Bright lights. The smell of the rubber floors and sweat encapsulate the room accompanied by the sound of a puck hitting a stick. All eyes were on a team of what seemed like misfits. A group of young women playing on a brand-new club hockey team. The clear underdogs with their mismatching helmets and timid demeanor. As the final seconds of the game count down, the roar of the Quinnipiac bench starts to take over the room. Everyone screams in disbelief except for one man beaming with a smile of pride. The man who did everything to be behind the bench that day.
“It was our first win. I remember that our other coaches weren’t able to come due to other reasons and Mark stepped up at the last minute and said, ‘Hey guys, let me be the guy behind your bench’…due to him we got more than the job done,” recalled Quinnipiac Women’s Club Hockey player Katie Potter.
Mark Sparapani is a humble man working behind the scenes driving the Zamboni at one of the biggest hockey schools. Quinnipiac University is a hockey powerhouse where talent has been nurtured and showcased on the biggest stages. From Men’s ice hockey winning the championship in 2023 to players moving on into the NHL, they had it all. But this is only possible through the hard-working people who make it a reality off and on the ice.
“One thing that makes an impact on me is Mark passing by our bench on game days. During the media intermission he walks by to shovel snow and gives the guys a fist bump. It’s a small detail but can make a difference knowing that he’s always supporting our team even if we may not be playing well,” said Quinnipiac Men’s Hockey player Anthony Cipollone.
Sparapani is surprised to hear of how well known he is and the impact he has on the Quinnipiac community, but to those that know him this is not a shock at all. He is described by players as the light of every room. The kind of guy who would give you the shirt off his back if needed. He is an icon of the Quinnipiac rink. No matter who you are, you know Mark. Cipollone says “he always greets you with a smile and asks how your day is going because he genuinely cares.”
Sparapani has touched so many students’ lives, especially those on the brand-new Quinnipiac Women’s Club Hockey team. He watched the team start to blossom. He says he admired seeing how much women’s hockey has grown and the love all the women had for it. He did what he always does and rooted on the players, growing close with them. Watching them week after week from the Zamboni door seeing them develop from a lost group of players to what he describes started to look like a real team. Although they had one problem, they were missing a coach.
Potter says they remedied this with student coaches but faced adversity. Since their coaches were students, they couldn’t always be there leaving them without leadership. This became a problem when their games started to roll around. “I remember it was a last-ditch effort. Mark had offered to help us out in the past and we texted him in a panic saying we needed a coach for our game against Springfield. He didn’t hesitate and was there. I remember he showed up, and he was there with his notes ready, with his pep talk ready, lines ready, he was there, and he was going to make sure that week we gave it our all,” said Potter. “ We wanted to win for Mark. Of course, a huge milestone for our team, but to be able to do it for Mark, because we weren’t going to come out of there with a loss.”
No matter how far, players said he made the trip and was there for them. Being there and helping with this team had a deeper meaning to him. This team represents a fight for women’s equality. The founders fought for this team to be made to provide an equal opportunity for club hockey between men and women. As Sparapani learned about their story, it struck meaning with him.
“So I know how my daughter Soph is, she’s 4 and when she puts her mind to something, there’s no stopping her, especially her love for hockey and being around the girls team is kind of like, oh, you guys are like that. You guys are hungry and it was really easy to want to buy in and help them out as much as I can for that reason,” explained Sparapani.
His commitment to be there for “the girls” struck a chord in their hearts. Sitting in the locker room after Sparapani walked out, it was evident what had to be done. The captains walked toward him as he watched the Zamboni carve its way around the ice. Round and round it went, circle after circle making sure to cover every piece. They could barely contain the surprise they had for him as he greeted them with a smile that could be seen for miles. He was officially their coach.
He not only has made his mark, no pun intended, on the hockey players but the whole community.
“I do video work and I’m always in the Zamboni tunnel when I’m filming…when I got to know him a little bit, I would take photos of him driving the Zamboni, and he would always pose for me,” said Quinnipiac student Will Wertheim.
This, however, is not only the case for the lucky Quinnipiac students who interact with him. He will do anything for his family and strives to give his kids the best life and opportunities he can. Sparapani works long tireless hours tending to the ice, landscaping, and taking care of the campus. He says he does all of this for his kids. His commitment to his wife and kids and those who he calls family are his top priority.
“I think that he’ll never put himself first, almost to a fault… his selflessness, his ability if I needed someone on a whim to go pick up my daughter at school, he’s going to figure out a way to make it work…that kid would do anything for anyone,” described Sparapani’s close friend Luke Devoe.
But working on the ice wasn’t Sparapani’s first job. It was somewhere a little more dangerous. Before coming to Quinnipiac, Sparapani was a deep-sea welder. He was working down south far away from home. Struggling to find his perfect fit, he came back up to Connecticut in search of that job that was right for him.
“When he came back up, he was kind of lost and Quinnipiac became a home for him,” Devoe explained, “I think as lucky as he is to have found Quinnipiac, it could even be more lucky to have found him.”