What started as a chance encounter with the SUNY Plattsburgh hockey coach has turned into a 31-year career and counting for Greece Arcadia grad and Chili resident Dave Williams, who is now in his 21st year on staff with the Buffalo Sabres.
While in college, Williams became the Equipment Manager for the Plattsburgh Cardinals hockey team under head coach Bob Emery, with the team going to the NCAA Final Four in his first year in 1993.
“Bob Emery was a very intense individual who demanded the best out of his players and me as well,” Williams said. “One time, I was late to practice, so he made me run the stands just like he would a player. I ran cross country at Plattsburgh, so I handled it pretty well at the time, but not so much anymore. I owe a lot to him for getting me started.”
After graduation, a former Cardinal recommended him for a job in the East Coast Hockey League in Knoxville, Tennessee, where he stayed for two seasons. One year with the Pee Dee Pride in South Carolina preceded a call home to work with his hometown Rochester Americans, where he spent seven seasons.
In 2005, he was “called up” to the parent Buffalo Sabres, where he is in his fourth season as Head Equipment Manager after 17 years as Equipment Manager under Sabres Hall of Famer Rip Simonick.
Williams, though, still commutes between Chili and Buffalo.
“Born and raised in Rochester, so when I was offered the job here (Buffalo) in September of ’05, we had a one-and-a-half-year-old and one on the way, and my wife (Tammy) said, ‘I’m not leaving.’ Family is in Rochester, so I get it. I was living in Greece at the time, and we moved to Chili in the summer of 2008 just to get us a little closer.
“I got the New York State commuter program – Thruway Authority and the gas companies.”
And he has now worked over 2,250 Sabres games.
“I left home around 7:30 a.m. today (a game day), and I’ll get home around 12:15 a.m. There’s nights when we’re on the road and get home at 2 a.m., there is no sense in driving, so I’ll sleep here (the locker room). No glamour there, but it is what it is,” he said.
“Overall responsibility I have is ordering all the team equipment, inventory, and the financial aspects, with budgeting and invoices. Past that, coordinating moving all the equipment on the road and back home, and skate sharpening all the way down to laundry. Taught myself how to sew and how to use Excel.”
Williams said, “It got to be a bigger job as I moved up – more people, more responsibility, more money to be responsible for. During games (I’m) on the bench, skate sharpening if needed, occasional repair, but on the bench is probably the quietest time for us as opposed to getting ready for the game.”
Plus, keeping track of any player superstitions.
“Some guys want things at exact times and only want a certain type of tape. We have one guy here that, if he gets a stick, it has to be the one from the right, so stuff to try to keep in mind.”
Williams was honored for his 2,000th NHL game in October 2021. And like some rare athletes who get to play with their sons, he may one day work with his son.
Just this fall, his son Max, who worked two seasons in the visitors’ locker room for the Pittsburgh Penguins while attending Duquesne University, is trying to keep the family business going by working in the visiting locker room for Rochester home games.
“Born and raised, I was around it a lot,” Max Williams said. “Hoping to continue if I can into that and become an equipment manager one day.”
Max played four years of varsity hockey at Churchville-Chili.
“I helped him (his father) out in Buffalo a couple times when he needed help or if one of his guys was off. Growing up, I was there quite a bit; he would bring me around a lot. My favorite player was always Tyler Ennis, so going on the ice after practice, and he was nice enough to stay back and pass the puck with me, so that was pretty cool. I always wore #63 growing up because of him.”
No numbers for equipment managers, but maybe some shared rides down the Thruway and back in the near future.
Photos provided by the Buffalo Sabres. Sabres assistant equipment manager George Babcock, associate athletic trainer Bob Mowry, and equipment manager Dave Williams.
