PHOTO
Not many sports coaches step down after winning six consecutive titles.
That speaks volumes for SkyCity Stampede ice hockey coach Cam Frear, who last month lifted the Birgel Cup for the sixth year running after come-from-behind two-game semis and three-game finals.
The 36-year-old’s had a large role in their success, maintaining and enhancing the team’s culture and being able to tweak tactics after first-up losses during double-headers.
It’s helped, too, being part of Queenstown’s first family of ice hockey — parents Luana and Niel have played vital admin roles and younger brothers Mitchell and Lachlan have also been Stampede and New Zealand Ice Blacks players.
Rugby-mad, Cam’s family shifted from Invercargill to Queenstown when he was about 5, but he became hooked on ice hockey when joining Rob Lynes and his son on a trip to Naseby’s rink.
“There was so much to learn, but when you were younger you saw progress quite quickly, which was kind of quite addictive.”
In the early 2000s he went to Friendship Games in Minnesota in the United States.
He joined the Stampede as a 15-year-old in 2006 when it again won the title in the league’s second season — “though I didn’t get on the ice much”.
A subsequent run of non-league-winning seasons was also instructive.
Cam also played for Dunedin Thunder for three seasons while studying at Otago Uni.
Returning to the Stampede in 2013, he was made assistant captain.
He also represented the Ice Blacks in Turkey at the 2013 IIHF World Championship, where they won silver in Division II B.
Not realising it at the time, 2018 was Cam’s last playing year — finishing with about 194 league games and almost 145 for Stampede.
At year’s end he ruptured his Achilles playing touch.
He expected he’d just be delaying his start to the next season, but, instead, senior players suggested he replace their coach who’d left for the United States.
“They said, ‘how would you feel about coaching for a few weeks until we can find someone?’.
“So I started the prep for coaching, and then kind of got hooked and never really looked back.
“It was a pretty steep learning curve.”
Cam, who credits then-captain Matt Scheider with a lot of mentoring, says his style’s been to nourish team culture by making new players aware of Stampede’s history and how vollies and spectators support them so well.
Finding the right imports has been important too, he adds, in terms of them fitting into the culture.
He says he’s also changed in the role — “I think I’ve probably got better in terms of not always yelling, sometimes silence is just as effective”.
Cam says the role involved a lot of late nights and he’d even set aside goal meetings with individual players.
“You could not put this amount of time into it, but that’s not how I’m wired.”
He also had his gum-chewing superstition — “if the team’s playing well I won’t change the piece of gum and if it’s bad I’ll change it”.
A highlight came in 2022 when they had to go to Auckland for their finals.
“If it wasn’t for [goalie] Aston Brookes we probably wouldn’t have won that series.”
Cam was also picked as the Ice Blacks’ co-head coach, then sole head coach for the IIHF World Championship Division II B in Dunedin last year.
“To be able to coach at home in front of your parents was a huge honour.”
He stepped back from the role, he says, because of potential conflicts between his Ice Blacks and Stamped coaching.
“It was really fun and I learnt a lot, but it was a lot of work for a tournament that was two weeks long.”
Aside from his coaching, Cam has a busy job as local head of department for activities for AJ Hackett, having first worked for the bungy company on raft retrievals during his school holidays.
He thinks his coaching helps his job, in terms of people management — “maybe my job makes me better at coaching”.
He thinks the time’s right to step aside from his Stampede role.
“With the younger kids coming through in the next few years, it kind of felt like a good time to have someone different.
“The other side of it, I’d love to get away from Queenstown in the middle of winter [with his wife Rebekah].
“Like, I haven’t had a holiday to Europe or overseas in 15 years.”
While he’ll just be a spectator next season, Cam says he’s open to taking some role with Stampede the year after.
He’d also like to reconnect with the Ice Blacks.
“The one thing that kind of burns bright for me is I’ve never won a world championship with NZ. so it’s something I’d like to jump back in, in a couple of years.”