by Nick Niedzielski | AHL On The Beat
The Charlotte Checkers hosted Hispanic Heritage Evening earlier this season – an opportunity to have fun Hispanic tradition and to assist introduce new folks to the game of hockey.
It was additionally an evening that hit near house for one member of the Charlotte bench.
Gus Canals is in his third season because the assistant athletic coach for the Checkers. The son of Puerto Rican mother and father, he grew up within the Washington, D.C., space and was drawn to hockey at an early age – albeit in distinctive vogue.
“The Caps began getting large and so I sort of hooked onto that,” stated Canals. “I additionally bear in mind after I was youthful watching some Disney Channel present and it was Mickey taking part in hockey, so I acquired a hockey jersey with the characters on it – that’s sort of how I acquired into hockey.”
What began out as an introduction through cartoons rapidly grew to become an athletic journey for Canals.
“I grew up beginning in curler hockey after I was actually younger, most likely about 3 or 4,” he stated. “Then I switched to ice hockey in center faculty and I used to be taking part in ever since.”
As he grew extra into the game, there wasn’t a lot in the best way of Hispanic illustration that Canals observed on the ice.
“There have been the superstars like Ovechkin and guys like that watching the Caps rising up,” he stated of gamers that he seemed as much as. “However when it comes to gamers who had a background like me, there weren’t actually a ton that I knew of.”
Canals would proceed taking part in hockey two years into faculty earlier than shifting his focus to highschool. After getting his grasp’s diploma at Shenandoah College in Virginia, he landed his first job with the Lindenwood College hockey workforce earlier than becoming a member of the Checkers in
2023.
As his journey by hockey has taken him from the taking part in aspect to the workers aspect, he has seen that Hispanic illustration rise.
“I do know the IIHF has began doing much more with the Caribbean nations,” stated Canals. “There was a degree after I was youthful the place I acquired contacted to play for Puerto Rico – I didn’t simply because there wasn’t actually a lot to it. Now they’ve a real workforce that performs out of Chicago.”
Wanting on the Checkers’ Hispanic Heritage Evening, Canals sees the impression it will possibly have on somebody like his youthful self.
“I might have cherished it,” he stated. “I do know there’s all of the baseball gamers, soccer gamers, boxers, every part like that that come out of Puerto Rico. So it’s superior seeing the game department out a bit of bit and see gamers come from completely different backgrounds. I do know it will have helped drive me much more to play and pursue completely different avenues, to go more durable and decide it up a bit earlier.”
Canals carved his path into professional hockey by following his ardour for athletic coaching, and he takes the bench each sport along with his medical equipment emblazoned with a Puerto Rican flag patch to honor his heritage and stand for example to anybody watching who’s trying to find somebody who seems like them.
“I like the game,” stated Canals. “It’s cool being an influential side to one thing like that. A few occasions in Florida I’ve been working and had folks bang on the glass and level to the flag all excited.”
