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Host Families Offer Home Away From Home For Thunder Hockey Players

Jason and Donna pose together
Ryan Denham
Bloomington Thunder defenseman Jason Smallidge, 18, with his host, Donna Wampler.

The 23 players on the Bloomington Thunder roster compete night in and night out, holding their own in one of the top hockey minor leagues in the country.

But under the helmets, many of those players are just teenagers, some of them young enough to still be in high school. That’s why the Thunder turn to host families in Bloomington-Normal who take in these players and give them a home away from home.

Defenseman Jason Smallidge left home in hockey-loving Minnesota at age 18 to join the Thunder, which competes in the USHL, the top junior league that sends dozens of players into the NHL draft each year.

“It’s a big step being away from home. I knew it would come at some point. I was really nervous and kind of scared to move away from home, because family is a big thing for me,” said Smallidge, whose parents regularly make the 8-hour drive to Central Illinois. “There’s other guys who don’t see their parents for months at a time. It’s pretty tough.”

That’s where the host families come in. With some players as young as 16, the team can’t exactly throw the players in some cheap apartments or extended-stay motel.

Smallidge lives in Donna Wampler’s home, along with another player. Wampler also works for the Thunder in the front office, and she runs the host-family program—an old-fashioned concept some people may associate with minor league baseball.

Jason Smallidge on the ice
Credit Courtesy photo
Bloomington Thunder defenseman Jason Smallidge has committed to play at the University of Nebraska-Omaha.

“They play games with us, they work puzzles with me. They’re a member of my family. And I treat them as if they were my own kids,” Wampler said.

At the start, many host families were already die-hard hockey fans. But word-of-mouth has spread to recruit some hockey converts as well, Wampler said. Several host families have children who play in one of several Bloomington-based youth hockey leagues. (Hosting is also called “billeting,” an old military term that’s been adopted by hockey.)

Want to be a host? There are only two rules: The player needs to have his own bedroom, and there can’t be any young women between ages 15-21 living in the house too.

Smallidge first got on the ice as a toddler. He always dreamed of playing hockey in college, but it wasn’t until high school that he realized that could really happen.

“Graduating from high school last year, it’s a big step being away from home,” Smallidge told GLT’s Sound Ideas. “Obviously, living with Donna, it helps a lot.”

Smallidge recently committed to playing at the University of Nebraska-Omaha after his time in the USHL, starting with the 2018–19 season. That’s a common trajectory for the USHL, which is a stopping point for the top junior players between high school and a Division I college program.

Like many in the USHL, Smallidge wants to play in the NHL someday.

“It’s every guy’s dream,” he said. “I still got a lot of time to think about that.”

The Bloomington Thunder are back in action at the U.S. Cellular Coliseum in Bloomington on Friday, January 13, and Saturday, January 14, against Tri-City.

Ryan Denham is the digital content director for WGLT.