It was January of 2004 and John Horrell and his teammates on the Findlay Oilers were one of the few teams left on campus during Christmas break.
Unlike the rest of their fellow students who were at home enjoying family and rest, they were hard at work practicing for the second half of what would soon be their final season.
The team was struggling, but was feeling good about the successful trip they had just had to North Dakota which saw them take the No. 1 Fighting Sioux to the third period tied at 1-1 before losing to 3-1 in the final minutes of the game.
Horrell would then help the team bounce back the next night against No. 12 Brown as he was named College Hockey America Defensive Player of the Week after allowing the Bears just one goal in a 1-1 tie.
Things seemed to be looking up for the Oilers and they were ready to get back to work as they were doing stretches in their indoor track facility.
Little did they know that things were about to go from good to bad in a hurry.
“Our coach didn’t show up for like 15 to 20 minutes,” Horrell said recalling the experience. “When he finally showed up he just came in and he was like all right hold on, we need everyone to come in this room. As we were going there we saw all these women players [women’s hockey team] going in and like half of them were crying – and we were just kind of like, uh oh.”
What Horrell and his teammates would find out is that their program was being dropped due to Findlay needing to balance their educational budget.
“The first thing that came to mind when it happened was, ‘What am I going to do?'” Horrell said. “You don’t know what’s going to happen. We weren’t having the best year at that time. So you just start to wonder ‘Well has anyone even taken notice of what we’re doing here?'”
Someone had taken notice.
Just two weeks after the announcement that his program was going to be dropped, Horrell got a call from BG, who was interested in getting another goaltender to backup their All-American goaltending candidate Jordan Sigalet.
“With Findlay being so close we had followed their games and Jon was a goalie who had played some significant games for them,” BG coach Scott Paluch said. “He was a proven goaltender and we were able to recruit him and have him be immediately eligible last year knowing that Jordan was going to be around for one more year, but that we could add some depth to the position.”
While at Findlay, Jon appeared in 18 games playing in two games his freshman season and 16 his second year. He posted a 2-9-2 record his second year with a goals against average of 3.10 and save percentage of .909 for an Oilers team that finished 11-22-5.
However, in his first collegiate start at Michigan State he helped Findlay earn a 4-3 upset win over the Spartans to advance to the title game of MSU’s Ice Breaker Championship.
Last season in his first year with the Falcons, Horrell played in seven games while starting three as he had to sit behind Sigalet who was having a Hobey Baker caliber season.
Though he questioned his decision to come to BG at times, Horrell realized that his time would come and that he could take away a lot of good in watching his then roommate, go through what was a memorable season.
“Playing with Jordan was a great experience,” Horrell said. “Working with someone who is that caliber of a player, especially with everything he [Sigalet] went through and being here watching him go through that was a great experience. I know this was the right decision for me to come here.”
BG is happy he made that decision too as this season Horrell has stepped in and has been one of the bright spots in the first four weeks of the season. Though he currently has a record of 0-4-1, he has had solid efforts in helping BG earn a tie at third-ranked Ohio State and kept BG in the game this past weekend in a 2-1 loss at Ferris State.
“He’s a very quick goaltender,” Paluch said. “He relies on his quickness and he competes well. Those are two pretty good attributes you can have and its serving him well for this year.”
Horrell’s competitive nature has helped him take charge of a goaltending unit which also includes senior Bob Frazee and new highly-touted freshman Jimmy Spratt.
“What’s been great is how well all the goalies have been working together and supporting each other,” Paluch said.
Horrell says arrogance can’t get in the way of being a good teammate and he knows he can be a big help to the young goaltender coming up behind him.
“You always know there is going to be someone coming in behind you,” he said. “You have to make sure you that you treat them not only as competition, but as a teammate as well – so you have to be able to balance that and make that you can never let competition get in the way of how good a teammate you are with them. Jimmy is a young guy, who is going to be here for three years after this year, so I need to help him make the transition from juniors to college as well and do that by being a good teammate.”
