My first (legit) pro experience

[greatsave31]

Ok it is with great pleasure that I have officially been offered a training camp contract in the MAHL. Now I understand that is it the MAHL and it doesn't pay great money, but it's pro so I'm kinda excited.

So here's the story so far. and it starts last summer. So last summer I was invited to the rookie tryout camp for the Memphis Riverkings of the Central Hockey League. I had a great tryout and was able to get some great contacts out of it... like an agent. They asked if I would be interested in attending the main training camp which I declined since I had one more year left of college. Well as luck (or bad luck in my case) would have it, I would start out my senior year great... then suffer a high ankle sprain midway through and have to sit out the REST OF MY SENIOR YEAR anyway, I thought about throwing in the towel cause I did not enjoy my college hockey experience at all, all four years.

Oh by the way before college I played 2 years of junior, junior B in connecticut, and tier 2 junior A in ontario, then I got hurt my last year of junior and ended up playing ACHA div 1 at Niagara University.

ok back to the story.... so i decided to try and see what could come of this year, and since i still had my contacts I started sending some e-mails to them, well mainly the sports agent who could help me. I put together a tape, and put it on youtube, then was invited to a rookie tryout/draft weekend. So as a precaution I sent an e-mail to all the coaches of the league along with my youtube clip and one coach replied and said he knew my agent and would talk to him.... the next thing i know is he was offering me a training camp contract before the tryout weekend. I'm pretty excited and it just makes me feel happy that i didn't actually give up,even though it is the MAHL, I've played against a few of those guys in various tourny's and some of them actually have legit skill. plus they have a great call up rate so i think i'm in a good spot for future plans.

[NHLAlum Target]

Congratulations!!!!

The closest to pro most of us have been is having someone else buy the beer after the game.

[Vega30]

congrats! I wish you the best of luck on your future endeavors

[leaferguy]

Originally Posted by Vega30

I wish you the best of luck on your future endeavors

Are you breaking up with him or firing him ?

Congrats, man! Glad to see that not quitting can pay off. Here's hoping you have a good time.

[RichMan]

CONGRATS!!!

Go in there strong, yet humble. No retreat, No surrender

[JTomo170]

Sounds like a good deal. It could definately help get your foot in the door. Which team is it? The MAHL apparently just reorganized their league. They had I think around 5 or 6 teams last year and that number was supposed to double. The rink I play pickup at has a team. Keep us up to date.

[Appel]

Congrats dude! Hope you have a great time doing it. And who cares what their pay is - the closest I've ever gotten to pro is playing on a men's league team I didn't have to pay for! I can't imagine being handed any sort of contract to play; that's just awesome.

[Coldaccord]

cool, I have a few guys from the jamestown vikings (lake erie vikings this year) on my team this year. I wanted to do that last year but I was still in school. Peter Bedard told me he'd waive the tryout fee, but I was out with a groin injury at the time (I was still in school so it wouldn't have done me any good regardless).

I talked to lake erie a few weeks before tryouts this year. They were no longer using the same scout, so would have to pay reg fees. The tryout fee went from $100 to $250. it was now in ohio 4 hours away rather than jamestown 1 hr away, it was just more than I was willing to spend, considering i'd have to pay for 2 days in a hotel as well.

Just be careful man. The same guy owned 4 teams, and all but one of them went bankrupt. I play regularly with 5 or 6 guys from the vikings (played with a few in tier II travel years ago as well) and they all got burned. So many checks bounced. I think they only got 3 or 4 good checks all year.

their head coach from last year is a buddy of mine (he was also a player, hes only 28) and he said he didn't play hockey for 4 months after this altercation, he was so turned off by everything.

It's also a pretty ugly league. Plan to get mugged. I had a game last Monday, and a few scuffles into it my defensemen (one of the viking guys) said "this is just like jamestown all over again."

enjoy it though, I'm sure it will be a great time. can't complain about playing good hockey. I'm curious to see how the league turns out this year, a lot of the players from last year got scared off.

[foodsample]

Congratulations! Its superb to hear you've made it this far. I hope you make it to the greats, that would just be damn awsome! Make us proud!!!! :]

[greatsave31]

Hey guys, thanks for all the well wishes and advice... I know how the some of my friends have been screwed over with their pay checks and so on and this really did go through my head but in all honestly I know that this league also has a pretty good reputation of sending people up to other leagues via call-ups and so forth... so I am happy with where I'm at.

I just have to keep working out and getting ice whenever I get a chance.

[Coldaccord]

^me too, let me know if you hear of any good pickup or anyone looking for a goalie for a team (I play out too!)

[greatsave31]

Coldacord shoot me a PM if you go to the falls at all... I skate out of Niagara university since I'm still on campus, let me know what your looking for i think i might have some other things you might be interested in.