Head coach, Bob Woods, and his assistant, Mark French, may garner the praise for guiding the Hershey Bears’ fortunes from behind the bench, but the players recognize the vital role that the other bench boss, trainer, Dan Stuck, a.k.a. “Beaker”, plays in the success of the team.
“Beaker’s been huge. He’s probably been the most important person to me, as far as helping me come along and get back on track,” said Dean Arsene, a Bears’ defenseman who has seen more than his fair share of time in Stuck’s office during his time in Hershey.
For Stuck, when the Bears have a home game at Giant Center, a typical game day starts long before the evening’s opening faceoff.
“Game days for me start at 8:15 in the morning. After I get here, we start stretching the guys and heating them up, so that they can be on the ice at 10:00. After practice, it’s whatever is needed: icing down guys or helping Justin (Kullman) out with equipment and setting up the dressing rooms,” said Stuck.
Between periods of games at Giant Center, and far from the eyes of the fans, Beaker’s training room becomes a “quick clinic” when Hershey’s team doctor, Dr. Kevin Black, pays a visit.
“Doc comes in just to make sure everything is okay, and usually it’s a quiet time, or at least hopefully it is,” joked Stuck. “When he comes down into the room after the period, he is just making sure nothing happened during the period– not only for us but for the visiting team as well. That’s also the time that we try to have the players that have been out for a while, checked out.”
While it is important to have the presence of Dr. Black and his assistants within close proximity, Stuck tries to keep them in the background whenever possible.
“Doc usually stays out of the way, because what happens is, the players are just like anybody else; if you are out and about and you see your dentist, and you are eating, you say, ‘Oh yeah, that tooth of mine is bothering me’, and before you know it, you will say, ‘I should come out to your office’. So, you want to have doctors and people like that (medical professionals) stay in the background so that it doesn’t remind the players of any non-critical nicks and bruises that they may have, so they can stay focused on the game.”
Stuck, currently in his 25th consecutive year as Hershey’s trainer, has been a part of the franchise in some capacity since the 1977-78 season, with the exception of the 1984-85 season, when he departed Central Pennsylvania for a job as the assistant equipment manager for the Philadelphia Flyers of the NHL.
“(Flyers’ trainer) Sudsy Settlemyre asked me to come down to Philly. Their assistant equipment manager was thinking about going back to Portland to become a cop. About a week later he (Settlemyre) called and said the guy got the job and he would be leaving in January, and asked if I would be interested in accepting the job, and I said, ‘Heck, yeah’. Think about it: born and raised around here and growing up watching the Flyers and Peter Puck; back here in the old days, that’s all you would watch on TV. It was a dream come true to go down there and have a great run, going all the way to the Stanley Cup Finals.”
Despite the run to the Stanley Cup Finals with the Flyers and getting a taste of the NHL, it was family, a very important part of Beaker’s life, that brought him back to Hershey.
“Philly had a rookie camp in St. Michael’s in Toronto, and when we came back, that’s when the Flyers took over in Hershey. I was at a birthday party at my brother’s house and Bobby Clarke called me up and mentioned something about going back to Hershey to be the trainer. My mother was ill at the time, so for me, with all of my family and friends back here, it was an easy decision to come back.”
One of the most frightening moments that Stuck has faced in the last few years was early in the 2005-06 season at the Copps Coliseum, when Chris Bourque was knocked out cold by a crunching hit from a Hamilton Bulldogs’ player. According to Stuck, keeping himself and the player calm is an integral part in handling such situations.
“Looking back at that, as much as it was scary, it’s like anything else that happens on the ice. You see it happening, you want to make sure that you yourself are calm, because if you aren’t, any patient is going to see that and react to it. As much as he was out a little bit, he was moving. It was just precautionary things; we put him on the backboard and he was a first-year pro, so we just wanted to make sure he knew we were taking care of him and everything is all right. I whispered to him as we were going off, to make sure you give a thumbs-up to the crowd, as that tells a lot-not only to the fans, but to John Walton, because he is going to deliver that feed back home to the family that is listening.”
Earlier this season, Stuck faced another emergency situation, when Finnish rookie, Oskar Osala was injured in Philadelphia. Originally, neither Osala nor Stuck recognized the injury; however, when they both realized the severity of the situation, it quickly started a frenzied chain reaction.
“Osala was on the bench and Patrick McNeill was coming over the boards. As soon as McNeill came over the boards, his skate came up and cut him (Osala) on the forearm. Oskar went on the ice right away (not knowing he was injured), because his line was up next. Before you know it, Oskar came off because he felt a burning sensation in his arm. Guys looked at it and they were all freaking, and Minker was hollering for me right away. So, when the guys started freaking, I went running off the ice. Of course, Oskar wants to jump in an ambulance right away. In that situation, my job is to control things and see what symptoms the guy has: make sure he calms down, make sure he is breathing and has a heartbeat. We can control the bleeding.”
Although some of Stuck’s job may appear glamorous under the bright lights of Giant Center, there are parts of his job that aren’t nearly as exciting. Problem solving is a huge part of his job and vital to each player’s success.
“He’s making the phone calls, trying to do everything he can to figure out what’s going on and how we can fix it—calling all the different experts and everything,“ commented Arsene. “Beaker’s probably been the most important person to me and the reason why I’m back playing.”
For anyone who is aspiring to be an athletic trainer, Stuck, cautions that though the job is one he loves, there are many sacrifices to be made along the way.
“First of all, anybody thinking about getting into the business has to think about the long hours. I’ve been married over twenty years and have kids, and my boy helps me down here. They (his family) love what I do, but I’m gone over the holidays and I put in long hours. You miss a lot of family functions, like soccer games and baseball games. You have to look at the time, and you have to be able to want to put the time in. You are taking care of people, you have to want to do that and want to come to work and love what you do.”
While it sometimes appears that Beaker’s job is a one-man operation, with him being the sole representative of the training team behind the bench, he acknowledges that without a solid support system behind the scenes, his job would be much more difficult, if not impossible.
“My people have been here with me all of my years. As much as I’m the trainer here in Hershey, I couldn’t do it without having the confidence of knowing that those people are here with me,” Stuck said.
Although Stuck has his circle of support, the players know his much of an asset he is in helping them get back on the ice after an injury or surgery.
“It’s one of those things where his positive attitude, more than anything, really helps you make it through because you can get depressed and get really down and he really keeps it positive,” said Arsene.