Rod
Taylor is quick to acknowledge that Ferris State University and Big
Rapids have always felt like home. Since Taylor’s graduation after
the 1990-91 season and a stellar college hockey career, he makes a summer
pilgrimage to Big Rapids each year.
The
trip is never stale.
Taylor,
34, currently plays professionally for the Richmond Renegades of the
East Coast Hockey League, but always remembers his fishing gear and
the joy in teaching the game to kids in Big Rapids during the warm summer
months.
“I
love to come up here,” Taylor says, smiling. “I like the fishing,
and the salmon are usually running.”
Sure,
the fishing is great, but there aren’t too many things more special
for Taylor and other Ferris State hockey alumni than the smiles they
see on the faces of young people becoming better hockey players.
Camp
Ewigleben
“I
think it’s great to come back to Big Rapids,” says Taylor,
who makes his home in Virginia Beach, Va., and owns the school’s
single-season records for goals, with 41. “I’ve done this
every year since I left school—that’s 11 or 12 years now.
It’s Bulldog Hockey, and it’s nice to have a good bunch of
kids who want to learn something.”
The young icemen work on stickhandling, goal-tending techniques, skating,
team play, strategy and more. Former Ferris State players like Taylor,
Kevin Swider and Kenzie Homer get something else out of it.
“It’s
great because you’re giving something back to the kids and to the
community,” says Swider, who wrapped up his college career at Ferris
last winter with a 17-goal, 17-assist season and currently plays for
Baton Rouge in the ECHL. “At the same time, we get to have a little
fun and play a little hockey.”
Ferris
hosts a wide range of hockey camps, including camps for girls. Swider
is impressed with what he sees from the female players.
“The
girls that we had in our camps had good knowledge of the game,”
he said.
“It’s
great working with kids,” says Homer, a former Bulldog winger who
scored six goals and had four assists during his final season with the
Bulldogs (1998-99). “They look up to you in the same way I looked
up to the college and professional players when I was their age.
“Also,
I like coming back—Ferris State and Big Rapids have been so good
to me. Ferris is where I met my wife so it’s always going to be
special to me.”
Can’t
Get Enough
It’s
hard to blame guys like Taylor, Swider and Homer for feeling good about
passing along some of the knowledge they’ve acquired over the years
to a young person eager to absorb it all. They can’t get it out
of their systems.
“It’s
a great feeling when you see the smiles on their faces, or when you
see them come back year after year and continue to improve and work
hard to become better hockey players,” said Homer, who will be
playing for Macon (Ga.) in the ECHL. “You come back and teach the
kids, and hope they can come away from it all having learned something
about the game and maybe even something about life.”
That’s
enough to bring a smile to anyone’s face.
