DI men’s hockey’s second trip to Finland will stretch Flames out of their comfort zones

Brett Gammer Finland Youth — Brett Gammer teaches Finnish youth how to play floorball during the DI men's hockey team's trip over Christmas Break in 2020.

For the second time in five years, Liberty University's ACHA Division I men's hockey team will spend the last half of its Christmas Break, from Jan. 4-13, in Finland, in the same small towns the Lady Flames DI squad traveled to and played in last January.

All but one player on the Flames' 27-man roster will fly out of Dulles International Airport on Thursday, along with Flames DI men's hockey Head Coach Kirk Handy and his wife, Jannie, Associate Head Coach Jeff Boettger, Club Sports Associate Athletic Director for Sports Medicine Angie Witt and her husband, Tim, Associate Athletic Trainer Josh Smith, Associate Director of Sports Performance Jared Lovelace, Assistant Director of Video & Social Media Megan Davis, and Liberty's team statistician, Ben Barnett. They will arrive in Munich, Germany, on Friday afternoon before flying to the capital city of Helsinki that night.

Finland-map — The team will arrive in Helsinki next Friday before traveling north to Hämeenlinna.

As with the previous two Liberty Hockey trips organized by LU Send, the Flames' primary purpose is to support the ministry work of Dave Pike, a missionary and pastor of the Hämeenlinna Internation Christian Fellowship (ICF) who works for Operation Mobilization (OM) Finland.

"Our whole goal is to go with a servant's heart and work alongside Dave Pike and the ministry he has to help his church grow, to strengthen connections with the community, and to build relationships across the sporting community along with his organization," said Boettger, who helped coordinate the itinerary that will include visits to area schools and a food bank, putting on hockey clinics for youth and playing games of hockey and floorball against local teams, and helping to lead services and a Kids' Action ministry at Pike's church. "We want to be a connecting point, an encouragement to both the athletic hockey community as much as to the faith community that's there at the church."

Pike and his ministries have benefited from the previous two sports outreach trips from the Flames and Lady Flames and their coaches and staff.

"Before the (2020) trip, I had been involved in using sports for evangelism but did not have a holistic view of sports ministry," Pike said. "Liberty's visit and the influence of Kirk Handy and (Club Sports Sport Ministry Director) Brian Davidson in particular was a catalyst for growing and developing my understanding of sports ministry and establishing (Kingdom Sports Hämpton), OM Finland's sports ministry initiative started in partnership with Hämeenlinna Freechurch."

"Sports ministry in Finland is very much in its infancy," he added. "While there are churches and a few organizations that might use sports in their programs, the concept of using it for discipleship and character development as well as a way to worship God in its own right are still not concepts that have been taught here. As we continue to grow and promote this local sports ministry, we are hoping to be able to use it as a model for other churches around Finland."

That will be a critical aspect of the Flames' mission — to share the message of God's love and truth with boldness and to incorporate the Gospel into their community activities and pre-and post-game prayers and fellowship.
Pike has warned the team that their Christian message may not always be well received in the Scandinavian nation, which has a spiritual climate as secular as in the rest of Europe. However, he said the hockey team can help open doors for ministry that he would not normally be afforded.

"The fact that the team comes from another culture gives the (players and coaches) more freedom to talk about their faith publicly," he said. "Also, as this country is a truly hockey-mad nation, that provides a bridge for the Gospel to be shared with people who would never hear it otherwise. It also encourages the churches to see that there are ways to build bridges into the communities."

This will be the sixth cultural exchange trip the Flames' DI men's team has taken, following spring break excursions to Sweden in 2007, Southern Russia in 2009, Latvia in 2013, East Asia in 2016, and Finland in January 2020.

Additionally, former Flames defensemen Zane Schartz played in Hungary before joining a team in Finland for the postseason last February, Jackson Kuhn played professionally in Finland in 2015, and goalie Cary Byron and forward Joe Smith played in Sweden, with Smith serving with Hockey Ministries International there and more recently back in his homeland of Ontario, Canada.

Angie-Witt-kids-orphanage — Angie Witt leads a service opportunity at a Finnish orphanage in January 2020.

"Every time you go, something amazing happens," Boettger said. "That's what I'm most excited about, to see how God leads and how He works, both in the lives of our players and staff and in the Finnish people. It's a beautifully, mutually beneficial experience because at the end of the day, God's heart is for each of us. He always works beyond our imagination and always shows up in amazing ways, beyond what we could ask or think and those are exciting times to be a part of."

He said Club Sports desires to give all of its student-athletes opportunities to experience missionary life at least once during their four-year careers at Liberty.

"A lot of times in our lives, through sports or whatever, getting out of our comfort zone into a different environment allows us to grow in ways we haven't before … and that potentially creates change for a lifetime," Boettger said. "It allows us to see the world from a different perspective culturally, experientially, and allows us to come back home and apply some of the things we have learned. The greatest result is what God does in and through that time, in everybody's lives. On the ice, and off the ice, life comes at you fast and having gone through something unique allows for some of the barriers or walls we put up in our lives to be removed. To see (teammates) in situations where you wouldn't normally allows for greater unity and connection moving forward."

Riding a seven-game winning streak into Christmas Break, the Flames are looking forward to experiencing Scandinavian life as they prepare for the home stretch of their 2023-24 season capped by the ACHA DI National Championships in St. Louis in early March.

"It's a good mix of crazy cultural experiences that you don't really get every day over here with our team growing closer together mixed with the spiritual side," said senior forward and alternate captain Brett Gammer, who, as a Spring 2020 addition, bonded with his new teammates as brothers in Finland that winter. "They do a lot of things differently. It's a big culture shock. To watch some of our guys who have never been over there, or haven't even left the country, just to witness that (will be fun.)"

"I'm excited to now be a veteran on the team and get to be a part of the leadership group that's going to pull our guys in the same direction," he added. "Coming home from that missions trip should just spark our season because we're just that much closer as a group."

On the 2020 trip, with the help of a translator, Gammer had the opportunity to share his testimony in front of a classroom full of Finnish youth, which was very well received.

"It was really impactful on those kids and I remember not realizing fully how big of an influence and how big of a voice I had until it happened over there, and how much those kids look up to an American hockey player coming overseas just to talk with them," he said.

Boettger said the sport of hockey helps bridge the gap between players of different cultures and provides a window for communicating on a spiritual level.

"Hockey is a great connecting point, a universal language, the foundation that allows for building of relationships on a different level," he said.

"It's a great opportunity for us to use the platform that we have as hockey players to witness to these kids and the people over there in Finland," added graduate forward and head captain Matt Bartel, the only other current player on the 2020 trip. "It makes it easier in a way to relate to them and hang out with them and talk to them because we all love hockey and we love God and … it's a super cool way to be able to spread the Gospel and witness to them."

Senior forward Jason Foltz is looking forward to the service outreaches the team will participate in as much as the hockey games they will play.

"It's my last year, so I'm very thankful for the opportunity to go over there and serve," he said. "We've heard really awesome things about it and how it can be life-changing for some people and how you can just be overwhelmed with so many emotions when you go over there. It's a great opportunity for some of the guys to grow in their faith, especially some of the guys who don't know Christ."

Foltz is hoping to getting to know his teammates even better outside of the Liberty bubble.

DI-mens-hockey-head-coach-Kirk-Handy-Finnish-Youth — Flames Head Coach Kirk Handy offers instruction and inspiration to the Finnish youth on hand for a game during a Kids' Action ministry night.

"Overall, it will benefit our team a lot, in many different ways," he said. "It just develops those bonds within the team where you want to battle for that guy next to you every single time you step out on the ice. You want to work for that guy. Everyone feeds off of that."

After joining five other Flames — including Bartel, junior forward Jacob Kalandyk, and graduate goalie Hunter Virostek — in Romania in April and helping to lead Team USA to a gold medal in the World Cup of University Hockey with a win over graduate goalie Hunter Virostek and Team Canada, Foltz is excited to play European-style hockey again on Olympic-sized ice.

"It's good we will be skating there, and we will be playing a couple of games, so it will be good to kind of get our feet going before we come back and play Syracuse (Jan. 19-20 at the LaHaye Ice Center)," he said. "It will probably be pretty similar to that (World Cup), more my style of game, a little less physical and more skill set. We've got a little more space on the Olympic sheet of ice, which is awesome. Everyone loves playing on the Olympic ice. I think that benefits us as being a really fast team and having a really good (hockey) IQ."

This will be senior forward Kam Ottenbreit's first trip to Finland, but the Michigan native has played hockey in Canada and traveled throughout Europe and Asia on mission with his family. He heard about what to expect from his girlfriend, Lauren Arfstrom, a forward on Liberty's DI women's team that went last winter.

"I'm pretty excited to go and spend some time with the boys over there," he said. "This trip was a big reason I came to Liberty. When I was visiting, they told me about it and told me I'd have the opportunity to do that, so I'm definitely looking forward to it. I'm super excited to see how they intertwine ministry with hockey. It will be nice for us to go there and bring some positive cheer to everybody, to be a light to everyone."

Flames freshman defenseman Marty Mocs will be reunited with his father, sister, and stepmother in his homeland of Latvia before they take a two-hour flight with him to join the Flames in Finland.

Before playing Juniors hockey in Texas, Maine, Boston, and New Jersey, Mocs spent his early teenage years competing in Latvia, Italy, Finland, and Slovokia.

"I've played in some summer showcases in Finland back when I was 16," he said. "The competition around the world is crazy. It's very well organized and players are super good there. In Europe, it's much more skilled. There's less of a physical game (and) more about being flashy and making cool moves."

Liberty will play games against the HPK Ice Dogs team and the U18 Academy team as well as the team from, the University of Applied Sciences (HAMK) based in Hämeenlinna, which is in its first season this winter as part of a new university-based ice hockey league in Finland (FCAA).

"Every time that Liberty has come, representatives from this organization have expressed how the team has impacted them and what a wonderful bunch of individuals they are," Pike said. "My prayer is that we will continue to establish and build on the relationships made and that this may open doors in the future for further ministry."

Pike sees a tremendous potential harvest of spiritual fruit from the continued opportunities to connect Liberty's hockey teams with the Finnish Hockey Ministry and other Christians who are involved in playing or coaching the sport over there.

"I believe God is building something and very much using Liberty Hockey as a catalyst for it," he said. "I continue to pray for this, and my sincere hope is that one day, God willing, we will have a school and teams with the same DNA as Liberty here in Finland, producing Champions for Christ, and these trips will have been some of the groundbreaking work that needs to happen to start to take us there."

By Ted Allen/Staff Writer; Video by Patrick Strawn/Club Sports Director of Video & Media

DI men’s hockey’s second trip to Finland will stretch Flames out of their comfort zones

Players Mentioned

Jason Foltz

Brett Gammer

Jacob Kalandyk

Kam Ottenbreit

Hunter Virostek

Related Videos