BUFFALO NEWS ARTICLEAward winner's heart and soul is on ice
Coach’s passion for youth hockey earns him singular leadership award with NHL cachet
By Jake May
By Jake May
NEWS STAFF REPORTER
When Tom Barnett was a child no older than 6, he sprang out of bed no later than 6:30 a.m. every Saturday in the winter.
He could be seen throwing his clothes on and dashing outside to tie up his ice skates for a weekly occurrence that made him who he is today. It was hockey.
From dawn to dusk, Barnett grew older through his passion of hitting the puck around in pickup games at a former hockey arena in Fort Erie, Ont., called simply “The Barn.”
Barnett is still a kid at heart and has not changed his schedule too much on the weekends, waking up at 5:45 a.m. every Sunday from October to St. Patrick’s Day to open up Amherst’s Pepsi Center for a sweep of children who follow his passion for the sport.
Children are the reason Barnett opened a youth hockey program in Western New York — the Buffalo Shamrocks Hockey Club. Those same children are the reason he will be honored by hockey great Mark Messier at Game Three of the Stanley Cup finals.
Barnett, an Amherst resident, will become the first coach to take home=2 0the Bridgestone Mark Messier Youth Leadership Award, chosen from more than 70 U.S. and Canadian nominees in conjunction with the National Hockey League and the NHL Players Association.
“When I first heard about this, I honestly thought I was being ‘Punk’d,’ like that MTV show,” he said. “I was waiting for an elephant to come falling out of the sky and a bunch of my friends to come running at me, but then I found out it was real.
“To be the first one, the first man awarded with this is pretty spectacular. My wife was in tears, happy and joyful. Mark Messier told me himself, ‘You are the guy I want representing me. You are the guy who youth hockey is all about.’ No doubt about it, the whole thing is surreal.”
The award was created this year to reward youth hockey players or mentors for their leadership and contributions to youth sports or education. As the 2009 winner, Barnett fits the profile through his continued commitment and contributions to the program he founded in 2001.
Coming into its eighth year, the club has grown from 30 participants to a full house of 300 youth players ages 3 to 14. Its focus is on education, teamwork, community service and, as Barnett puts it, “most importantly, about having fun.”
The club’s participants are heavily involved in a community service effort with the Buffalo Zoo. Barnett created a partnership with the zoo where players volunteer to work in a garden behind the rhinoceros cage to produce edible plants that are fed to the zoo’s animals.
About 50 players were working in the zoo’s garden Sunday, as they began their summer effort. “Through this work, they get to see that cycle of life, and they can grow with it,” Barnett said. “We even name the teams after the zoo animals, like the Rockin’ Rhinos, Anteaters, River Otters, Polar Bears and Gorillas. They are on their jerseys and everything.”
Barnett’s idea for the club came from watching his oldest son, Oliver, practice and play through another youth hockey program. The coach was using profane language with the team. That’s when Barnett knew that there was a problem that needed to be addressed.
So he gathered a few local friends and talked about forming a new organization. A year later, he did: the Shamrocks.
His goals for the program are to teach three staples: sportsmanship, team play and personal responsibility.
“He’ll put the time in to take an older kid at the highest level to the younger kids’ practices to give them that great relationship as a mentor,” said Lisa Barnett, Tom’s wife.
“He’s been doing this for a long time. It’s a thankless job, and he doesn’t do it for the recognition,” she said. He is so deserving of20the award, she added, “because he is so involved and so passionate.”
He could be seen throwing his clothes on and dashing outside to tie up his ice skates for a weekly occurrence that made him who he is today. It was hockey.
From dawn to dusk, Barnett grew older through his passion of hitting the puck around in pickup games at a former hockey arena in Fort Erie, Ont., called simply “The Barn.”
Barnett is still a kid at heart and has not changed his schedule too much on the weekends, waking up at 5:45 a.m. every Sunday from October to St. Patrick’s Day to open up Amherst’s Pepsi Center for a sweep of children who follow his passion for the sport.
Children are the reason Barnett opened a youth hockey program in Western New York — the Buffalo Shamrocks Hockey Club. Those same children are the reason he will be honored by hockey great Mark Messier at Game Three of the Stanley Cup finals.
Barnett, an Amherst resident, will become the first coach to take home=2 0the Bridgestone Mark Messier Youth Leadership Award, chosen from more than 70 U.S. and Canadian nominees in conjunction with the National Hockey League and the NHL Players Association.
“When I first heard about this, I honestly thought I was being ‘Punk’d,’ like that MTV show,” he said. “I was waiting for an elephant to come falling out of the sky and a bunch of my friends to come running at me, but then I found out it was real.
“To be the first one, the first man awarded with this is pretty spectacular. My wife was in tears, happy and joyful. Mark Messier told me himself, ‘You are the guy I want representing me. You are the guy who youth hockey is all about.’ No doubt about it, the whole thing is surreal.”
The award was created this year to reward youth hockey players or mentors for their leadership and contributions to youth sports or education. As the 2009 winner, Barnett fits the profile through his continued commitment and contributions to the program he founded in 2001.
Coming into its eighth year, the club has grown from 30 participants to a full house of 300 youth players ages 3 to 14. Its focus is on education, teamwork, community service and, as Barnett puts it, “most importantly, about having fun.”
The club’s participants are heavily involved in a community service effort with the Buffalo Zoo. Barnett created a partnership with the zoo where players volunteer to work in a garden behind the rhinoceros cage to produce edible plants that are fed to the zoo’s animals.
About 50 players were working in the zoo’s garden Sunday, as they began their summer effort. “Through this work, they get to see that cycle of life, and they can grow with it,” Barnett said. “We even name the teams after the zoo animals, like the Rockin’ Rhinos, Anteaters, River Otters, Polar Bears and Gorillas. They are on their jerseys and everything.”
Barnett’s idea for the club came from watching his oldest son, Oliver, practice and play through another youth hockey program. The coach was using profane language with the team. That’s when Barnett knew that there was a problem that needed to be addressed.
So he gathered a few local friends and talked about forming a new organization. A year later, he did: the Shamrocks.
His goals for the program are to teach three staples: sportsmanship, team play and personal responsibility.
“He’ll put the time in to take an older kid at the highest level to the younger kids’ practices to give them that great relationship as a mentor,” said Lisa Barnett, Tom’s wife.
“He’s been doing this for a long time. It’s a thankless job, and he doesn’t do it for the recognition,” she said. He is so deserving of20the award, she added, “because he is so involved and so passionate.”
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