21 hours a week for 7 years: Karch Bachman’s long hockey road

Indiana is far from a hockey hotbed. Just five players who played NCAA men’s hockey this past year call the Hoosier State home.

To reach a high level of hockey, players and families from the state often have to make sacrifices so that the player has the best opportunity to develop.

Karch Bachman, who recently completed his freshman season at Miami University, had an exceptionally unique journey to where he is today. Hailing from Wolcottville, Ind., a small town in the northeast part of the state, he and his family had to make a number of sacrifices to further his hockey career.

While his interest in the sport began about a half-hour away in the “big city” of Fort Wayne, Ind., he had to venture much further in order to play.

The bulk of his youth hockey days were spent in Detroit. This meant taking a number of long road trips with his dad for games and practices. They typically made three seven-hour round trips per week, amounting to an average of 21 hours on the road within a given school week.

“Growing up, we didn’t carpool with anybody,” Bachman explained to Pucks and Recreation. “Nobody from a little Amish community in Indiana wanted to make the trip to play hockey in Detroit. That was just kind of unheard of.”

Struck by the Komets

Those many hours the two spent in the car paid off. Bachman is not just a Division I college hockey player, but also a draft pick of the Florida Panthers. And while he never played competitively in Fort Wayne, the city played an integral part in his hockey story, both at a young age and later in his life.

His family had a connection to the local team. His father, an attorney, was a season-ticket holder for the Fort Wayne Komets of the United Hockey League. Bachman remembers sitting on his dad’s lap watching their games as early as age two or three.

Once he expressed interest in playing the game, it did not take long for him to get started.

“I live on a lake in a really small town in Indiana,” he said, “so my dad got me a pair of skates, got me out there and I started pushing around a little five-gallon bucket on the lake in the winters.”

Bachman eventually decided that he wanted to play competitively, but the closest teams were in Fort Wayne, and Bachman was told he was too young to play for them. After a few other programs turned him away, he ended up playing in Battle Creek, Mich., about an hour-and-a-half from home.

“…a twin mattress in the back of our SUV…”

He spent five years in Battle Creek, playing mostly with kids older and bigger than him. He spent another year of squirts in Kalamazoo, Mich., and then it was time to move on to peewee. When it came time to make the jump he moved further into Michigan, to Detroit, over three hours from home.

He ended up playing for the elite Little Caesars program for six years, then one for Belle Tire. This meant making the long trek roughly three times per week, for seven years.

“For seven years, my dad would drive me three-and-a-half-hours one way to Detroit, and then three-and-a-half hours back,” he explained. “I’d get out of school a little early and then we’d make the trip. I’d grab a bite to eat after school, sleep most of the way up and then we’d have practice.

“We ended up converting our SUV. As I mentioned, my dad is an attorney, and he had a client that did RV manufacturing. This client ended up transforming the back seats into a bed with a headboard and everything. So I had a twin mattress in the back of our SUV and it had a cargo net that would wrap over me to keep me from flying out in case of a crash.”

On the way home, Bachman would do homework and then sometimes sleep some more. The two would often leave his school around three in the afternoon, then not get back until two or three the next morning.

“…my first experience was almost near-death…”

On some occasions, Bachman and his father would get to avoid the drive. One of his neighbors had a small plane and would sometimes offer to fly him up to Detroit for practices, and on other occasions they would arrange a flight through a company.

However, flying did not always work out so well.

On one of the first trips to Detroit for a tryout, the commuters flew out with a private company.

“They flew us up there, and there was some turbulence along the way,” Bachman recalled. “We were about to land and basically something happened and one of the wings tilted down and we were a couple inches from hitting the wing on the ground and the pilot yanked up and we flew straight up and then had to redo the landing. So my first experience was almost near-death with the flight.

“I can’t believe with that being our first experience that we continued to do it for seven more years.”

While flying was obviously quicker, most of the trips to Detroit were by car. Bachman has many memories, both good and bad, from seven years of long road trips with his dad. The weather was a frequent issue, as it obviously limited their ability to make the long trip. There were times when Bachman had to miss games or practices for this reason.

On one occasion, however, the weather came as a surprise.

“One time the weather was looking all right, so we made the trip up and then there ended up being kind of a surprise blizzard while I was at practice,” he remarked. “When we were driving home we had to fight through the blizzard.

“My dad’s always been pretty driven, both literally and figuratively, but with that trip, what would usually be a three-and-a-half hour trip took us, like, six-and-a-half hours. We made it home, but we had to drive half the speed limit and go through the blizzard the whole way.”

“…dedication and commitment…”

His dad’s dedication, not only on the road, but in his life in general is something that Bachman appreciates and emulates. He knows that it has given him the opportunity to succeed, and is a big reason why he is where he is today.

Of course, given where he grew up, practicing his skills while at home was another potential roadblock on his path to where he hoped to go.

To get actual ice time, he would have to drive about an hour to Fort Wayne. However, an opportunity arose that allowed him to practice his skills much more conveniently. His trainer, Colin Chaulk, a longtime Komet from the team’s UHL, IHL, CHL and ECHL days and now the head coach of the ECHL’s Brampton Beast, owned a synthetic ice rink in Fort Wayne called the Hockey House.

“When it shut down, they sold most of the parts to us and we ended up putting a little synthetic ice rink in my garage,” Bachman said. “So you can skate on it, shoot, work on stick handling and skills and stuff like that. We also have a little weight room upstairs too so I’ve got pretty much everything I need.”

This was yet another example of Bachman and his family doing whatever it took to give him the opportunity to better his game. Instead of being a negative, his growing up in a state where ice was scarce and doing so much to be able to play hockey at a high level has significantly shaped his life today.

The time and effort that Bachman put towards hockey growing up is something that he thinks has helped him in his first year playing college hockey. Along with that, his family and educational upbringing has made a significant impact.

“The dedication and commitment is something that my dad has instilled in me with his work ethic, getting me to practice, getting all of his work done, getting a couple hours of sleep and still waking up and driving me again,” he explained.

“My mom is a teacher as well, so something she instilled in me was the classroom aspect. I also went to Culver Military Academy for high school, and it’s very discipline-oriented and the biggest thing I learned there was time management.”

These aspects of his life, all of which occurred before he came to college, combined to help him succeed on and off the ice at Miami. These are all important as he works towards his eventual goal, reaching the NHL.

“…it was an emotional experience…”

As a Florida draft pick, Bachman appears to have a bright future in his hockey journey. He was selected in the fifth round of the 2015 draft, which took place at the BB&T Center, home of the Panthers. The fact that he was drafted by the host team made for an even more unforgettable experience than he may have anticipated.

“I was fortunate enough to get drafted, and even more so by the Florida Panthers, which is definitely an up and coming organization. They have a lot of young talent,” he remarked.

“It was also pretty neat, because I always make this reference, that when you get drafted there are a couple claps in the stands, and your family is happy. That was great, my family was thrilled as much as I was, and it was an emotional experience. But because I was drafted by the host team, you got cheers when you walked around so that was pretty neat, I had a lot of support.”

His hockey journey has been unique, and has required extensive effort from many people in order to get him where he is today. This is something that he and everyone around him knows and appreciates.

After he was drafted by the Panthers, he initially needed to scramble to find gear in order to participate in development camp the following week. He overcame that obstacle and took part in the camp. When it ended, he returned to Indiana, where everything really sunk in as far as how he reached where he was at that point.

“When I got home my family and friends stopped by to congratulate me,” he said. “They know how hard I worked, but they also know how much of a group effort it was. My parents, my family, the community I live in, my teachers, principals, friends; everybody surrounding me played a role in allowing my dad and I to make those trips when I was young and eventually led up to where I am now.”

Future goals

While he has had a lot of help along the way, Bachman knows there is much he can do individually as he looks to further his career. He is looking forward to building on a freshman season at Miami that was admittedly a learning experience.

He aims to work on building his strength over the summer. He lost a lot of strength, weight and quickness due to a shoulder surgery that required extensive rehab at the end of his last season of junior hockey.

Now healthy heading into the summer, he wants to get back to where he was and build on that moving into next year.

Along with this, as a student-athlete, he is focused on finishing the 2016-17 school year strong. He also aims to prepare himself mentally going into next year. He learned a lot from his coaches during his first year, and aims to be an impact player for the Redhawks next season. On top of this, he has his sights set very high, at Miami and beyond.

“Obviously playing for Florida is my dream someday. That’s why I’m here at Miami, not only to win a national championship but also to prepare myself to hopefully play at the next level and hopefully earn a spot on Florida’s roster someday.”

Given how far he has travelled, both literally and figuratively, to reach where he is today, the trip from Ohio to Florida might not seem so long.