'My wife has been unbelieveable' - Sheffield Steelers' Aaron Fox on life in the city and his future
Sheffield Steelers head coach Aaron Fox speaks to The Star about his life in Sheffield, his family and the future
In almost every picture we get sent of Aaron Fox from his place on the bench, adjacent to the ice at Sheffield's Utilita Arena, he looks angry or at the very least perturbed.
A furrowed brow, mouth wide open, bellowing at one of his players or maybe a referee. The images might tell a story in the moment but they aren't a genuine reflection of the man.
The Minnesota-born Sheffield Steelers head coach has been in the city for seven years now and has seen it all. There have been trophy-laden seasons and leaner times. He's led the team into more games than any other Steelers head coach and won more than any other, too.
Now aged 50, you can forgive Fox the seemingly too-often-photographed slips into angry dad mode. Sit down with him for any length of time, though, and a truer version of his character comes to light. Cool and calm, thoughtful in his words and how he expresses himself, opening up just enough to get a sense of the feeling he has for his sport, the club, his players, Sheffield and most importantly his family.
It's not quite living out of a suitcase but life as an ice hockey player, and indeed coach, particularly in Europe can be something of a nomadic existence; a year here, two years there, hopping around the continent... a case of have skates, will travel.
It doesn't always make for the most stable family life, which is why Fox is so grateful for the time he has spent here in Sheffield.
Growing up in small town Hastings, Fox was an impressive high school hockey player, the reward for which was a college scholarship to Minnesota State where he finished as the all-time leading Division I scorer and subsequently inducted into the Hall of Fame. "A pretty cool accomplishment," as he very modestly puts it.
Then comes the traveling and he can rhyme off that list himself.
"I played a couple years in North America and then kind of been all over Europe as a player. Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Slovakia, Croatia, Slovenia, so I've kind of made my rounds as a player and then retired in 2013 and took a sports director job in the KHL in Zagreb, so got into the management side of things there. Once the Russian money ran out, we went back to the Austrian league for a little bit, started coaching and then when the club folded there made my way over here and now I've been here since 2019."
During that time in Germany, Fox met his would-be wife, Arianna who was at University at the time. They would go on to have two children, both of them born in Austria but with a huge chunk of their early lives spent in Croatia before the family made the move to Sheffield.
"We were in Croatia for seven years, lovely country, loved living there, and then here it's been really good for them because we feel like, as a professional, not as a player, I've only been in two organisations as a non-player, so we've been able to give them some real stability. School's important, we found a really good place here, we're happy here, the organisation treats us well, so it's been a really good fit."
"I think it's hard, when you're a player, you're moving around every couple of years," Fox added. "You're never always going to be in the same place, obviously on this side of the business too, there's no guarantees, so for us to be able to provide a real childhood.... that's kind of the way we talk about it.
“They have friends here, they have family friends that they consider important people in their life, so when you're away from both of our families, it's just been the two of us. My parents will come over when they can, we get back to see her family in Germany when we can, but it's few and far between in those moments so it's been very important for them to have that long period of time in Croatia that they got in their childhood, and then now here in Sheffield, so we're not moving them around to different schools year after year after year, and give them what they need during this time of their life."
Much of Fox's time is spent at the Utilita Arena where the Steelers are based. The days are taken up with practice and video analysis and then, of course, come the games. The UK's Elite Ice Hockey League isn't quite as sprawling as some of the places players and coaches can end up but there remain long journeys to Glasgow and Belfast and Guildford which obviously mean more time spent away from home.
Like any sportsman or woman, that can often bring a sense of guilt.
"Oh absolutely, I mean, thankfully we get the four months in the summer, I'm still obviously working, but you're not gone every weekend, and you can try to make up for some of those moments in the summer time,” says Fox.
"When I was a player, obviously it was a lot different because the summer was just training and spending time with the family, but first and foremost you have got to have a wife that manages a lot of the stuff that you're just not around for, so she's been unbelievable, we got two great kids, and it's just a testament to her."
Fox clearly loves Sheffield; he and his family live in the leafy west of the city, "we spend a lot of time on Sharrow Vale, Crosspool, and those types of areas, they're just, it's quiet, and there's some really, really nice spots to enjoy when you're away from the rink."
It's that sense of home that has maintained his longevity at Steelers, even when other offers come around, as Fox admits they have.
"There's phone calls you get every summer on certain different things," he admits. "And you know, the situation would have to be so much better for us to even consider anything else when you've got a family, you know, with the age of the kids that we have, and the situation that they're in right now, and how great the ownership is here, and the opportunity to succeed every year, like, those are all huge check marks that, you know, when you're my age and have a family that you look into."
Seven years is a long time to be at any club in any sport as the head coach, so it would be natural for anyone to begin thinking about what the future holds. Fox lives very much in the moment and he's not yet ready to contemplate what comes next.
"Coaches are hired to be fired," he says. "And that's just the nature of sport in this business, whether my contract just runs out, and mutually we decide to go other ways but we're super happy here, and I'm not even having those thoughts at the moment."