From the time he began to walk, Cedar Rapids Hockey Director Kevin Brooks has had his feet in skates. In the years since, Brooks became a successful hockey player thanks to his dedicated father and the pressure to live up to the demands of Boston’s youth hockey program.
Playing on his first team at the age of four, Brooks was on the ice as often as he could be. With his drive to excel at the sport, Brook was always the youngest (and smallest) player on his team, and he wore the bruises and scars to prove it.
Brooks’ small stature never stopped him from achieving success. He was any coach’s dream player-always working hard and truly passionate about the game. During his early years, playing hockey was always just for fun. As Brooks grew older he truly caught the “hockey bug.”
“I played in the Pewee National Championships in front of 14,000 people,” Brooks said. “It was on ESPN and I guess that’s when I got a taste of the limelight and from there I just wanted to play hockey.”
Reflecting on his fond memories of the sport, Brooks now admits that he had always thought he knew his body well enough to have control over his own fate. He had big plans, was building a following and had his eye on becoming a professional player. Brooks never thought twice about playing through pain.
A prep school athlete at Lawrence Academy, Brooks received multiple concussions during the season because of the intensity with which he played the game. Not much about his playing style would change over the years, and neither would his multiple trips to the doctor.
Scoped out during his years at Lawrence Academy by former Cedar Rapids Rough Riders assistant coach AJ Taueves, Brooks decided to forgo attending the University of Massachusetts-Amherst straight out of high school to play in the USHL, a Tier 1 Junior Hockey League in the Midwest, instead.
“Amherst is a great school, but I just didn’t see myself playing there,” Brooks said.
In 2001 Brooks earned a roster spot with the Cedar Rapids Rough Riders. At first the transition to a Midwestern lifestyle seemed strange. The kindness and attention he received in Cedar Rapids was unlike anything he had ever experienced in Boston, and he didn’t know what to make of it.
“I tried to get back onto the plane, I think, when I landed,” Brooks said, laughing. “The Cedar Rapids Airport had two baggage claims and I didn’t know what to do with myself.”
With thousands of fans watching each game and a new-found fan base for his autograph, Brooks lived the life of a professional player. He put on a show every game: winning fights, scoring goals and eventually earning the title of Assistant Captain. Brooks’ hockey career was at an all time high.
As his time in Cedar Rapids came to a close, he secured an athletic scholarship to play Division One hockey for the Providence Friars, a powerhouse team in the Hockey East Division. With several teammates making the transition to college alongside him, Brooks thought that he would be reliving his junior hockey experiences in the college circuit.
“If they would have let me play in the USHL until I was 40, I would have” Brooks said. “Playing junior hockey was living the dream.”
Life at Providence wasn’t quite as Brooks had expected it to be. After one season with the Friars he transferred to Curry College back in Boston.
“There were a lot of players that transferred out of D1 programs,” Brooks said. “So the hockey was really competitive.”
At Curry, Brooks received as many concussions as in years past, but he never thought twice about how his number of head injuries was growing.
Then it happened. In one second, in a game like any other he had ever played, one hit into the boards would forever change his life.
“I took a really bad hit while playing at Curry,” Brooks said. “It was a cheap shot.”
Brooks’ medical records were full of scans following concussions.He always knew that he had the symptoms of head trauma, including mild memory loss and dizziness. Feeling that he could work around his injuries, Brooks had no plans to ever stop hitting the ice.
“I had four or five in high school, then again in juniors and college,” Brooks said. “My head was just no good.”
Told by doctors that he could be paralyzed if he received one more concussion, Brooks was instructed to never play hockey again.
“I wanted another opinion, then another opinion,” Brooks said.“At the time I really didn’t believe what the doctors had to say-I thought I was fine.”
Young, successful and passionate, Brooks was forced to acknowledge that he wasn’t invisible after sitting down with a specialist that worked with the New England Patriots. The news left him not only shocked, but completely distraught.
“I forged my doctor’s note so I could play in the playoffs,” Brooks said. “I just didn’t want to believe it…I felt like I lost a part of my body when the doctors told me.”
Placing his life danger for the remainder of the season, Brooks was forced to make his official announcement of retirement to his family, teammates and coaches after playoffs. For over a year after that day he could not bring himself to talk about or watch hockey.
Unable to continue being a part of the hockey program at Curry, Brooks left school soon after.
Unsatisfied with working various 9-5 jobs, Brooks decided that he needed hockey to once again be a part of his life, quitting his job on a whim.
Only two weeks later a volunteer coaching position with the Walpole Express, a junior B team near Boston, became available. Brooks jumped at the opportunity, and lucky enough for him, he was promoted to a full-time paid position as the team’s head coach only ten games into the season.
“Our team went from dead last to losing in the division finals,” Brooks said. “I was the youngest coach to ever coach in the league’s All Star Game.”
With an impressive playing and coaching record, Brooks’ former Coach, Mark Carlson, told Brooks about an open position at the Cedar Rapids Ice Arena. He was given the job without hesitation.
At first returning to Cedar Rapids was bittersweet for Brooks, who was overwhelmed by his memories of the past when his career had so much promise.
“The first time I stepped back on that ice, I wanted to jump around and do springs and play,” Brooks said."There were so many good memories I had on that rink and I really felt like I could play again.”
Though Brooks refuses to fully accept fact that he will never play hockey again, he believes that coaching helps him make it through life, day-to-day, filling the void left behind when he was forced to hang up his skates.
“I see people I used to play with making it in the sport and I know that I could be there with them…it’s a tough pill to swallow,” Brooks said. “I just try to look at things by seeing that I’ve made a life out of hockey for myself. Even if I’m not playing, every day I get to go out on the ice and do what I love to do.”
