TICHIGAN - Mike Massman wouldn’t have heard the desperate shouts for help if he hadn’t been outside Sunday afternoon, taking down Christmas decorations at his lakefront home. When he heard Bill Koch and John Roch, he had but one thought. “Get out there as quick as you can,” Massman recalled. Without hesitation, Massman began crawling out on the frozen lake, towing a small ice sled behind him. The sled contained ropes and life jackets. Massman was prepared for this superhero stuff. That a hero lived so close to his near-death experience isn’t something Bill Koch was taking for granted as he sat in his bed at Froedtert Hospital. “Nobody was out to us,” Koch recalled. “I basically went under. He (John) grabbed me, pushed me to the ice and within thirty seconds those guys showed up with those ropes.” Those guys were Massman and his neighbor Greg Plantz. They threw ropes and life jackets to the freezing, water-logged ATV riders who had plunged through the ice. “I think once we had the ropes to them, we knew at that point we could at least hold them until more help came,” Massman said with a confident smile. “If they would not have showed up with those ropes in that timeline there is just no way,” Koch said reliving the terrifying ordeal. “I mean, you just can’t swim. You have everything on.” Koch realizes he and Roch were lucky they broke through the ice where they did. Massman was near and had the gear and the inclination to act. “This is the first time I ever had to use it. I always thought it would be really sad if I was there and couldn’t help,” Massman said.