Wiedmer: Predators have at least one super fan in Scenic City


              Nashville Predators players celebrate after Roman Josi scored a goal against the Chicago Blackhawks during the second period in Game 4 of a first-round NHL hockey playoff series Thursday, April 20, 2017, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey)
Nashville Predators players celebrate after Roman Josi scored a goal against the Chicago Blackhawks during the second period in Game 4 of a first-round NHL hockey playoff series Thursday, April 20, 2017, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey)
photo Mark Wiedmer

The good folks at the Terminal BrewHouse can rest easy this afternoon during the Nashville Predators' playoff game against the St. Louis Blues. Their wine glasses are safe. Preds super fan Sarah Hefner will be driving back to Chattanooga from her hometown of Paris, Tenn., during the game, thus minimizing the chance of damage to inventory.

"We watch almost all the games at the Terminal," Hefner said Friday. "There's even a specific seat I sit in. One night I got so excited during a soccer game that I accidentally banged a wine glass on the bar and shattered it. And I'm not even that big a fan of soccer."

But she's been a huge Predators fan ever since the NHL granted an expansion franchise to the Music City and the Preds officially took the ice at the start of the 1998-99 season.

"I went to my first Predators game in October of 2006," said the 2009 graduate of Henry County High School and 2013 University of Tennessee at Chattanooga grad. "I watched them beat the Anaheim Ducks. I've gone as often as I could afford a ticket ever since.

"The other night, when they beat the Blackhawks in overtime in Game 3 (of round one), the game didn't end until after 12:30 Central time. I got home about 4:30 in the morning Eastern time and had to be at work around 8. But I wasn't going to miss that game."

Fans like Hefner are everywhere, of course. They're the reasons professional teams stay in business, and college athletics has become, for better or worse, big business and why ESPN ever became a huge business, however disturbing its recent financial struggles.

What makes Hefner different is that the 26-year-old also passionately embraces two versions of the sport - roller and ice - as a player on a total of three teams.

"I've been roller skating my whole life," Hefner explained. "But I've only been ice skating for a year. The first time I played ice hockey I felt like Bambi."

When competing here in the Scenic City she plays roller hockey for the Chattanooga Hood Rats in a league that includes about 100 guys ages 35 to 55 and three women, one of whom is actually a 12-year-old girl. Hefner takes to the ice for both the Knoxville Buzzards (a men's team) - for whom she plays defenseman on Sunday and Thursday nights - and the Huntsville (Ala.) Blast, an all-women's travel squad whose members live as far away as Chicago.

But why the fascination with hockey for a girl who grew up in rural Tennessee and starred in basketball, softball and volleyball at Henry County High School, even trying to play on the football team at one point?

"There was a guy in Paris when I was growing up, George Yeck, who owned the rollerskating rink," Hefner said. "I'd go skating every time it was open. The Yecks were like a second family to me. He taught me how to speed skate. He taught me everything about hockey. He was from Detroit, a big Red Wings fan. I saw how happy he was whenever he talked about hockey."

Yet for years her primary sports passion remained Kentucky men's basketball. Her bedroom was filled with UK posters, blue and white everywhere. She watched every Wildcats game she could, analyzing every player and opponent.

Gradually, however, the Cats began to lose emotional ground to the Predators.

"As I get older, I realize I'm watching a lot more hockey games," she said. "I still can't wait for March Madness, but even then I find myself thinking about the start of the NHL playoffs."

Especially this year. Though she admits she and her Predators-loving friends cried when the team traded defenseman Shea Weber to Montreal for PK Subban last June, she now says, "PK has a big personality; he's flashy. I completely believe this team can win it all. In fact, when the playoffs started I had them beating the Washington Capitals in the Stanley Cup finals in my bracket."

Nor are her reasons without reason.

"I like the way their lines are set up and I like their defense," said Hefner, who lists her favorite Predator as left wing Filip Forsberg.

At some point in these playoffs, Hefner - an environmental health specialist for the Catoosa County (Ga.) Department of Public Health by day - likely will sit on a couch with her hockey-playing boyfriend, Jeff Marcinek, and her corgi-beatle mix "Dodger" and loudly cheer for the Preds in a quiet setting.

"Jeff's normally outgoing and loud, but not when the Predators play," she said. "I'm usually quiet, but I go crazy during games. I think it's pretty hard on Dodger sometimes."

So, more than one of her friends has asked, if a sports genie flew out of a wine bottle at the Terminal and told her she'd be granted one championship, would she give Kentucky a ninth NCAA basketball crown or the Preds their first Stanley Cup?

"I'd have to go with the Predators," she said. "UK's already got eight. It would mean so much to the city of Nashville and the Predator fans to win a title."

And should the Preds come up short?

"I'll cry," she said.

Just to be safe, though, the Terminal might want to switch its glass wine glasses to plastic should the Preds wind up playing for Lord Stanley's Cup.

Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com

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