The distant melody of “When You Wish Upon a Star” echoed down the barren concrete halls as Duke Yeager navigated through the outer workings of the Van Andel Arena.

 

 

“‘Disney on Ice’ is in town,” he said, shaking his head. “Long, long weekend when Disney’s in town.”

But even as Yeager told of how he had worked a 40-hour work week by the time he had come to the arena to begin work for the production, he could not help but smile as he looked out at the ice.

“I have a great job,” Yeager said. “It’s almost better to call it a hobby.”

The mystical machine

 

Yeager has manned the Griffins’ Zamboni ice resurfacer — a machine that scrapes the ice and smoothes it with a fresh layer of water — all 13 years of the organization’s existence.

But even though Yeager says Zambonis are merely tractors for ice, he said that children are mesmerized by the sight of the enormous apparatus moving slowly across the surface.

“It’s like a mystical machine,” Yeager said. “When you’re at intermission as a kid, you just sit there and just watch it go around and around and around. You can’t take your eyes off it.”

But as the man in the driver’s seat, the laps around the rink might feel more repetitive than mystical. Not including overtimes and shoot-outs, Yeager resurfaces the ice five to six times per game.

For Yeager, boredom is not a problem.

“The Griffins keep it interesting,” he said. “Since I’ve been here so long, I’ve been able to see them develop promotions, and it’s interesting to see how they change things up.”

Yeager said that watching the development of the promotion “The Human Hockey Puck” was particularly entertaining. In the game, contestants from the crowd are placed on sledding saucers and are launched across the ice by a rubber band functioning as an oversized slingshot in hopes of landing inside a goal.

“Oh, the first time was a disaster,” Yeager said. “They would hit the goal and go right into the boards — no padding, no nothing. They didn’t even put padding on the goal.”

After a few people were, as Yeager put it, “slightly injured,” the Griffins reworked the game to include more padding and less bruises.

Now, the only people in danger during intermissions are the Griffins dancers.

Although the dancers know to stay out of the Zamboni’s way, Yeager said some new dancers do not pay attention to the machine that cannot stop on the ice.

“The other driver, Jesus Rivera, he’s nice — he honks,” Yeager said. “I’m not as nice. I’ll give them a little nudge and scare them a little.”

In a recent game, Griff, the Griffins’ mascot, was the one who received a Yeager Zamboni love-tap.

“It freaked him out for a while,” Yeager laughed.

Renaissance man

 

But Yeager’s antics on the ice are not the source of his fame with Griffins fans.

Griffins’ announcer Eric Zane, of a WGRD-FM (97.9) morning radio show, made it his personal mission to make Yeager a household name among fans the best way he knew how — through the arena’s PA system.

“The first time, he made a joke that the mascot Griff and I designed the T-shirt gun in the bowels of the arena,” Yeager said. “You don’t hear anything on the ice, so when I came off the ice and fans started asking me about it, I asked Zane if he said anything, and he goes, ‘Oh yeah, and I have a lot more coming.’”

Within months, Zane had added a slew of fictional occupations and achievements to Yeager’s resume, including Golden Gloves boxer, New York Rangers player, mayor of Peoria and dog groomer.

“The funny thing is, people believe him,” Yeager said. “I’ve had reporters asking to interview me about the things Eric has said. They’re pretty disappointed when they find out it’s not true.”

Taking stock in the job

 

But do not discard Yeager’s “Renaissance man” reputation just yet. Aside from manning the Zamboni 40 games a season, Yeager also juggles a career as a project manager for a site acquisition company with being a family man.

“It’s hard to come in sometimes,” Yeager said. “When you’re working till 5 at one job and coming here at 7, it’s hard to be away from the family.”

Yeager said that he has been fortunate that his two children — Jarrett, 11, and Katy, 9 — have made Zamboni-driving a family affair.

“They’ve ridden the Zamboni more than anybody,” Yeager said, adding that Jarrett was the first child to ride the Zamboni with him. “In fact, he would get upset when he was young and someone else would get a ride. He was convinced that they were in his seat.”

Yeager said the Zamboni rides were one of the most fulfilling parts of his job — especially when children from Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital came to the arena for a spin around the ice.

“It really struck a chord with me,” Yeager said. “It really makes you take stock in what you do when kids with cancer come, and it’s their wish to ride the Zamboni.”

If there’s ice, I’m there

 

Although humbled by the children’s request to ride the Zamboni, Yeager said it does not surprise him — his childhood dream was to ride the Zamboni as well.

“When I was growing up, if I could have ridden the Zamboni … that would have been huge for me,” he said. “Going to games with my dad and grandpa, I thought the Zamboni was the coolest thing.”

Yeager, who learned how to drive the machine while in college, said he was elated when the Griffins approached him. However, instead of merely driving the Zamboni, he was given the title “operations manager” and was required to work long hours with ever-changing shifts.

After two years, when he started a family, he decided to step down as operations manager — putting his Zamboni-driving days at risk of coming to an end.

“I fully expected to lose the Zamboni job, but, luckily, they asked me to stay on,” he said. “Every time there’s ice, I’m there.”

And that is why he works ‘Disney on Ice’ weekends, he said. However, his first experience with Disney was one of his least favorite memories.

“The first time ‘Disney on Ice’ came to town, it took me over 30 hours to try and paint the ice white and they still weren’t happy with how it looked,” Yeager said. “Times like that, working isn’t always fun.”

But even as Yeager begins his 40-hour ‘Disney on Ice’ weekend, he knows as soon as the hockey season wraps up in April, he will be itching to get back on his Zamboni.

“Once you’ve been here for a while and you’ve got it in your blood, there’s a smell in the air — ice does have a smell — and you miss it,” Yeager said. “After being gone a long time, to shake the hands of people you haven’t seen in a while and to watch the puck drop — it’s good to be back.”