Pegula Ice Arena: The team behind the team

Editor's note: This story originally appeared in AlumnInsider, the Penn State Alumni Association's monthly member e-newsletter.

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The lights dim inside Pegula Ice Arena, the fans’ cue to get rowdy -- and they do. From the students banging on the clear Plexiglas boards in the Roar Zone, the aptly named student section, to the other 6,000 fans who have gathered on the University Park campus in mid-January to watch the men’s ice hockey team battle Michigan State, they’re seemingly all making noise.

The energy inside Pegula mimics a rock concert, as does the sound and light display. This is more than just a hockey game. This is an event, perhaps even a spectacle. And presiding over everything, from the control room on the upper loge, is public address announcer Rodney Martin, a two-time Penn State graduate. 

He belts out the player introductions for Penn State, with each starter skating to the blue line and spraying up ice with his skate. Near mid-ice, the Nittany Lion energizes the crowd and revs up the players, who continue their third-season surge at Division I. During this particular game, the Nittany Lions roar back from a temporary deficit, scoring four consecutive goals for a 5–2 win.

After each score, Martin announces the particulars: who scored, who assisted, the season totals in goals and assists, etc. Then comes his signature punch line. Martin bellows out “We Are,” and the crowd yells back “Penn State.” Sure, the popular refrain isn’t anything new to Penn Staters, but it takes on a different emotional tone within the smaller confines of a hockey arena that was built with the intention of being loud. Case in point: Pegula’s roof is low and metal, helping vibrations seem even closer and louder.

In a world where everyone and every corporation are trying to explain how they’re unique, watching a game at Pegula really is memorable.

“This is one of the most fun things I ever do, it’s a totally different experience,” Martin said. “I’m a computer programmer by trade, so to come here on a weekend and let loose, it’s so much fun and I’m so blessed to be able to do this.”

Of the “We Are” chants he shares with the crowd, Martin says he started that a few years ago, when the team was still at the Greenburg Ice Pavilion. It took a while to catch on, he said, but the fans are now totally into it, with Martin adding, “When you have 6,000 people answering you back in unison, it’s just absolute chills.”

Martin is a hockey lifer. He’s worked with the program since he was a Penn State freshman in 1995 -- he paid to get into his first game and started working for the team right after -- and has been the PA announcer going back to when the team was called the Icers and played at the club level. He also used to run the team’s website.

One other note: If you like the “Hockey Valley” moniker that has engulfed the program, you can thank Martin. He’s the one who came up with the catchy phrase that personifies the bond between Penn State’s strong hockey tradition and the new fan base.

Martin is one of many people who has called Pegula Ice Arena “the crown jewel of college hockey,” and head coach Guy Gadowsky recently said that he believes more and more people across the country and Canada will begin to realize how great a home atmosphere Pegula provides.

This is where Martin makes his impact, and he looks the part. He’s tall and thin, standing 6-foot-4. So when he peers down on the ice, or looks around for a panoramic view of the crowd, it feels like he really is in control of the energy level. Even after 15 years, he said he still gets nervous, not eating much before games.

“Coming here calms me down and gets me ready,” he said.

To Martin’s right is Matthew Mayer, a junior majoring in broadcast journalism in the College of Communications, and the self-described “Pegula Ice Arena sound guy.” He’s also worked with the Nittany Lion football and baseball teams, as well as the State College Spikes, so he’s got plenty of chops when it comes to energizing a crowd.

Whenever there’s a break in action, Mayer ratchets up the vibe at Pegula, pumping music through the speakers. As Mayer said, hockey is different in that a lot of the crowd interaction is through chants. And at Pegula, he said, students oftentimes are the ones leading the way.

Members of the Penn State Marching Blue Band and conductor Carter Biggers are stationed within The Roar Zone, creating a different dynamic, one that ESPN announcer and hockey guru John Buccigross has noticed.  

As Martin said, there have always been hockey fans in State College, and lots of Penn State hockey fans, so the team doesn’t have to necessarily market to that crowd. But there’s another very large population in and around University Park that’s gravitating toward Pegula, and part of the reason they come back is for what’s happening around the ice, not just on it.“It has to be an experience,” Martin said. “You’re going to get your hockey fans to come and they’ll want to be here, but we also want to try to get it to where it’s a must-see event. The hockey is great and the tradition that we have is great, but for new fans, we want to make sure it’s something they come to and think, ‘Wow, this is awesome, we’ve got to come back.’”

Mayer added: “It’s very fresh, and everything that we do is for the first or second time. It’s really cool to be creating an experience for people who might be attending their first game ever and also establishing a tradition at the Pegula Ice Arena. It’s cool that were creating our own scenery here.”

Directing the control room is Mike Wierzbicki, a marketing strategy specialist for Athletics, who’s constantly anticipating the action on the ice. Wierzbicki is talking to his team on headsets, explaining who will take the lead, depending on what happens. Options are to go to the Blue Band to jazz up the crowd, to Martin with an announcement or to Mayer with some music. The Jumbotron needs to be synced up, as well, and two technicians oversee a video board with dozens of options.

Wierzbicki mirrors a coach who’s explaining possible scenarios during a timeout, especially during a stop in play about halfway through the first period.

The Jumbotron cues up photos of fans who are tweeting pics of themselves at the game, while also promoting the team’s Twitter feed. The photos receive good feedback from the fans -- and from the control room -- as Wierzbicki says, “nicely done, guys,” into the headset. Play resumes and everyone is back to watching the game unfold, with Wierzbicki directing the peripherals that enhance the game.

“We’ve got an amazing team, from Rodney and our music guys to the band and our video crew; there are so many people behind the scenes who make this show happen,” Wierzbicki said.

“We script out as much as we can for timeouts and whistles, but it’s hockey, it’s live entertainment. You never know what’s going to happen, and our staff is just tremendous at adjusting on the fly and making it seem as though the fans can’t tell. That’s our goal and they’re awesome. They’re a great team to work with.”

Sure, everyone in the control room is working, but as Martin hinted earlier, it doesn’t feel like work. Need more evidence? After the game ended, Martin removed his headset and let loose with a “Whoo!” He gave the impression he just finished an excitement-fueled endeavor, because, well, he did.

Pegula draws interest with another distinction: The building has two rinks, including a community rink that attracts hundreds of people for open skating sessions, youth games and adult-league games.

The day of the Penn State-Michigan State contest on Jan. 17, the second of a two-game home series, the community rink hosted four games and about 400 people for a skating session. The crowd was a mix of students and families, skaters who looked very comfortable and others who were pitter-pattering, easing their way around the rink and acting as if they were experiencing a new adventure.

“It really is a destination,” said facilities supervisor Deb Campbell. “A lot of the people who come to our public sessions are from out of town. They’re coming here because they’ve heard about it or seen it on television, and they want to say that they skated here.”

Both rinks need constant, year-round attention, and that’s where Kayla Lessner and Chuck VanDyke come in. The two drive the Zambonis, sweeping over the ice before and after the game, and also when each period ends.

VanDyke has been driving a Zamboni for the last few years and was previously a truck driver, and that experience helped with the transition, he said. He and Lessner are part of a larger crew who help prepare the ice for game day, doing everything from cutting the ice, drilling holes and installing the nets, among other tasks.

Lessner, meanwhile, is a junior majoring in science and a pre-med student. She worked at a rink while growing up in Maryland and is a former figure skater, so she’s used to being around the ice. “I really liked working at a rink back home, it’s always been fun,” she said, adding that she’s been driving a Zamboni for about the last two years, having started her freshman year.

“I kind of zone out the crowd so they don’t distract me when I’m on the ice,” Lessner said. “But it is cool, because not everybody gets to do it.”

Students comprise one other group making an impact at Pegula -- the Hockey Management Association (HMA). President Eric Bress grew up in Buffalo, and during his freshman year he met former coach and administrator Joe Battista, a longtime ambassador for the Penn State program who now works for Terry Pegula’s company. Pegula and his wife, Kim, made the largest donation in University history with an $88 million initial investment, before adding another $14 million for a total gift of $102 million to support the Division I hockey program.

Call it a coincidence or something else, but Battista convinced Bress to sign up with HMA and he’s been a part of the group ever since. Bress, a senior majoring in management, oversees a group of about 30–40 students on game day. They do everything from handle guest services to hand out T-shirts to students and fans, even standing amid The Roar Zone during the game.

It’s not just what the students do, Bress said, but how they do it. And their enthusiasm is indicative of how everyone approaches game day at Pegula.

“If you look around, you can see the passion that all the students have,” he said. “You see The Roar Zone, they’re so pumped up, they’re going nuts during the game. Then you look behind them and you see HMA working and having a blast. They love the experience, and they love doing what they can to make The Roar Zone as great as possible.”