As the Griffins' assistant equipment manager, Kyle Hornkohl helps players get off on their best foot by sewing up every loose end regarding the tools they need.

Story and photo by Mark Newman

Kyle Hornkohl's love of travel has taken him to many places around the world, but he found his niche close to home.

        The Manistee native became the assistant equipment manager for the Griffins in 2023, nearly a decade after beginning a six-season (2014-20) run as a locker room attendant for the team. Having resigned himself to the elusiveness of his NHL dream, he was planning a trip to New Zealand when longtime Griffins equipment manager Brad "Dogg" Thompson called to offer him the position.

        "I was all booked," he said. "My buddy and I agreed back in college that when he turned 30, we were going to New Zealand. We're big "Lord of the Rings" fans, so we wanted to see all the sets and all those beautiful locations. I got a refund – it's the sacrifice you make for your dream job."

        His dream started in Traverse City, where he served as a volunteer stick boy at the NHL Prospects Tournament from 2007-09 after moving there with his mom. "We were huge hockey fans, so she signed me up," he recalled. "She was a volunteer and saw they needed stick boys, so that's how I got my foot in the door. Everybody wanted to work on the Red Wings team, so I think my first year I was helping out the Dallas Stars team."

        Hornkohl served as a locker room attendant for the rookie tournament from 2010-13. "I was very fortunate that training camp was in my hometown, so it was cool to be that close up and in person with the players. When you're young and you see that logo on their chests, you think it's the coolest thing ever."

        As a teenager, he helped out Thompson and Red Wings equipment manager Paul Boyer in any way he could. "I would fill water bottles, help set up the bench, hang towels in the locker room, and just do whatever they wanted," he said.

        After graduating from high school, Hornkohl went to community college to get his associate's in general studies because he was unsure what he wanted to do for a degree. "I was still volunteering every fall for the hockey camp and I decided to move down to Grand Rapids, where I had a few buddies," he said. "That's when I started helping Dogg on game days."

        While serving as the Griffins’ locker room attendant, he earned his bachelor's degree in natural resources management at Grand Valley State University. "I wanted a four-year degree in case the hockey thing didn't work out," he said. "There are no guarantees because there are only so many spots and job openings, so I just wanted to cover all my bases. I was an outdoorsman living up north, so working in national parks or the DNR would have interested me."

        Even so, Hornkohl had his heart set on a career in hockey.

        "I was balancing my school work while I was working as a cook at a restaurant and volunteering my time with the team," he said. "From the beginning I thought this was the coolest job ever, and that's what kept me coming back every season."

        Then fate stepped in.

        "When COVID happened, the rest of the season was canceled," he said. "Then the restaurant shut down, so after I graduated, I had no job and nobody was hiring. When hockey eventually opened back up, things were very strict, so they weren't letting the kids who volunteered come in anymore.

        "So I got a job with Amazon because that was the only thing booming. With everyone sitting at home, everybody was ordering stuff online and I figured I might as well deliver it. I did that for a while before some buddies and I moved to Denver.

        "My buddies could work remotely with their jobs, but I got a job in sales out there. At that point, I kind of figured maybe my hockey chapter was closed. Things just didn't work out. Whatever. That's life. It wasn't in the stars."

        Hornkohl remembers watching the Vegas Golden Knights win their first Stanley Cup in June 2023. "I had been in Denver for two years and I was watching the Cup finals when I saw Chris Davidson-Adams, who had been Dogg's assistant and was the head equipment manager for Vegas at the time. I thought, 'He's living the dream.'”

        Not long after, Griffins assistant equipment manager Charlie Kaser took the head job with the AHL's Texas Stars. "Dogg called me and a week later, I was packing up my car," Hornkohl said. "I packed whatever I could fit in my car and drove back across the country."

        He already had a good sense of the job, having worked with Kaser's predecessor, Andrew "Steggy" Stegehuis, who left Grand Rapids in 2018 to become the head equipment manager of the Rochester Americans and is now an assistant in the NHL with the Dallas Stars.

        Hornkohl felt like he was getting the chance to learn at the feet of the master.

        "Almost everybody in this town knows who Brad Thompson is," he said. "With over 2,000 games for one team, he's a legend. He obviously knows what he's doing because he's been around forever. He's had an incredible career."

        Eager to learn, Hornkohl hopes to be next in a long line of assistants who have used the Griffins job as a stepping stone.

        "Dogg wants his assistants to excel," he said. "He's a good people-person because he's good at reading people. He doesn't treat all of his assistants the same way. He knows exactly what they can handle and he doesn't push more onto them than what they can handle.

        "He wants to mold you into a great professional and he's done it with all of his guys. His track record speaks for itself."

        Being organized and being prepared for anything is essential for the job.

        "The worst thing you can do is get behind or let things pile up," he said. "In this job, you're going to be scrambling at certain points, so you want to control everything that you can. And Dogg does a great job making sure people understand that. He has fun, he goofs around, but when it's time to work, he knows this is a serious job."

        Essential to the job is to make sure the players feel like they have everything they need to excel and perform to the best of their abilities.

        "Communication is the big thing so you're in front of everything you need to do," he said. "You've got to know how to read people. You have to be able to communicate with people to know what they want. Some guys might be a little superstitious, others are not. Some guys like new gear, others guys don't. Every player is different."

        Taking care of the equipment for a hockey team involves more than sticks and skates.

        "Staying on top of things is the key because there's a lot of stuff – everything from tape to bubble gum to shower supplies to Gatorade and water," he said. "We're responsible for everything that's in the locker room that's not medical-related."

        Keeping everything in working order is the part of the job that Hornkohl enjoys the most – whether it's sharpening the steel for skates, stitching the loose thread on gloves, or repairing shoulder pads and other protective gear.

        "You've got to know how to adapt," he said. "You've got to be able to work on the fly. You've got to be able to do things under pressure. You have to keep your composure. The worst thing you can do is panic. And you need to realize you're not going to be perfect. If something goes wrong, take a breath. You know how to fix it. You can figure it out."

        During a recent game, the straps on one player's elbow pad blew out at the same time that the blocker on another player's glove ripped. "I had to hand sew for a quick repair during the intermission so they could get back on the ice, and no one knew the difference," he said.

        "I might go 10 games without having to fix a piece of equipment and then suddenly two things happen during one intermission when you're not expecting it. A player's jersey can rip in the middle of a game. You learn to juggle because you have to. That's the job. If you're easily stressed out, doing this job is going to be difficult."

        Every extraordinary effort is ultimately going to be appreciated by the players.

        "You got to be a little crazy to play this sport, so you have a lot of personalities, some goofballs, but they're great guys," he said. "Hockey is a fantastic sport, and I'm not sure if ‘community’ is the right word, but there's a sense of team that I've always found appealing. And that's why working in a professional league – and, hopefully, one day the NHL – has been my dream since I was a kid. If I couldn't be a player, this is the next best thing."

        Hornkohl can't imagine enjoying any job more.

        "The best part is just coming to the rink every day and hanging out with your friends," he said. "It's a lot of hours and the season can be a grind. The 4 o'clock a.m. load-ins on the road can be a challenge, and trying to catch a couple of hours of sleep on a bus that's hitting potholes while guys are chitchatting in the back isn't always easy.

        "At the end of the day, you work twice as much as a normal 9-5 job. Sometimes you don't even realize it because you come to the rink every day to hang out with your buddies. It's a good time. You walk around and you think, ‘This is my job. I'm working in a hockey rink. I'm working in pro hockey. This is awesome.' You gotta love it to do it. You can't do this job and look at it as just a job. You'll burn out."

        In his free time, he enjoys writing and playing music. "My cousin and I have some recording equipment and we've recorded some stuff over the years," he said. "I play guitar and do a little singing. I like all different genres of rock, from Avenged Sevenfold to Kiss to Elton John – those are probably my Big Three."

        He also enjoys painting and drawing. "I was in ArtPrize the first year I moved here," he said. "I work mostly in acrylics. I just finished a painting on corkboard. I worked from a photo I took in Northern Ireland."

        Hornkohl's love of travel has taken him around the world. He's already been to a dozen countries, from Iceland to Italy to Peru to Vietnam. "Prague is probably my favorite city that I've ever been to – I've been there twice. I went there in 2018 and then I went back there this past summer," he said.

        "I've had nothing but good experiences traveling. In general, I love eating different foods. I love history. I love learning about the places I go. I do so much research. I like to learn everything I can about a spot.

        "I enjoy going with a group of friends to experience different cultures. We go on little adventures and it's always a good time. I love traveling."

        Although there is always plenty of work to do, Hornkohl enjoys the Griffins' road trips. "The farthest west that I've been with the team is Colorado," he said. "I think Toronto is awesome and Austin, Texas, is a great place to go – it's warm and there's a lot to do. I like Cleveland, too. It's all good."

        Hornkohl has a friend who is trying to put a group together to go to Iceland for his honeymoon this spring. "My buddy's getting married in May," he said. "He doesn't understand sports – it's not his thing. He's been asking if I can come to the wedding. I told him, I don't know. Hopefully, we're still playing.

        "He's like, 'Well, when will you know?' And I go, 'Potentially days before.' Which, to him, is weird. But with the way the playoffs go, there's no way to know. And that's the great thing about hockey. You just never know."

        And that's what Hornkohl loves. "You have routines, but nothing is ever the same," he said. "You don't want things to happen, but when they do, there's a little more excitement. It's fun to fix things. You don't want a guy to miss a shift or anything, so there's a little more pressure. But that makes this job interesting."