#13   Shawn McDermott

Born in Ontario, the hockey capital of the world, McDermott played for his home town as a youngster. Starring as a 4th defenseman for the Keswick Flyers McDermott once got his only goal of the year in Atom (that's Squirt to you Yankees) when his coach credited him with the goal on a 1-0 default win. This team went on to lose in the Silver Stick Finals in Port Huron, MI against an undefeated team from Dresden, ON. Developing his slapshot in PeeWee gave him the nickname of "Boomer" by the same coach, earning him some power play time on the point. Bantams and Midgets led way to High School hockey, but he went undrafted to the Junior ranks, aside from some Jr. C tryout invites, and focused on school instead. JV and Varsity at Sacred Heart High School in Newmarket, ON and Bantam & Midgets for Keswick all at the same time led to several tournament championships, but never a league title. University led to more pick-up hockey and intramurals, and finally the ability to skate forward and make a pass instead of just sending it around the boards. A successful return to the Keswick Flyers in Juvenile (18-19 year olds to you Yankees) halfway through the season while back home on a co-op work term led to an All Ontario 'A' Semi-Final and another Silver Stick Final heartbreaker loss. However, "Doc" 'earned tournament Most Sportsmanlike honors at the Silver Stick, never before given to a player from the losing team, for taking time out of his regular shifts to mend teammates with taping and wrapping skills learned in Kinesiology at Waterloo. The move to St. Louis brought the opportunity to play in the Brentwood Sr. A League for Logan College of Chiropractic's D3 team against the St. Louis Blues Alumni team, and other ex Jr. A talent. Anchoring the 2nd D unit, McDermott excelled defensively with timely hits, poke checks and anticipation, but continued to be offensively challenged. The king of the 4th assist never averaged more than 0.50 points per game at any point in his competitive career. The Chiro Games brought a Silver medal as co-captain of the Logan squad in 1997. Moving to New England in early 1998 brought oportunity to play plenty of pick-up hockey against much superior talent compared to the midwest, but his heart longed for a real game. Montreal Tournament after Montreal Tournament and the Mud League only 5 weeks of the year could not fill the void. Fate brought him to meet JT in the Mud League when a post-game conversation revealed the two had longed for a real men's league in the Upper Valley that would go all season long. The two combined to co-found the UVHL and the rest is history for the "Co-Commisioners" of Vermont's Premiere Adult Hockey League!!! The Keswick curse (crushing everyone en-route to the final only to get smoked and lose) was broken in the UVHL's inaugural season when the Commish's team, UVHL Silver (now the Nordiques) upset UVHL Red (the pre-cursor to the modern Storm Kings) for the first ever Whalen Cup Championship in March of 2003. Doc repeated as a Whalen Cup Champ in 2005-06 as the Nordiques have taken 2 out of 5 Cups and three 3rd Place finished thus far in 5 UVHL seasons.

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