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Student spotlight: working the ice with Todd MazzeoTodd Mazzeo has one of the coolest jobs on Boston's North Shore. Just ask the hockey fans and the kids who beg him for a ride on the ice.Mazzeo gets to drive a six-ton Zamboni out on the ice at hockey games -- and he even gets paid to do it.
Half-time show Like many Zamboni drivers, Mazzeo has become a celebrity of sorts.There can be 200 people in the stands at the school's H. Alden Johnson Jr. hockey rink. A lot of them watch him pilot the Zamboni; shaving chipped ice, scooping it up and spreading warm water on the freezing rink to bond with old ice to make a smooth, new surface. And they think it's a great show. But he can't oblige when they ask for rides on the green-and-white machine. "You have to turn them down because it's a huge liability," he said. Sure, fans enjoy watching him and the Zamboni, but he said he doesn't think about that on the job. "They are on the other side of the glass. I'm in my own world out there," Mazzeo said."There could be two million people watching and I'd make the same sheet as if I were alone. I've been here six years and if I make ice, conservatively, 20 times a week, that's 1,000 times a year. So I've made 6,000 sheets. "I mean, it's probably like Ed [Melaugh] doing a finger lock now. I'm focused enough that I go out there and do the job, regardless," he said. Mazzeo also takes care of Pingree's six-year-old, brightly painted Model 552 Zamboni. It is all-electric, with a liquid-cooled engine and carbide-tipped tire studs — the same Zamboni as used at the Winter Olympics. That model can cost upwards of $100,000, according to the company.
"I had the luxury of them buying the [new] machine right after I started," Mazzeo said. "So I trained on the old machine, which was a lot tougher. No brakes, just static drive. If you wanted to slow down, you'd just kind of ease back on the throttle and glide." A Gloucester resident, Mazzeo went to Gloucester High School, class of 1986. He smiles a lot when he talks about his three children; two boys and a girl. They are: Keith, 16 and a high-school junior, eighth-grader Kevin, 13, and second-grader Lindsey, 8. A liberating schedule Mazzeo said he is able to train at the New England Small Circle Jujitsu Academy because of his flexible work schedule at Pingree. "I work four ten-hour shifts and most of my hours are Friday, Saturday and Sunday, so that allows me to come down and train three times a week. Usually I'm down here Monday, Tuesday and Thursday in the morning." January will mark three years of his training consistently with Sensei Melaugh. "It's been almost like therapy for me. It's been an outlet. Raising three kids on my own, I'm not a drinker. I'm not a partier. Besides my kids and work, this is the thing I do for myself. If I'm not with the kids or at work, I'm here training."
Small Circle Jujitsu training and the real lifeAside from the personal benefits, Todd Mazzeo's Small Circle Jujitsu training has mattered on the job. "I've learned to foresee some situations before they're allowed to present themselves. You know, some people getting hot-headed, aggressive almost to the point of abusive. I go over and politely ask them if
For big events, a second person is brought in to help. But Mazzeo often works alone and incidents could happen, as they sometimes do at sports events. "We have a zero-tolerance policy in our rink as well as at all the rinks around. There's a thin line. There have been some bad things at sports events, even a death at the Reading rink a few years ago. It's not going to happen in our rink, especially on my shift. Any abuse toward any other worker or anybody -- a player, a parent, an opposing coach, a referee -- we just don't stand for it." Confidence to avoid conflict "I have not had to get physical. I've had people threaten me verbally and it didn't get physical. Usually I'll call the police and let them handle that, so I don't need to be in litigation or be a liability to the school or, God forbid, lose my job over some hothead. "I've had people swear at me," he said. He laughed and remembered, "One guy said he was a karate black belt. At the time I think I was [just] a white belt in jujitsu, so I didn't bring up the jujitsu. I just said, 'That's nice, and why don't you take your black belt and leave the rink.' He did. "I think the training I have done here has given me a confidence so that I don't have to be physical. I have the confidence to know that I can handle the situation without being physical. Nothing has escalated to that point and I truly believe it's because of the mental discipline I've learned here."
Todd Mazzeo said he heard about Small Circle Jujitsu while talking to a parent watching a youth-hockey game at the rink. That parent turned out to be jujitsu-stalwart Chuck Rosa. The two had a lot in common and Rosa suggested that Mazzeo, who was getting bored lifting weights, consider visiting Sensei Ed Melaugh's school in Woburn. That was three years ago. Mazzeo recently earned his green belt in Small Circle Jujitsu during testing at the school. © 2007 Dan Sheridan
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