Jock Talk part 1 Ben Shank's Guest Blog

Although the Lake Erie Monsters will not field a team until the fall, the organization already has one hockey veteran on its roster. Former Cleveland Lumberjack Jock Callander was named the Director of Hockey & Community Relations for the new AHL franchise in December. The IHL all-time scoring leader is ecstatic to be back in Cleveland, and will routinely check in with lakeeriemonsters.com to catch us up on what's going on in the land of the Monster...

During my years in Cleveland, one of the things I have always enjoyed most is the opportunity to get out in the community, and I look forward to doing even more of that now with the Monsters!  In fact, one recent Friday, Ben Shank (our Youth Hockey Specialist) and myself spent our morning at a Career Day at Ben Franklin School in Cleveland.  I have been involved with career days in the past and really enjoy doing them.  It's a good chance to work with local kids.  In case you're  not familiar,  career day at a school is when different members of the working community go to the school and spend time with the students explaining what they do, and what skills are needed for their career. The children get to ask questions and learn a lot about different opportunities in the work world.

Ben and I talked to mostly second graders, as well as a couple of special needs classes, and even some older seventh graders. The kids really liked the sample Monsters jersey we took, and everyone was very excited to have a new pro hockey team in town! The kids were very funny and asked a lot of good questions. Jeff Yeager, the organizer of the event, and the rest of the school were very good hosts and we enjoyed a nice lunch after we were all done.

Outside of work, I have been spending my time watching the Stanley Cup Playoffs. It is amazing in sports how a team has to learn how to win. The Ottawa Senators were one of the favorites to win the Cup the last few years, but didn't, and are now in the Finals when they were not favored to go that far this season. They are playing some great hockey and have a very solid team coached by one of my junior hockey coaches, Brian Murray. This is my favorite time of year for sports with the NHL and NBA playoffs both going on. 

And speaking of which, Go Cavs!

Jock

Read Ben Shank's take on Career Day >>