April 24, 2024

This paid piece is sponsored by Augustana University.

Erik Colstrup said it was never his dream to become an ice technician. However, caring for the ice quickly became his passion after hanging up his hockey skates in college.

Now, that passion has brought him to Sioux Falls, where he is the man behind a lot of the magic at Midco Arena — the home of the Augustana University Division I men’s hockey program, as well as men’s and women’s club hockey and club figure skating.

“That was a big thing,” Colstrup said of the new arena. “I had a list of where I was thinking about applying, and Augustana was at the top of that list and close to home.”

“Home” is Owatonna, Minnesota, where Colstrup grew up on the ice. His grandmother was a figure skater and his father, a hockey player, who eventually built “a pretty large” hockey rink in their backyard. Naturally, Colstrup played hockey too — five years of junior hockey in Minnesota and Canada, as well as at the collegiate level at Framingham State University in Massachusetts and Williston State College in North Dakota. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit and hockey quit, Colstrup’s brother convinced him to move back to Massachusetts to work at the Boston Sports Institute in Wellesley.

“I kind of fell in love with it and started managing that rink and was working part time at a few others,” Colstrup said. “I started to see the separation between my work and others and what I understood of the rink — the best quality (of ice) for the players. I wanted to pursue more education, do more research, get on more surfaces to do better.”

Then, Colstrup heard from a friend familiar with Augustana that the university was building an arena and soon would be looking for an ice technician.

“When I heard that, I started getting all my stuff together — taking all the courses I could imagine to get this job,” Colstrup said.

The courses to become a certified ice technician involve arena refrigeration, ice making and painting, as well as ice maintenance and equipment operation. After landing the job at Augustana, Colstrup became one of only two CITs in South Dakota.

“It was kind of an eye-opener going to those courses — really how much physics and science is actually involved in it all,” Colstrup explained.

Since coming to Augustana, Colstrup admitted that it has been a whirlwind. He arrived at the university during the construction of Midco Arena. He designed the painting under the ice, put in its first sheet in just four days, drove zamboni himself and trained other drivers who had never been around the sport. Day to day, it’s his job to perfect the ice — its thickness and depth, moisture level, color and surface temperature all affect player and fan experience. And, they’re taking notice, including area rinks.

“They reached out to me about just wanting me to go there and point out things that they might be doing wrong, things they can do better,” he said.

The first time Augustana club figure skating head coach Riley Block was on the ice at Midco Arena was during the interview process.

“I had to do a coaching demonstration, and I told the ice maintenance crew when I got on that it was the nicest ice I’ve ever skated on,” said Block, who has been skating for more than 20 years. “I was like, ‘It’s like skating on glass.’” 

Colstrup takes pride in “his” ice being an inch or so thick versus other rinks at sometimes 6 inches thick. This promotes faster gameplay, better visibility and costs less to maintain.

“In the early 2000s, so many rinks were going under because they could not find a way to make it a profitable endeavor,” Colstrup said. “That’s when these courses started coming out — it was their sole purpose to figure out the best way to run rinks. Even still, there’s not enough education to go around. A lot of rinks are operating on old knowledge and misinformation.”

Colstrup hopes to change that, and little by little, he’s getting the word out. He said it’s sometimes hard and takes longer to get his tasks done throughout the day because so many people stop to talk to him, wanting to learn more about what he does.

“I would have never thought that my job was so important to other people. A lot of people come and talk to me about the ice. Here, it’s multiple times a day — people are just so interested and appreciative of it,” Colstrup added. “It’s pretty cool.”

Colstrup said he loves the small-town vibe of Sioux Falls and feels that he could make the city his forever home. Though, his aspirations extend far beyond South Dakota. It’s his dream to be a zamboni driver at the Olympics, and he believes he’s on the right path to get there.

To learn more about unique career opportunities at Augustana, visit augie.edu/careers.