The sports term 鈥渃lub to country鈥� doesn鈥檛 apply only to players and coaches, such as Victoria Royals defenceman Joe Hicketts and coach Dave Lowry, currently doing their duty with the Canadian national team preparing for the 2016 world junior hockey championship beginning Boxing Day in Helsinki, Finland.
Lowry and Hicketts will have another Royal on the bench for company. Matt Auerbach is the Canadian team assistant to head equipment manager Chris MacDonald of the Halifax Mooseheads.
Auerbach has paid his dues in earning the national team call-up.
As the Royals鈥� head equipment manager, Auerbach is the only person to have been with the Victoria Royals-Chilliwack Bruins franchise over its entire 10 seasons.
鈥淚鈥檝e done this with sa国际传媒 in U-18 and it鈥檚 been one of my goals to do it with the national team at the world juniors,鈥� said the native of Vernon.
He got his start as an 18-year-old volunteer equipment helper with the hometown Vipers of the sa国际传媒 Hockey League and then as a student volunteer with the Mount Royal College hockey team in Calgary.
鈥淚 fell in love with it,鈥� said Auerbach.
That led to paying gigs, including one season with the Cowichan Valley Capitals in 2002-03 and three seasons with the Alberni Valley Bulldogs of the BCHL, before following Bulldogs coach Jim Hiller to Chilliwack when Hiller became the first coach of the WHL expansion Bruins in 2006-07.
Auerbach followed the franchise across the strait when it became the Victoria Royals in 2011-12.
鈥淵ou have to pay attention to the details and be really, really organized,鈥� said Auerbach, about what makes a good equipment manager.
鈥淚 have lists and lists I keep on a cross-off system.鈥�
Dealing with thousands of pieces of gear over the years, some things are bound to go astray. Yet, perhaps amazingly, not that much when you are organized.
鈥淭he worst was when I lost a player鈥檚 jersey in Port Alberni,鈥� said Auerbach, whose duties also include skate sharpening.
鈥淭he hardest is on the road, where you have to learn the room . . . I know where everything is at home in the [Save-on-Foods] Memorial Centre.鈥�
The toughest overall career task was getting everything Bruins over to the Island in the late spring of 2011 to become everything Royals on short notice, including having to relocate his family as well.
鈥淎nd that was the year the [pro ECHL Victoria] Salmon Kings went on a long playoff run, so that really complicated things at the [Memorial Centre],鈥� recalled Auerbach.
Now that one major career goal 鈥� working with sa国际传媒 at the world juniors 鈥� is accomplished, Auerbach speaks wistfully about the next one.
鈥淥ne day, I hope to do this in the NHL,鈥� he said.
Regardless of where Auerbach鈥檚 career path takes him, he knows where his summers will be spent. The Alberni Valley is a spot that never left his heart and the Auerbach family spends much of the off-season there fishing, hiking and just plain relaxing.
Because relaxation is not something equipment managers get much of during the hockey season.
鈥淚t鈥檚 lists and lists of stuff to move around . . .,鈥� said Auerbach.
And he does it as well as anybody in the business.
Reaching the world junior championship level with sa国际传媒 has taken the 37-year-old away from his young family over the holiday season. So Auerbach, wife Shannon and their daughters Emery, 5, and Tessa, 3, celebrated Christmas, complete with presents and turkey, before Auerbach left last week for the Canadian junior team camp in Etobicoke, Ont.
A nice present to bring back from Helsinki would be a gold medal, something sa国际传媒 has not accomplished in Europe at the world juniors since 2008.
