Andrew Sobotka’s Management Skills Helped Elevate the Chicago Gay Hockey Association

Managing, whether in business, an association or even a hockey team, isn’t for the faint of heart. It takes ambition, empathy and a focus on making everyone better. 

Andrew Sobotka does all these things as an engineering manager at his day job and did them as well as the president of the Chicago Gay Hockey Association for over 14 years.

His tenure as CGHA president ended late last year when he ceded the reins of the organization to Gina Malizio and vice presidents Paige Murray and Chris Hall, but his impact reverberates.

It’s so impressive, in fact, that he was a finalist for this year’s Willie O’Ree Community Hero Award from NHL. He didn’t win, but his reaction gives you a glimpse of his leadership style. 

“I’m actually a bit relieved, because the other two groups I was going up against are doing terrific things,” Sobotka said of winner Dr. Sarah Dunkel-Jackson, who is the founder of a Michigan on-ice hockey program for children with unique learning abilities and medical needs, and Toni Gillen, a director for Minnesota Diversified Hockey.

“We’re so proud of him,” Malizio said. “All the contenders were just great.”

Sobotka, a Detroit-area native, has been on skates since he was 2 and has played organized hockey since he was 5. He quit playing when he was 16 and shifted to a city league in his hometown of Grosse Pointe, Michigan, before attending Michigan State, where he took hockey as a class.

“There’s really nothing like it,” Sobotka said of hockey. “It’s really the only sport I’ve ever enjoyed playing and watching … an enclosed arena, changing on the fly. There are so many things that are different than basketball or baseball.

“Your hockey team becomes your family. My hockey team now, CGHA, is family. We do everything together.”

Over Sobotka’s tenure as CGHA president, he led substantial growth of the organization. Currently, it has two teams with plans to add a third this fall, and of note, Sobotka plays defenseman on the organization’s C3 team. CGHA currently has 100 members and a six-member board.

When he joined in 2010, he helped forge the association’s partnership with the Chicago Blackhawks, even marching along with the Stanley Cup in that year’s Chicago Pride Parade.

“Like any organization, we ebbed and flowed and changed with the season,” he said. “We had been around for eight years when I joined. We did events with the Chicago Wolves and Cubs and from 2010 on when the partnership with the Blackhawks was forged, [there was] more community service, more hockey, more social events, more fundraising.”

Malizio said Sobotka did a lot of this work on his own.

“Andrew has been the leader and organizer almost singlehandedly with our relationship with the Blackhawks,” she said. “He [said], ‘How can we give back to the community? We can’t just sit and play hockey. We have to give back.’”

For example, CGHA supported the G.O.A.L. Program, started by the Blackhawks and Hockey on Your Block that focused on floor hockey and in 2024 evolved to a Learn to Skate format. The next step for the program is to have interested kids participate in Learn to Play hockey on ice.

“Some of these kids, we don’t care if you never play hockey again, just get involved,” Malizio said. “Try it. You don’t know your passions unless you try it. We want more diversity in hockey. It’s important to bring other people who never had exposure to the sport.”

But it was more than that. CGHA, a registered 501(c)(3) itself, has become renowned for helping other nonprofit organizations at events like street festivals. Its members have also donated their time to events like Breakfast and Bingo at a senior center and the Chicago Cares Serve-a-thon. 

Under Sobotka’s leadership, CGHA focused on serving three communities: Chicago, hockey and the LGBTQ+ community. In the process, CGHA has raised over $65,000 for groups as diverse as the American Cancer Society and a Chicago hockey program for at-risk youth.

CGHA plays year-round, so that gives Sobotka plenty of time to hit the ice. He’ll play two to three times per week, with both CGHA and another team made up primarily of Blackhawks employees. On a recent weekend, he played games on both Saturday and Sunday.

Isn’t that a lot?

“Good thing I’m immortal, and I’ll live forever,” the 39-year-old deadpanned.

Even though he’s stepping away from the CGHA presidency, he’ll still be involved. In addition to playing, he’ll help out during the program’s 12-team tournament in August, for example. 

Sobotka is also bullish about the next steps for CGHA under the leadership of Malizio, Murray and Hall.

“They are all tremendous people,” he said. “They bring years of hockey experience. Gina was our first female board member and our first female president. Paige is a tremendous player. They bring so much and all the social aspects, making sure we have a place for the developmental player.”

Which takes us back to leadership. How does Sobotka, who is a senior manager of data engineering and analytics for IMO Health, approach this equation?

“My philosophy is managing with empathy,” he said. “Lead with empathy, meet players where they are. If they had a rough week, be there for them.

“You’ve really got to march forward. There are always things to do but keep your eye on the big picture.”

Story from Red Line Editorial, Inc.

Source: usahockey.com