‘That’s why you’re at where you’re at’

December 13, 2022

Heartlanders forward Zach White plays golf at the Brown Deer Golf Club Wednesday Nov. 9, 2022.

On an unusually warm, 70-degree Nov. 9 sunny day, White and Heartlanders Director of Communications David Fine, who also broadcasts the games, head to the Coralville Perkins. At lunch time, the clientele is made up of senior citizens — not the Heartlanders’ target audience.

For food, White requests the Fabulous Five, which includes two bacon strips. He chooses the chocolate chip pancakes instead of toast and selects his eggs over easy.

Leading up to Nov. 9, White hadn’t had the best season. At the time, he recorded a goal and an assist through seven games, and the Heartlanders won their first 2022-23 contest three days before. He was the first skater to agree to terms with the Heartlanders ahead of their second season. Yet, on a more balanced roster, the Heartlanders sometimes put White as an extra forward like he was when he first joined the franchise.

As a center, wingers Kris Bennett and Ryan Kuffner flanked White last season. Bennett won the 2021-22 ECHL Rookie of the Year award and now competes in the top two leagues in Switzerland, while Kuffner is a former NHL skater who’s currently in Germany’s top division. It was lining up with those two that made White realize he made it in the ECHL.

“Now, I have no idea what I’m doing,” White says over his meal. “I guess I’m not doing too well, right, Fine?”

“You’re too hard on yourself,” Fine responds. “That’s why you’re at where you’re at.”

White’s mom, Dawn White, remembered when her independent son first learned to skate in West Haven, Connecticut, at 3 years old.

He was supposed to push a chair from one end of the ice to the other. Instead, White shoved the chair aside and skated on his own. The instructor told Dawn White she had a hockey player.

Timeline by Isaac Goffin/The Daily Iowan

Zach White’s current character took shape in his childhood. His mother Dawn White described Zach White as someone more concerned with others than himself.

While Zach White was in a science class sporting a white lab coat and large protective goggles, his older brother, Matthew White, sat stuck in a school bathroom stall without toilet paper. After connecting with his brother, Zach White, dressed in his science class garb, arrived at Matthew White’s stall and handed him toilet paper.

At Foran High School in Milford, Connecticut, contact sports were his passion. White was a three-letter helmeted athlete, also playing football and lacrosse. But it was Milford’s Co-op hockey program where he established his local legacy. He registered 203 points in four seasons. The No. 5 jersey he wore is now retired, and the city sitting on Long Island Sound cherished its star skater.

Dawn White said there was a big ceremony at the Milford Ice Pavilion, and the mayor proclaimed Jan. 17, 2015, as Zach White Day.

“It was very honoring,” Dawn White said. “But he’s so humble that he doesn’t like anybody to talk about it.”

White spent 2014-15 with the New York Apple Core, a junior team in the Eastern Hockey League — a far cry from the U.S. Hockey League where several Heartlanders developed.

Dawn White didn’t know what junior leagues were, so Matthew White researched the developmental league. They realized if White wanted to play at a higher level, juniors were the next step.

Unlike in football and basketball, hockey players tend to compete in junior leagues between high school and college, and it’s common to see 20-year-old freshman in NCAA hockey.

After his one season with the Apple Core, Zach White was interested in Curry College — a NCAA Division III school outside Boston. But Curry head coach T.J. Manastersky told White he was short and didn’t think he could make college hockey, Dawn White said.

But White was persistent — he still liked Curry because his cousin went there. So, White talked to Manastersky again, who allowed him to try out. He made the program and ended his time there as its captain.

White continued his run as a multi-sport athlete and played lacrosse at Curry, where he was also a captain. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice in 2019, and the college selected him as its male athlete of the year.

Zach White then embarked on his professional journey at 23-years-old. He started with a two-game stint under the SPHL’s Fayetteville Marksmen to end the 2018-19 campaign. Then, he flew to France to compete in the country’s second division with Cholet in 2019-20.

The COVID-19 pandemic, however, forced White to return to the U.S. With some minor league clubs not facing off in 2020-21 and without an agent, he settled for the Thunderbirds in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

“It’s a prison league down there,” Zach White said of the FPHL. “Not joking. You can get away with anything. Slash, hit from behind, they really don’t give a s—.”

Unlike in the ECHL, where rookies make at least $510 a week, White was earning $120 a week down in the FPHL with limited per diem. There’s no union representing FPHL athletes, some arenas seat less than 3,000, and The News-Times reported in 2016 the league’s weekly salary cap was $4,400 to cover 18 players.

With the Thunderbirds’ home ice unavailable, all their games were on the road. So, Zach White rode a dented bus he said broke down six times between Elmira, New York, and Winston-Salem on the first road trip. The bus’ bed slots were designated in three rows of shelving racks like the ones sold at Home Depot, and the mattresses were put on top of plywood.

Despite the grueling circumstances, Zach White notched eight goals and eight assists in 20 contests. The small skater didn’t surrender his goal of moving up in the hockey world, though he thought he wouldn’t make the ECHL. Typically, ECHL skaters come from a reputable NCAA Division I or Canadian U Sports program. Some are NHL draft picks expected to make hockey’s top circuit.

Map by Isaac Goffin/The Daily Iowan

“I think I knew I had more to give, more so than anything, right?” Zach White said. “I was doing well, and everyone’s like, ‘Oh, you can move up, you’re a good player.’ I was like, ‘I don’t know, we’ll see what happens,’ and then you get an opportunity and then here you are. Just kind of caught a break for a little bit.”