A hockey scholarship funding pledge announced earlier this month by Omaha athletic officials stems from an idea hatched by some of the Mavericks’ original season ticket holders.
The Yano and Cindy Mangiameli Goalie Scholarship, awarded to UNO’s starting goaltender, is a gift that was pledged this fall through the University of Nebraska Foundation. The intent of the scholarship is to award the funds to the starting goalie at the beginning of each academic year. Once the scholarship is awarded, it will remain with that student-athlete.
This scholarship is the second role-specific one tied to the Maverick hockey program. Earlier this year, the Menke Family Captain’s Scholarship was announced for the team’s captain, which this season is graduate student defenseman Nolan Krenzen. That scholarship, the first position-specific one for any sport across Omaha’s athletic department, is named for Brandon M. Menke, M.D., a local ophthalmologist and lieutenant commander in the U.S. Navy Reserve.
Yano Mangiameli is a retired orthopedic implant distributor, and he and his wife Cindy have been staunch supporters of Maverick hockey since its inaugural 1997-98 season. Yano has long been a supporter and contributor to college athletics in the city. He was a volunteer play-by-play commentator for the baseball programs at both UNO and his alma mater, Creighton. He has also helped both schools’ baseball programs in other aspects, including through scholarships for both, and he recently floated the idea to start a goaltender-specific scholarship with the Mavericks.
It was a natural fit. After all, Yano was one of two people who simultaneously submitted an idea for the UNO Blue Line Club’s publication to be titled, “In The Crease.”
“If the other team doesn’t score, you can’t lose,” he said. “(That position) is the center focus of it all. Even back then, we realized (when deciding on a publication title) that everything centers around what the goalie can do.
“They had just done a scholarship with another family, the captain’s scholarship, and I thought that was a neat deal. I told them, ‘The most important position is a goalie. Do you have a goalie scholarship? Is there any family or person interested in doing that?’
“I think it struck a note with people from the foundation at the time, and we started talking about it,” Yano continued. “It went really quick, the last three or four months, and it’s not something that had been on my mind forever, but it was something that, once we thought about it, sounded like a good idea.”
The goaltender scholarship was another way for the Mangiamelis to help strengthen college sports in a city that, like the rest of Nebraska, strongly supports such programs amid a lack of top-tier professional sports franchises. Hockey has helped transform the image of Omaha athletics, a former NCAA Division II school for all of its other sports, and much has changed even in the time since Maverick hockey moved into the university’s own building, Baxter Arena, in 2015.
“(Former Omaha athletic director) Trev Alberts had it built with the cooperation of many civic leaders, and that is an absolutely wonderful hockey venue,” Yano said. “It’s kind of reminiscent of the old days at the Omaha Civic Auditorium (the Mavericks’ original home), and Trev was a good builder of things at UNO, and now that Adrian Dowell is charge, I think UNO Athletics is a department that’s on the move, and I like supporting people who have vision.
“With university sports, for this community, because we’re obviously professionally challenged here, if you would, I think it’s important that UNO and Creighton keep prospering, and that’s where I like to help out where I can.”
