Barracuda in the Community: April
May 9, 2016The San Jose Barracuda capped off a wild regular season by clinching a playoff berth with a dominating win in their very last game of the season in April. The Barracuda matched up against the top seeded Ontario Reign in round 1 of the playoffs but after taking a 1-1 series to Southern California, the Barracuda fell to the Reign which ended the inaugural season. As the Barracuda players packed up and headed to their respective offseason homes, Frenzy was kicking off his summer adventures. Let’s take a look back at what he has been up to over the past few weeks!
Barracuda Math Class has continued to stay busy with 6 different school visits in the last 3 weeks. Frenzy and Fan Development Coordinator Joey Goldstein have been making the rounds in San Jose teaching kids about the game of hockey while also practicing their everyday math skills. This season has been a huge success for the math program as the Barracuda have visited over 20 different schools and have taught 2,500 students. School is in session for a few more months so it’s not too late to bring the program to your school!
Before Frenzy started his summer of fun, he was spotted at the Spring Forward 5k/10k. Frenzy took part in the kids run, a limbo contest and a dance competition (which he obviously won). The Barracuda also brought their inflatable shootout booth to the event so walkers and runners could take a few slap shots while they were waiting for their race to start. All of the shooters received Barracuda giveaways for playing!
Over the past few weeks, there have been a few big name charity walks including the Autism Speaks Bay Area Walk and the March of Dimes March for Babies: San Jose. Both of these events took place at History Park in San Jose and Frenzy made sure that he stopped by both of them to warm up with the attendees and high five everyone as they started the walk.
Some of Frenzy’s favorite events to visit are the various Relay for Life events around the Bay Area. So far this year, Frenzy has visited the Cambrian Relay in San Jose and the Mountain View Relay. Both of the events were well attended and Frenzy even got to lead participants on the “final lap” in Mountain View. Frenzy will be making appearances at a number of other Relay for Life events this summer so keep your eyes open and if you see Frenzy at an event, stop and say hi!
Frenzy and the Barracuda made a number of other stops over the past few weeks including the Spring Party on Ice by Child Advocates, Santa Teresa Little League’s Family Fun Day, YMCA Healthy Kids Day and the San Jose Scout-o-Rama event.
In the last community recap we mentioned that Barracuda forward Ryan Carpenter was named the winner of the Barracuda’s Man of the Year award. “Carpy” has been an instrumental part of the Barracuda’s involvement in the community during their inaugural season by taking part in a number of community and charitable efforts. As the Barracuda Man of the Year, Carpenter was one of 30 finalists for the league wide Man of the Year Award which is given out to the player who contributes most to his community. On April 13th, the AHL announced that Carpenter was the league’s recipient of the Yanick Dupre Memorial Award as the IOA/American Specialty Man of the Year. This is a huge accomplishment for Carpenter, the San Jose Barracuda and the San Jose Sharks organization who now have two Yanick Dupre Awards winners in the past 5 years. The first was Nick Petrecki in 2011-12 as a member of the Worcester Sharks. To read the AHL press release on Carpenter’s Award click here.
That is going to wrap up the season for Frenzy, but the summer is just getting started! Summer time is when Frenzy is at his best so make sure you follow him on social media @FrenzyAHL to find out where he is headed!
Frenzy is always looking for more summer time plans! If you want to have the hardest working fish in the AHL at your event, head to Frenzy's page and fill out an appearance request form! If you would like to learn more information about the Barracuda and our efforts in the community, please visit Community Relations or email jgoldstein@sjbarracuda.com!