COMMUNITY CORNER
Dec 1, 2017What’s going on Cuda Country? Marketing and Community Relations Coordinator Joey Goldstein here back for another breakdown of what we have been up to in the community over the past month. It’s been a busy few weeks for everyone here at SAP Center with so many games being played, both Sharks and Barracuda, but if you’ve been following along on our social media accounts then you know there is even more going on when games aren’t being played.
Barracuda Math Class continues to make its mark as the flagship community program for the organization. Currently, we have been close to 50 visits booked on the year and each one has been more fun than the next. Over the past month, we have been to Valley Christian Elementary, Searles Elementary, Sakamoto Elementary, St. Christopher School, Discovery Charter School and Cherrywood Elementary. Faith Christensen continues to run point on all of our school visits but we have also had some Barracuda players get in the mix including Tim Clifton, Danny O’Regan, Antoine Bibeau and Jeremy Roy.
Our math program isn’t the only program visiting schools; we also have our Hockey 101 street hockey program making the rounds as well. Payne Elementary, Gideon Hausner Jewish Day School and Adelante Academy have all benefitted from having Hockey 101 at their school. Barracuda defenseman Julius Bergman and forwards Rudolfs Balcers and Filip Sandberg all helped out at street hockey visits in November by teaching kids the proper way to shoot, pass and stickhandle.
We can’t forget about Frenzy because November was also a busy month for our favorite fish. On top of seven Barracuda home games, Frenzy made a handful of visits in and around San Jose. He kicked things off by visiting Solar4America Ice at San Jose for Try Hockey Day. Frenzy stopped by a learn to play lesson and helped teach some future hockey stars a thing or two about his favorite sport. The hardest working fish in the American Hockey League also made a stop at the Latimer Elementary School fundraiser at Solar4America Ice and he made his way to the Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving Day. At the Turkey Trot, Frenzy got a chance to spend some time with a few of his mascot buddies including SJ Sharkie, Sourdough Sam, Q, Stomper and Gigante. Frenzy may be a fish of few words, but he is definitely thankful to have that rowdy bunch as friends.
November also brought the Barracuda to their first youth hockey visits of the season. A few weeks back, the players all signed up for various practice times over the course of two days and got an opportunity to share some of their hockey knowledge with some Junior Sharks House League teams. Some players even got a chance to help former Sharks Evgeni Nabokov, Curtis Brown and Owen Nolan coach their teams. There were plenty of smiles and laughs to go around but if one thing is for sure, it’s that every Junior Shark learned some valuable skills from their time on the ice with the Barracuda.
The last two events that I want to hit on are the Pucks and Paws jersey auction along with a special ‘Cuda Kids Club event. Last night, kids club captain John McCarthy held and an exclusive signed for 200 members at S4A. Members got t-shirts, bobbleheads and Cuda Country signs autographed by the Barracuda’s on ice leader. With close to 1,000 members this season, the ‘Cuda Kids Club has quickly grown to be one of the best in the AHL. As for the Pucks and Paws auction, we are still in the process of tallying up the jersey totals but so far it looks like we are going to be able to make a nice contribution to the efforts of Humane Society Silicon Valley. A few jerseys are still up for auction online and will be available until December 4th and 5:00PM (PST). If you would like to bid, visit sjbarracuda.com/ebay.
That wraps it up for this month! The holiday season is upon us and we have some great things planned for December including our annual Gifts and Goals event and a visit to Downtown Ice. As always Frenzy, Faith and I are always looking for more things to do in the community so if you have places for us to visit click here and let us know!