On January 10 at Tech CU Enviornment, the San Jose Barracuda will honor their legendary former head coach Roy Sommer with a pregame ceremony and banner elevating. The evening may even embody a reproduction banner giveaway for the primary 2,500 followers, and the workforce will put on specialty San Jose Rhinos jerseys, representing the now-defunct skilled curler hockey workforce that Sommer coached for 2 seasons and led to a league championship in 1995.
Notable alumni will likely be in attendance, and earlier than warmups there will likely be a ceremony honoring Roy and his household, chronicling his historic AHL teaching profession.
“I bumped into Joe (Will),” Roy recounts. “He got here up and mentioned, ‘We’re gonna do a particular evening for you… increase a banner.’ And I used to be going like, ‘What? For what?’”
The AHL’s all-time winningest coach and a 2024 AHL Corridor of Famer, the evening might have been a shock for the “Cowboy,” but it surely shouldn’t be.
“It’s an honor,” he mentioned. “You don’t actually discover all of the years which have passed by till it’s completed. I raised my household as a Shark. They’ve at all times recognized teal.”
Roy’s story begins in Oakland, the place is unlikely ardour began a younger little one enjoying out of Berkley Ice.
“I by no means imagined it might come again full circle,” he says. “We used to drive by way of San Jose to go to my grandparents in Ben Lomond, and it was all cherry orchards. Who would’ve thought they’d put a workforce in San Jose?”
He labored across the previous California Golden Seals, Northern California’s first NHL franchise, even appearing as a visiting stick boy and serving to relay aim info by way of ticker tape earlier than computer systems.
Within the mid-90s, Doug Wilson referred to as Roy with a proposal that sounded extra like a summer season journey than a profession transfer:
“You need to come out and coach curler hockey?”
Roy had by no means coached curler hockey in his life, so he referred to as a pal, Chris McSorley.
“Chris goes, ‘It’s a blast. Three-month gig. Guys on rollerblades.’”
So Roy jumped into the Worldwide Curler Hockey League with the San Jose Rhinos,
having tapes mailed to him simply to study the foundations.
“In all probability the very best transfer I ever made,” he admits now.
Little did he know that curler hockey would result in an interview with the Sharks, then an assistant teaching job, and ultimately the beginning of a 24-year run behind the bench for San Jose’s AHL associates: Kentucky, Cleveland, Worcester, and eventually, again dwelling to San Jose.
Earlier than he ever coached, Roy performed, and gained in all places he went. A Calder Cup champion. An IHL champion. A stint within the NHL the place the California child scored a aim whereas sharing the ice with Wayne Gretzky.
However teaching grew to become his life.
The spark began by a pool in Jamaica, when his coach in Muskegon requested if he’d ever thought of transferring behind the bench.
“That’s type of how I began teaching,” Roy says merely.
Since then, he’s coached greater than 150 gamers who graduated to the NHL, one thing he considers the true legacy of his profession.
“Within the American League, if you happen to’re kicking 2, 3, 4 guys up a yr, you’re doing all of your job. And that’s what we did.”
He prided himself on being sincere, even when it was onerous.
“Don’t mislead them, you then by no means must mislead them,” he says.
His well-known “10-game conferences” grew to become a part of the tradition.
“I’d say, ‘Throw something on the wall, if it sticks, we’ll work with it.’ Typically guys would inform me one thing I by no means knew about them. One man mentioned, ‘I’m a net-front man.’ I put him there and he ended up with 25 targets. One other mentioned, ‘I don’t need to be on the facility play, I like killing penalties.’ And he grew to become an ideal penalty killer.”
For Roy, the very best half was at all times the individuals.
“That’s what I miss probably the most, the interplay.”
Ask Roy about his profession, and he’ll instantly level to the one that made it attainable: his spouse, Melissa.
“Truthfully, I don’t suppose I’d be sitting right here with out her,” he says.
She constructed her personal profession, particular training trainer, now a coordinator at Flathead Group School, whereas supporting each transfer, each metropolis, each late evening on a bus.
“She by no means acquired tenure wherever as a result of we had been at all times transferring, however she’s a superb trainer,” Roy says with pleasure. “She ran the family whereas I used to be on the highway. She sacrificed quite a bit.”
His daughter, Kira, not too long ago married in Brooklyn, will likely be there on January 10 together with her husband.
“She’s actual completely satisfied proper now,” Roy smiles. “It’ll be enjoyable having her out right here.”
His son, Caston, is now a rising teaching star of his personal, already thriving at Quinnipiac after profitable stops within the NCAA and WHL.
“He’s approach smarter than I used to be,” Roy jokes. “He soaked every little thing in. He’s completed all of it on his personal.”
After which there’s Mo, Roy’s fixed shadow and the center of each locker room he entered.
“He’s in all probability placed on 750,000 miles on a bus with me,” Roy laughs. “Gamers love him. They don’t even ask about me, they ask about Mo.”
A Legacy Raised to the Rafters On January 10, the Barracuda will put on specialty Rhinos jerseys, one other full-circle nod to Roy’s journey. Former gamers will return. Followers will cheer. And within the new state-of-the-art Tech CU Enviornment, Roy’s identify will rise completely above the ice.
All roads lead again to San Jose.
