride, which is your be the tradition. It was about be a part of something bigger than yourself. And then I went to school at North Dakota, again, another story program. And I go through here in the hallways of Arizona state and I feel that same energy. I feel that same tradition when I talk to the players that this now is now not just a dream of club kids playing in a really bad arena. It's real and the vibe is real and the feeling of this campus. And honestly, Greg, a lot of that credit has to go to you because when I look at you and I one thing and I talk to you as a coach, I still don't know. And I please don't take this the wrong way. I still don't know how good you are at exes knows. I really don't. - That's fair? - No, but I don't think you do until you've sat in the coach's room and you sit on the bench and you sit in the locker between periods. I can watch your team and get an assessment. But I don't think unless you're really in the throes of it that you really know how strong you are. But I tell you this, you are so passionate about this program and the kids, the kids to a man say that. And I think that that's why they're here. Because they believe because you believe. I'm excited to be around this and I'm excited to be around this. I kind of imagine the way the kids feel. Last parting thoughts of what you think this program has become, what it can become and what the future looks like here at ASU. - I don't think there's a limit to what we can be. I think that it's literally a limitless potential. Everything that we've accomplished in nine full years is exceeded everyone on the outside's expectations. And really, it was what I expected. And so if you would have told anyone in hockey that ASU out of Oceanside is an independent hiring their club coach could make an NCAA tournament its third year of existence. And again, in its fourth, if COVID didn't cancel it. And then build this beautiful arena and have wins over. Really every blue blood there is, North Dakota, BC, BU. The last one left really that we haven't beaten is Michigan. We get two cracks out of them this year. We've tied them at Yost, but we haven't beaten them. So we've done some unbelievable things. We have kids in the NHL. We have 15, 16 kids that have played in the American League. We're very proud of what we've done, but we really feel genuinely like we're just getting started. Now we're fighting a fair fight. For nine years, we had seven of the nine years. We had both hands tied behind our back from a facility standpoint and an independent standpoint. And then for two years, last two years, we kind of freed up one hand, and we were able to strike back a little bit. And then now we got both hands on tied. You know, we're ready to go. We're ready to fight. Well, I'm really excited. And I want to thank you for sitting down and taking the time to be with me. Thanks for your time, Coach Powers. Thank you. Before people go at PHNX, make sure because we have a takeover happening on the 12th, Saturday the 12th, against those University of Michigan Wolverines in October 12th, go on GoPHNX.com for more details. We've got tickets. We're going to do a pregame meetup with food and drinks. And then everybody's going to come over and check out the game here at Mallet Arena. Make sure you like and subscribe wherever you get you podcasts. Go to GoPHNX.com, check out our merchandise. Follow the show on Twitter at PHNX_Hockey. And this is PD. And as always, thanks for joining us. And we'll see you at the rink.
