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Photo by Sam Harrel

If there’s one thing that I’ve taken for an inviolable truth in my two years covering the Fairbanks Ice Dogs, it’s that Rob Proffitt doesn’t quit.

It’s an intensity that can, quite frankly, be intimidating when you’re a young reporter just getting to know Rob, and, I’d imagine, if you’re a referee out on the ice for one of his trademark tantrums. (Or a coach in the hallway behind the rink in one memorable encounter.)

For all his strengths and weaknesses, Proffitt never quits on his team and he expects the same out of them.

That didn’t change Sunday.

When the Ice Dogs coach and general manager, following their Game 5 playoff loss to Topeka, announced he was stepping aside as coach to let Josh Hauge, his assistant of three years, take over, he wasn’t quitting on his team.

He was doing what he felt was best for the organization.

“I was getting stretched too thin,” said Proffitt, who had to juggle the duties of coach, general manger, father and husband for the last 12 years. “If one went, they were all going to go. And this seemed like the best one to give up, with Josh ready to step in.”

And it was a move he was going to make, no matter how the playoffs played out.

“I want to paint a real clear picture,” Proffitt said, “if we had won the national championship, the next day I would have told you that I was stepping down.”

As the years have gone by, the juggling act has gotten harder for Proffitt.

First, there’s the family. His children, Ty and Jordan, grew upwhile he was on the road. Now, Ty is entering Squirts hockey and Proffitt wants to be there to coach him.

He also figures his wife, Stacee, deserves a little more help than she’s gotten the last 12 years.

“It’s one about my family, first and foremost,” Proffitt said. “Then, it’s about opportunities for Josh.”

But it’s about the Ice Dogs, too.

This season, Proffitt couldn’t help but think that Proffitt the coach was shortchanging Proffitt the general manager.

Though the Ice Dogs had their best season in the win column and the stands, plenty of challenges face the organization.

Not only do the Ice Dogs log the most miles of any team, they have to subsidize the travel of teams that come up to Fairbanks. And with gas prices seemingly ready to head to infinity and beyond, Proffitt felt he needed to roll up his sleeves more on the business side.

“It’s huge. I’m sure people know, we subsidize every team that comes up here. They write us a check for $7,500. We have to pay every other expense: all the other airline tickets, the hotels, all the meals,” Proffitt said. “You can see how it eats up a lot of money, because the gas prices are directly relevant to the ticket prices. I’ve got to do a better job connecting all the dots to make sure that these fuel prices don’t drive us out of the market.

“Maybe it will be at 10 o’clock Tuesday, instead of working on the power play, I might be meeting with Alaska Airlines.”

Still, it wasn’t a decision Proffitt made lightly.

The family, the business, the desire to give Hauge — a highly respected coach in hockey circles — his chance to coach a team were all there, but the Ice Dogs are still his baby.

He struggles to put into words just how much the players — the chance to help mold them into fine young men and help them secure their futures with hockey scholarships — mean to him.

“I live my life through these kids. It’s very important to me to get all these calls I get from guys years down the line just to say ‘Hi,’” he said. “I had 15 people, ex-players, call me before Game 5 to wish us luck. They’d been following along on the Internet.”

Though Proffitt’s stepping aside for now, he knows it won’t be too long before a college steals Hauge from him. And when they do, he expects to be right back on the bench giving his team, and maybe the refs, his all.

“I’m not saying ‘goodbye’ to coaching, I’m coaching squirts and I’ll be a few times a week on the ice (with the Ice Dogs),” Proffitt said. “But I’ve got someone absolutely competent to (take over) to make sure I can deal with the other stuff. If you don’t have the relationships in the community, it doesn’t matter how good a hockey team you have.”