As a season ticket holder to Hershey Bears games for 23 years and a member of the CPIHL’s executive committee for 13, you could say Dan Keich has expended a lot of his time and money on hockey.
But something had to give. He saw his son Danny through his high school career. His daughter was coming up on her senior year in high school. Time short. Hours long. It was time to get out of helping run the CPIHL, where he was first vice-president.
“This was it,” he remembered thinking to himself. “I was going to walk away. I wasn’t planning on coming back.”
And then the Bears had to go and announce that the 2013 AHL Outdoor Classic was going to be held at Hersheypark Stadium, on Jan. 20.
Oops. Change of plans sharper than a pull-up at the end boards.
When the AHL club made the announcement on March 24, the light bulb went off immediately in Keich’s head. In June, after a couple of stops and starts, it became a reality — the high school league purchased two slots of ice time at the Concrete Palace for its annual all-star team festivities. The CPIHL was going outdoors.
“The first thing that popped into my head when I heard it was ‘how can we get in on that?’,” Keich said. “So right away, I contacted the executive committee, and they got right on the ball. We purchased two ice time slots, and we’re going to have two all-star games that night."
The CPIHL all-stars will play at 7 and 9 p.m. Jan. 23 at Hersheypark Stadium. There is a contingency plan in place in case of inclement weather to move the event to one of the Twin Ponds facilities, but of course the hope is for cold, ideal hockey weather.
It also extended Keich’s involvement with youth hockey. “It was the main reason I came back,” he said. “‘I can’t quit now,’ I told my wife. ‘I’ve got to be a part of that.’”
Now, not only isn’t Keich departing, he’s expected to be named league president at tonight’s board meeting, replacing the retiring Dave Kretzing.
The best news of all for fans is that the event will be free. No admission. Anyone who wants to come check out the top high school hockey players in the midstate can do so without denting the wallet. But be sure to budget for coffee and hot chocolate.
“We want to have any many people as we can to be able to come out and enjoy the game,” Keich said. “And that lends to a good experience for the kids.”
The league is changing the format, akin to what the NHL does now for its all-star game. The CPIHL will hold a player draft for the games, tentatively scheduled for Dec. 30 at the Hershey VFW. Players from all three tiers will be eligible to be drafted, fantasy-style, leading with the coaches from the four teams making the initial pick. So it is more than likely you’ll have high school teammates squaring off against each other when the curtain drops Jan. 23.
“There are kids from all three tiers who would like to play with kids from other tiers,” Keich said.
As a tie-in with the Hershey Bears, former stars Mitch Lamoureux and Frederic Cassivi will be named honorary coaches, with two more to be announced. Game coaches will be the quartet who led their teams to the finals in Tiers I and II last year — Jarrod Hill (Hershey), Mike Lombardi (Cumberland Valley and out of retirement), Chuck Warner (West York) and Steve Hallman (Red Land).
From the go, the idea was to give the players the opportunity to line up for quite possibly a once-in-a-lifetime thrill.
“We’re trying to make it as a big a deal as we can for the kids,” Keich said. “It’s a unique situation in Hershey, in that it really could be this once-in-a-lifetime thing. How many outdoor games have been played, ever, at all levels?”
JEFF DEWEES: jdewees@pnco.com
TWITTER: @pn_jdewees