When he was 10 years old, Steve Rice badly wanted to play tackle football.
“I was always small, and my dad was going to take me to get equipment. My mom put her foot down and said that I could not play football,” Rice said. “I was heartbroken. A friend of mine invited me to one of his hockey games. I fell in love with it, and I didn’t even know how to skate at that time.”
Rice’s mother didn’t know how physical hockey was, so she agreed to let him play.
“She didn’t know that until later, but the die was cast,” Rice said.
The 1977 Carmel High High School graduate went on to play three years on the Carmel Icehounds and was a member of the Icehounds’ 1976 state championship team. The Icehounds were founded in 1973. Rice, a Geist-area resident who works in Carmel, will be part of the 50th anniversary celebration game, set for Dec. 16 at the Carmel Ice Skadium. The junior varsity game is set for 8:15 p.m., with the varsity to follow at 10:15 p.m.
The 5-2 victory over South Bend St. Joseph in 1976 was the first of 14 state championships for the Icehounds, which have appeared in 25 state title games and won 33 Hoosier League championships. Carmel was one of the original four founding high school hockey teams in Indiana. In 1974, the club was a founding member of the Hoosier Hockey League, the state’s first official high school league.
“When I learned the high school had a club sport it was like a dream come true,” Rice said. “I moved to Carmel in sixth grade and was never able to get into any of the other organized sports that Carmel had offered so plentifully. It felt like it was a chance to be part of the community and something bigger than yourself to represent your high school.”
Rice said other CHS students, including future Purdue University and NFL quarterback Mark Herrmann, regularly attended the club’s games.
“That was such a gracious thing for him to do, and it helped our overall visibility of the team,” Rice said of Herrmann, a CHS star football and basketball player.
Bob Grennes, a Geist-area resident, was also a member of the 1976 state champion team.
“I give so much credit to coach Whitey Guenin,” Grennes said. “He was a great coach that knew how to teach us the technical side of the game, but more importantly, the art of playing as a team. He also made it fun, which was really powerful. We were not the most skilled team. But we were well-coached and a true team, a hodgepodge group that worked together, supported each other, and truly cared about representing Carmel and the Ice Skadium. We also outplayed our competition. We were the Bad News Bears before the Bad News Bears.”
Grennes was a senior in 1976, and it was his first year playing organized hockey.
“I played baseball for Carmel and was inspired to try out for the hockey team by my baseball teammate Gary Olsen,” Grennes said. “He and Whitey taught me how to skate and how to play. I also was blessed to work at the Skadium, so I had lots of opportunities to practice. The summer before our senior year, I got to practice with a couple of top junior players, Lance Allen and Dave Fashing. They set a very high standard.”
Ben Barnhart, a 2023 CHS graduate, said being part of the club was special.
“It felt like a family for all three years that I played,” he said. “There was a strong connection between every player and coach, and you knew you could rely on any of them when you really needed to. I’ve never played for a team quite like it.”
Barnhart’s father, Mark Barnhart, is president of the Icehounds board. Barnhart wants to get as many former players as possible to attend the anniversary game.
For more, visit CarmelIcehounds.com
