"Now ever since I was young it's been my dream
That I might drive a Zamboni machine.
I'd get the ice just as slick as could be
And all the kids would look up to me.
I want to drive the Zamboni ... hey
I want to drive the Zamboni ... Yes I do!"
— from the Gear Daddies song "I Wanna Drive the Zamboni"
"Ice maker" is the official title of the job that Dan Kronenberg has had at the Herb Brooks National Hockey Center for the last 11 years.
In plain-speak, he's the guy who drives the Zamboni.
"A lot of people get pretty excited when you tell them what you do," said Kronenberg. "Everyone's heard of the Zamboni and seen the Zamboni, especially the people from Minnesota."
It's a job that was a little nerve-wracking at first, driving a $120,000 machine around in circles on the ice. But Kronenberg has turned it into a career and is the go-to guy during St. Cloud State University hockey games.
He started when the Municipal Athletic Complex needed some help in the late '90s. Kronenberg had been working outdoors at the MAC when he learned they had an opening to drive the Zamboni inside on the Torrey and Ritsche rinks.
A baseball player in high school, Kronenberg still plays amateur ball for the Beaudreau's Saints.
"I'm a baseball guy who accidentally started working at hockey facilities," he said.
He recalls being nervous when he got behind the wheel for the first time.
"I kind of drove around in the middle of the rink, away from the boards just to get a feel for the machine," he said. "I was very nervous and definitely missed a few spots and probably didn't get as close to the boards as one might like. But those were the nerves coming into play."
He started working at St. Cloud State when he was a student there, and was hired as an emergency fill-in when one of the drivers left. He got the permanent job at St. Cloud State in 2004.
Practice, patience and being aware of where you are on the ice are his keys to success, he said. It's intimidating to drive the Zamboni — or Zam, as he calls it — if you never have before, he said.
"Absolutely. The size of the machine can be intimidating if you're not used to it and also the fact that you're driving on ice can be intimidating. It's a big, expensive piece of machinery, but if you take your time and practice you shouldn't have too many problems," he said.
Kids and adults often come over to check out the machines when they are parked. And they ask if they can get a ride, or drive it themselves. The Zambonis at St. Cloud State don't have the extra seat and restraint required to let people hitch a ride, he said.
"You get the occasional person saying 'Hey, what does it take to drive the Zam? Can I drive the Zam?' And I have to explain to them that it's state property and I don't want to lose my job over it," Kronenberg said. "You've got to kind of shoot them down, unfortunately."
Joe Meierhofer, director of operations at the hockey center, says visitors are attracted to the machine. It's like a unicorn or something."
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When the university hosts the Chamber Connection event at the hockey center, business owners afterward want to climb aboard and get their pictures taken.
"We get a line," Meierhofer said. "And these are business owners in town. It's like they're posing with a grizzly bear or a wooly mammoth or something. They're just fascinated by it, like it's some mythical creature."
The machines aren't that easy to drive because of all of the things the driver has to do other than just steer the Zamboni. The driver has to pay attention the rate and speed at which they are shaving the ice, putting down the proper amount of water, knowing ice conditions and keeping the machine on a straight path.
It's fair to say that it might be considered distracted driving if it was happening on the streets outside the arena.
"It's almost like flying an airplane without leaving the ground," Meierhofer said.
Kronenberg typically works four, 10-hour shifts a week and will resurface the ice about once an hour on average. The first two hours of his day are spent on maintenance of the two machines at the hockey center.
The machines don't record miles, but hours of use. One machine that had about 600 hours on it when he began in 2004 now has well over 3,000 hours on it, he said.
Many of those hours are spent in near-empty arenas before youth hockey practices, open skating or intramural hockey for St. Cloud State students. But he also gets to experience the crowds that come for Husky hockey games.
"It's an adrenaline rush for sure when you have a full house," he said.
He and the other drivers tell each other that it's just like driving in an empty arena. But that doesn't make it true, he said.
"You definitely notice that the house has got a little more energy. And there's obviously a lot more noise going on," he said. "At the same time, you've just got to put your head down, so to speak, and get the resurface handled without letting the crowd bother you too much."
He said he's fortunate to have a good job, a job that people get excited about. That gets him excited, he said.
And then there's that famous song Martin Zellar wrote about the average Joe who just wanted a chance to drive the Zamboni.
"Not a lot of people get to say that there's a song that describes their job," Kronenberg said. "We'll take the Gear Daddies reference any time we can get it."
Follow David Unze on Twitter @sctimesunze.
