Ken Stadnek would still be officiating if it were his decision.
It’s hard letting go of something that’s been so good to him.
Yet, Stadnek, 69, was honoured during Arborg’s Minor Hockey Day last month at the Arborg Bifrost Community Centre for his retirement from a remarkable 35-year career of calling amateur hockey games across the province.
The day featured every Arborg minor hockey team in action, including the Capital Region Junior Hockey Ice Dogs as the last game of the evening. Partway through the festivities, Stadnek was celebrated.
Stadnek, who has been involved with hockey locally for four decades (previously on the minor hockey board), officiated at every level, from senior men’s hockey to minor hockey, which he was primarily assigned to during his later years.
He was named Most Deserving Referee in the Interlake in 2000 and from 2008-10, and was widely regarded for his unwavering dedication to hockey locally, which would mean reffing up to five contests per day just so that games could go on.
Stadnek’s last game was in May at the end of last season. Though he had every intention of returning this year, the decision was out of his hands.
“It was really tough because it wasn’t me who made the decision. It was basically Interlake Minor Hockey that said I couldn’t ref anymore. They didn’t want me reffing anymore,” said Stadnek, who had bitter-sweet feelings about his retirement ceremony.
A nudge to hang up the whistle and expand his horizons also came from his children.
“My kids just decided that maybe dad should finally give up and do other things in his life. I guess eventually a person has to quit sooner or later,” he said.
“When you’ve been doing it for 35 years and involved, it was emotional having something that you love that you eventually got to just quit. So it was emotional. No doubt about it.”
You’d be hard-pressed to find a more resilient official in any sport than Stadnek.
Returning to the ice became his North Star after being diagnosed with Mantle cell lymphoma, a rare and aggressive type of non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) that started in the B cells of the lymph nodes in 2016.
He was pronounced dead for a short time before returning, then spent two months in intensive care on life support.
“That was, I would say nervous for my family and everything else,” said an emotional Stadnek.
He lost nearly 70 pounds while in the hospital, weighing a frail 127 pounds when he left in a wheelchair that August. Doctors had their doubts that he would be able to walk again.
Four months later, in December, Stadnek was lacing up his skates and preparing to dust off his whistle. His recovery left medical professionals scratching their heads, as a typical recovery process can take up to three years.
While he continues to take pills daily that eat away at the integrity of his bones, Stadnek is happy to be alive.
“Somebody was looking after me, I guess.”
Born and raised in Arborg, Stadnek only played competitive hockey until he was 16 and got into curling. He also maintains he was a much better golfer than a hockey player.
Hockey was never far away, though. He later became a local scout and, at one point, a coach for the OCN Blizzard, now Northern Manitoba Blizzard, of the Manitoba Junior Hockey League.
As a coach, he mentored James Reimer, a goalie for the Buffalo Sabres of the National Hockey League, and Colby Robak, who spent parts of four seasons in the NHL.
The chance to officiate came out of the blue, though it shouldn’t have surprised Stadnek, given how often he was at the rink with his kids. He received a call from Grant Thorsteinson, who was the referee-in-chief for Arborg Minor Hockey at the time and was beginning his transition into retirement, and Stadnek didn’t take much time to accept.
He can remember his first assignment like it was yesterday. It’s likely a day that no one inside the arena in Fairford for the contest between nine-year-olds soon forgot after that day.
“Halfway through the first period, the kid that was reffing with me… the fans were giving me the gears, they were giving him the gears, and he took his jersey off and threw it in the crowd and said, ‘Here, if you guys think you can do better, I quit,’” Stadnek recalled.
“I thought, ‘I guess I’m going to have to finish this game by myself,’ and I thought I’m never ever going to do that and put any other team and everything (in jeopardy) so that just made me decide that’s what I wanted to do.”
The stories from over three decades of work are endless.
Some involve Tom Chwaliboga, who is the current referee in chief for Arborg Minor Hockey and the rec director at the Arborg-Bifrost Recreation Centre.
Chwaliboga has known Stadnek from a young age as family friends, but the two have grown closer over the last decade since Chwaliboga joined the referee fraternity. It was at that time when Stadnek went from friend to mentor.
“He’s been organizing the referees for Arborg and area for a number of years,” said Chwaliboga. “That means he had to organize and make sure there’s referees, timekeepers for all the minor hockey games that are going on in Arborg for the past 30 years. That takes a lot of time, effort, dedication, and probably patience. When you think you’ve got it all organized and all of a sudden somebody phones you that afternoon and saying, ‘Hey, I can’t make it tonight,’ now you’re scrambling.
“I know Ken has refereed more games in a day than he should, but otherwise there’s no game happening without a referee. So, if nobody showed up, Kenny made sure that he was doing sometimes up to four or five games a day just to make sure that kids could have a hockey game that night or that day.”
Last month’s Minor Hockey Day will surely be another story he shares over the years as a memory that marked the end of an incredible run, and perhaps the beginning of another.
Stadnek conceded not every moment was bright while wearing the striped sweater, but he wouldn’t trade it for anything.
“I decided to do it and just lived it ever since then,” he said. “I had some memories, and it’s just been 30 years of having lots of fun with lots of guys and lots of memories.”
