Think back and ponder just what might be the most unlikely?
That Eastern Washington University would have its own hockey team, a top-notch arena in which to play or could somehow be recently celebrating a quarter-century of history that seems to simply have evaporated?
As EWU hockey observes its origins this year, the past 25 years did indeed establish the sport — quite successfully — and its own home ice.
While part of the university’s club sports program, organizers will tell you the designation is in name only. It operates, they insist, just like an intercollegiate basketball or football program.
From humble beginnings Eastern hockey attained national status amidst the American Collegiate Hockey Association, the governing body for hundreds of teams — both male and female — across the nation.
Former EWU provost, and one-time interim school president Brian Levin-Stankevich, helped in the founding of the team, initially coached and was the team’s faculty advisor.
Levin-Stankevich, a born and bred hockey guy from Buffalo, New York, also successfully lobbied for an ice rink to be part of the University Rec Center that opened in 2008.
That stroke allowed the team which initially played games in Spokane to have a home on campus.
The fortunes of the program took a decidedly different turn when Gary Braun, was hired as coach in 2005. The long-time pro player coached with the Spokane Chiefs and Braves junior teams.
Twenty years after his hiring, Braun vividly remembered the time he was approached to lead the team by the students-athletes who govern the program.
“Billy Shaw, (my son) Jonathan (Braun), was part of that group and those guys came to me and asked me if I would coach,” Braun remembers. About a dozen players descended on his house pleading for him to be their leader.
It was a wonderful summer evening, Braun recalled of the get together. He warned the players — many whom he knew from Braves days — that their initial meeting would be nothing like time at the rink.
“I was not all revved up then like the way I get (on the bench),” Braun said with a laugh.
Braun, now 76-years-old, was not interested in babysitting and let the potential players know that. His mission was to understand what it’s like to be a pro.
That was something Braun had first-hand knowledge of as part of the Boston Bruins organization in Estevan, Saskatchewan starting in 1966 and finishing playing professionally in Phoenix in 1979.
As for coaching, Braun spent time both as head an assistant coach in various organizations, including the Chiefs where he was part of the team’s 1991 Memorial Cup winning staff.
“I was around a lot of hockey guys that are in the (Hockey) Hall of Fame,” Braun said. “I got to experience, watch and listen and be part of a lot of great organizations.”
Braun sought to impart what he learned in his career on his players.
“I said to the guys the only thing I ask of you is that you pass those on, you live them, and you pass them onto people you’re involved with,” Braun said.
He coached purely as a volunteer, receiving only incidental expenses. For six seasons Braun ran practices, coached and added a commute from Spokane during his final two years when EWU’s rink opened in 2008.
Braun did his EWU hockey job while serving as a commission-only salesman so “When I wasn’t at work, I wasn’t getting paid.” He stepped away from the bench after the 2010-11 season and prior to Eastern deciding to move away from the ACHA and into the British Columbia Intercollegiate Hockey League.
He led the Eagles to four American Collegiate Hockey Association national tournament berths, compiling a record of 115-29-8 and a .757 winning percentage — best among all EWU coaches.
For a lot of reasons, the time was just right.
Braun sensed that while the motives of reduced travel and finally playing in a true league were good, the burden of competing against teams with paid staff and a decided recruiting advantage for Canadian talent cancelled out the plusses.
Following seven seasons without a winning
record Eastern returned to the ACHA and now plays in the Pac-8 with familiar schools like Washington State the University of Washington, Western Washington and California schools.
Several years into retirement, Braun admits he’s not very good at the idle time he now has.
And given another opportunity to coach, get out of the way. It’s a certainty Braun said he’ll be collecting speeding tickets getting to the rink.
— Paul Delaney can be reached at [email protected].
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