Fresh Hopes For The Warbirds Under Coach Steve Soto

Heading into the Casper Ice Arena I'm confronted by the smell of pretzels and nacho cheese. Suddenly I'm craving an ICEE. I've interrupted the Warbirds' practice and the guys are onto me. They're in the middle of drills but keep throwing suspicious glances at the weird lady with the camera watching them through the glass. I was invited, by the way, by their new head coach and owner, Steve Soto.

Aerosmith is singing about the color pink, barely audible over the sound of the athletes chirping, the shhk-shhk of blades scraping the ice, and the thwack of sticks hitting the puck. Soon they line up for what looks like out-and -backs—skating full speed before screeching to a stop, the ice at their feet shattering into a ghostly mist.

There's a quiet electricity that runs between the teammates.  It’s more than camaraderie—it’s a brotherhood, stitched together with sweat and grit. And it's important to point out, these guys have been through A LOT.

SEE: USPHL Ousts Reaves Syndicate Amid Fallout From Casper Warbirds Turmoil

"At first it was pretty rough because they've been lied to so much and they've been overpromised and underdelivered just constantly throughout this season from—I mean even August when they got here—this is the third coach now that they're on," says Coach Soto, "That has really taken a toll but it's a good group in there and they've been able to stay through this and work as a team to get through all the turmoil that's been going on."

Soto has been there for about three weeks. He tells me it's important for him to earn his players’ respect because respect is the foundation of trust, communication, and motivation—and he wants this team to use adversity as fuel to keep moving forward and getting better.

"I think we're now finally starting to be normal, so the guys can just focus on hockey" explains the coach, who is new to the Warbirds but has been coaching for 16 years. He grew up playing hockey in Southern California before leaving to play Juniors. Before moving to Casper he coached for the Ogden Mustangs in Utah. One of Soto's favorite coaching memories was the team winning the Mountain Division Championships.

Now he wants Casper to know that Rea Reaves' reign of terror has come to an end.

"I have no communication with Reaves, I have no contact with him, no affiliations, and I'm just trying to get people to understand he's not a part of this anymore" clarifies Soto. "People need to know it's a new group coming in to run the organization, we're passionate, we're experienced, we're going to be in Casper and that we just need the opportunity to prove that we're going to do everything that I told you we're going to do and we're going to have a competitive team and be one of the top teams every single year that are playing for playoffs, sending guys off to the next level. We want this to be a destination place for Junior hockey."

Find out when they play next and more about the team at their official website here.