Arrowtowner Andy Mills says becoming the first Kiwi on the International Ice Hockey Federation’s (IIHF) council is “a pinch yourself moment”.
The 57-year-old, who’s been Ice Hockey New Zealand’s president since 2017, was one of the final three nominees voted onto the 15-member council at its meeting in Spain’s Tenerife this month.
An honour that even saw him mentioned in The New York Times and The Washington Post newspapers.
“There was a big shift in the room that the smaller countries weren’t being heard,” he says.
From some 30 nominations, powerhouses like Canada, Russia and Switzerland missed out on being represented.
Feeling “incredibly proud we’ve now got a voice at the table”, Mills says it’s acknowledgement of “a huge amount of effort from a lot of people in NZ that have actually got the sport where it is today”.
But it’s also recognition for the hard work he’s put in over 25-plus years.
Having played second division football in Auckland, he moved to Queenstown in ’92 and a few years later was brought along to play in the Jurassic League by local Jeff Hylton after the Gardens rink was rebuilt.
Though calling himself “a very average” player, he took on many roles with the Queenstown Ice Hockey Club — not just governance but also coaching and refereeing after gaining his qualifications.
Mills recalls bringing back 20 to 30 bags of second-hand gear after a kids’ team went to Canada.
From being club vice-president then president, he soon after successfully put his name forward for the NZ presidency after being urged to stand — “I didn’t quite see it coming that early”.
As NZ president he’s attended international congresses every six months — 18 so far — and once even met the Pope when they met in Italy.
For the past four years he’s been on IIHF’s development committee.
Inspired by Finland, Mills started a ‘Flying Coaches’ programme bringing USA coaches over — “we’ve developed over 100 coaches in a short space of time”.
NZ’s shifted from Asia to the smaller Americas and Oceania region, while Dunedin hosting world champs last year was big for the sport.
Mills has been thrilled with the sport’s growth in NZ — “we had a goal of 500 kids playing under-12 and this year we got 720”.
He regularly puts 20-plus hours into the NZ presidency, and he’ll now be busier still.
He had his first IIHF virtual meeting at 3am last Friday — they’ll be every two weeks — “and I get a committee I’ll be chairing as well”.
There’ll also be six meetings a year in Europe — the council term’s four years.
Mills says his aim’s to help grow the sport worldwide — some countries are just developing rinks now.
He believes his role will also open more doors for ice hockey in NZ.
As to what motivates his involvement, he says his driving force is “really what the game brings, and particularly to our youth — it’s life-changing for many people”.
Referencing his daughter Gabby being in NZ’s Ice Fernz, “I’ve seen what it’s done for my family”.
“We hopefully develop really good young citizens that can go on and achieve whatever they want in life.”
Where NZ ranks
Out of 84 International Ice Hockey Federation member countries, NZ’s women’s Ice Fernz rank 30th and the men’s Ice Blacks rank 42nd.
In terms of player numbers, NZ’s ranked 15th for women and 29th for men.
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