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ROBBIE SINCLAIR - FEATURE REPORT

Robbie Sinclair shares his "inside look" of his path from GBMH Minor through to Pro Hockey and returning back to minor hockey in a role as an executive member/coach volunteer and hockey parent.

Glace Bay's Robbie Sinclair has gone full-circle in relation to his involvement first as a player with Glace Bay Minor Hockey and now in his adult life, as a volunteer. Like most hockey youth from our area Robbie found out at an early age that he loved the game of hockey so much that he was willing to invest most of his free time developing his skill-set that would eventually support his dream. When asked about his hockey life, Sinclair responds in a very modest demeanor, attributing much of his early success to his parents Ann and Nick who stood by his side and in recent years to his spouse Lisa, who are now supporting their young family in sports. The Sinclair's family unit consists of Luke 9 (Atom AA), Tucker 7 (Novice-Advanced) and Ellie 4 (Tots), all of whom appear to also have a consistent interest in having the sport of hockey become a focal family activity, which they all share together.

Robbie left home at an early age mainly to pursue his education together with hockey meeting with tremendous success in both tenures. Since returning back home to his Glace Bay roots, Robbie has been teaching with Cape Breton Victoria Regional School Board since 2004, where he is currently teaching at Glace Bay High School. During his very precious spare time as a dad he finds time to hold an executive position with GBMH, co-ordinates the Novice Division, coaches an Advanced Novice team, a Tot's Division group and is an assistant coach to his life-long hockey buddy Brian O'Neill with Atom AA Miner's hockey team.

Interview:

What was your favorite minor hockey memory?

My first real minor hockey memory was winning the Atom B provincials in Amherst, my first year Atom. As for my favorite minor hockey memory, I really enjoyed my second year Bantam when as grade 10’s a few of us were allowed to play both bantam and high school hockey. I think we ended up playing close to 100 games of hockey that season. Turns out, our bantam team was very successful that year and we had a good run at provincials. My overall experience with Glace Bay Minor Hockey was fantastic. We always had great coaches and volunteers. It certainly makes volunteering my time these days that much more meaningful when you think back to all of the people who gave up their time for us over the years.

Having gone through the hockey system what advice would you like to pass along to to-day's youngsters playing minor hockey?

It’s obviously cliché to say have fun, but enjoyment really is the key to loving anything. Growing up, I was always excited to be going to the rink. I can’t ever remember a time when I would have rather been doing anything more than making my way to the Miner’s Forum for a hockey practice or game. In today’s era of electronics, a little of that love and passion can be lost. Kids should be encouraged to get outside and play. That’s where the love of the game is developed. I would also advise the kids to work hard and give their best effort each and every time they take the ice. This was something that I can always remember my dad stressing with me. You will never get better at anything if you are not giving your best effort. A final piece of advice is that even though it doesn’t feel like it at the time, your years of minor hockey actually go by very quickly. When I was coaching Major Midget, I would often remind the kids that their years of competitive hockey will not last forever. Everyone thinks their hockey days will never end. You only get so long to play on teams with your buddies representing your area. Listen to your coaches, work hard with your friends and realize that time flies by quickly. Enjoy it!

What coach along your career stands out and why?

Over the course of my playing years, I had some very different coaches. I think the coach that stands out to me the most was my head coach at Princeton University. When I started at Princeton, I was only 17. We had players on our team that were as old as 24 years old. I was very young and slower in comparison to these older players. The college game is extremely fast. It was a really big jump for me to go from Major Midget here in Cape Breton to playing NCAA hockey. With that being said, Coach Don Cahoon pushed me each and every time I was on the ice. He was brutally hard on me. At the time, I was often frustrated because of the way he treated me. Guys on our team felt bad for me and there were times I felt bad for myself. As time went by, I came to realize that this is how he would push me and make me better. Each and every practice he could be heard yelling “Move your feet Sinker ”.(Sinka as it sounded in his thick Massachusetts accent) He understood the areas that I needed work with, such as my foot speed, and he would be relentless on me in these areas so I would improve. He knew that he could challenge me and I would respond. As I look back, I can also see how and why he didn’t do this to everyone (because not everyone can handle this type of coaching). As a senior, I was fortunate enough to be chosen team captain and share a completely different experience with Coach Cahoon. He trusted me to be the go between with the rest of our players. I truly appreciated this role and was very proud our team’s accomplishments that season. We won our league for the first time in school history and we were the first Princeton team to ever play in the NCAA tournament. I will never forget the joy in his eyes when Syl Apps scored in double overtime to send us to the NCAA tournament. He truly cared about each and every one of us he made it his business to look after us in all areas of our lives (education, relationships etc.) during our 4 years in his program. He was a terrific coach.

I understand you set some scoring records in Major Midget - what were your highlights?

My Major Midget experience was amazing. We had excellent teams here and I had the opportunity to play with some terrific players. Some of my best friends to this day came from those Midget years. With the help of my teammates, I was fortunate enough to lead the league in scoring for two straight years. One of my favorite all time hockey highlights came from the last regular season game of my second year. We were playing Dartmouth and we were told that the single season scoring record was 92 points. Going into the game, I needed maybe 3 points to break this record. Late in the third period, I passed a puck cross ice to my line mate (and a big reason for my success) Chris Angione and he scored to give me my 93rd point. Our entire team went crazy for me as we were all under the impression that I had broken Fabian Joseph’s scoring record. (turns out after the game we were informed that the record was actually 97 points in 38 games… ten more games than the 28 we played) anyway, it wasn’t the scoring title that I remember so vividly, but the reaction of my teammates. Many of these guys (Chris Angione and Derrick Pyke) were right behind me in the scoring race. But, they couldn’t care less about it not being them. The selflessness of their reaction will be something that I will always remember. That year I was lucky enough to be chosen MVP of the league and to receive the league top scholarship award as well (the award my mom was most proud of!), but it was the memory of my teammates reaction during that game that I will remember the most. Team wise, winning the Monctonian Tournament was a major highlight. A bunch of rag tag Cape Breton boys would pull into rinks all over the Maritimes on our beaten down Transoverland bus and be able to defeat teams from all over. Those were great days.

Why did you opt to go the NCAA route? 

I actually get asked this question quite a bit. When I was younger I watched a Maine Black Bears game on Channel 12 and thought it looked like an amazing experience. You need to understand that the situation when we were 15-16 year old hockey players around here was very different than it is today. Back then, the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League was just on its’ way to the Maritimes and we did not have many people watching local hockey players. I often say that is why there were so many good players locally during this period of time. We never had the distraction of people telling us how good we were all of the time. We played because we loved to compete. Today, there are people watching local kids all of the time. At times, it becomes a distraction as kids become more worried about who is watching them and where they are going instead of just competing for the love of game. Oddly enough, fellow Glace Bay native Kirk Furey and I were actually drafted into the Ontario Hockey League. With education always being very important in my family, I decided not to attend the major junior training camp in Niagara Falls because I saw NCAA as a way to combine both school and hockey and I did not want to affect my eligibility. During my grade 11 year I started to write to various US universities indicating my interest in attending school in the States. I had several contact me and come watch me play in a tournament in Boston that summer. After that I narrowed it down to a couple of places, visited two, and then decided on Princeton. Academically, Princeton offered as good an undergraduate education as you can find anywhere. Athletically, it allowed me to compete against the likes of Martin St. Louis and alongside people like Jeff Halpern. Socially, I was fortunate enough to meet and become friends with people from all over the world. I’d never change any of that. In the end though, I believe that there are positive and negatives to whatever route players take. You need to research what is best for your situation and go with what works for you.

Pro Hockey: Best memories, and at what point did you decide to abandon hockey as a career?

During my professional hockey career I was fortunate enough to play in some cool places. I played in Columbus, Georgia, Wheeling, West Virginia, Lafayette/Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Pensacola, Florida and St. John’s, Newfoundland. My best memory as a professional was getting the phone call from St. John’s Maple Leaf’s head coach Al MacAdam saying that he’d like to call me up to the AHL for the rest of the season. That year I went to training camp with St. John’s and played as well as I have ever played. It is very difficult to crack any lineup out of camp if you are not under contract, as most if not all of their spots are usually spoken for. He promised that he would call me up if he ran into injury trouble during the season. Luckily for me, he was true to his word and I was fortunate enough to play for a bit in the AHL. For the most part, I have great memories playing for teams in most of these cities. But, the overall experience of playing in Pensacola stands out as my favorite. One of my years there, the entire team lived on the white sand beach. I absolutely loved going to hockey in flip flops. To get to the rink you would drive along miles of beautiful beach. The fans there were absolutely fantastic as well. We were their NHL and they treated us that way. My favorite memory as a player there is when the crowd gave me a standing ovation when I received the fan favorite award for our team that season. It was after my second year in Pensacola that I decided to give up hockey. The ECHL had instituted a veteran rule for the next season, and with only a few veterans allowed on each team, I wasn’t sure if I was going to be one of the veterans kept by the team. I had considered some other options (I actually had a contract to go play for a team in France), but I decided to hang em up and go back to school. There comes a point in a hockey player’s life that they need to make a decision between being a lifer in the minor leagues or moving on and doing something else. If you are stagnant and not moving up, it often makes more sense to give up playing and start your new life. That’s what I did.

What hockey do you play today?

When I first stopped playing, I was an assistant coach at the University of New Brunswick. While coaching and going to school, I played some senior hockey in New Brunswick. During that time I played in a couple of Allan Cups for the Maritime representative. When I moved back to Glace Bay, I played a few more years of senior hockey in New Brunswick; driving to St. John each weekend with my old Major Midget line mate Chris Angione. I also served as an assistant coach with the Major Midget Tradesmen for 5 years. That all stopped when my wife Lisa and I had our third child. Presently, I just play a few rentals to keep myself going. I’m not much for competitive games/tournaments any more. I just enjoy going out and playing with friends. I tend to spend most of my rink time these days coaching and volunteering with Glace Bay Minor Hockey. My three kids are in three different divisions of minor hockey, so I am certainly busy with that. Luckily for me, I have a very understanding wife who allows me to be out coaching as many as 6 nights a week. I enjoy that much more than playing myself anyway.

If you were to do it all over again what would you change?

Tough question. There are one or two things that I may consider doing a bit differently, but I’m not sure. Going to college hockey at such a young age was hard on my confidence. Like I mentioned, I was young and slow coming out of midget. I went from scoring 40 goals in midget to 4 my first season in college. That was a tough adjustment. In retrospect I may have played a year or so of tier 2 junior before I headed to college. I was just happy to be moving on with my hockey career and didn’t know any better at the time. As well, looking back, I would have liked to use hockey to travel Europe for a little bit. But, who knows how that would have changed other aspects of my life, so I don’t dwell on it too much. Performance wise, I may have spent more time working on my game to make sure I made it as far as I possibly could. Many times, people (myself included) are happy with just being somewhere. When you look back, you realize that you are just as deserving as everyone else and that you should never be happy with just being anywhere. In the end, the only real thing that I guess I would change is that I’d appreciate it all a lot more while I was experiencing it. When you are young, you don’t appreciate the fact that you are playing a game on the campus of Harvard University, taking an Economics class next door to a Nobel Prize winner or playing a sport you love in front of thousands of people. You think that this is how it’s always going to be, and it really isn’t. I guess I would have “smelled the flowers” a little more. Now there’s some advice for the kids I guess.

In closing, Glace Bay MInor Hockey Association is most appreciative to have such a dedicated hockey volunteer as Robbie, who has such an accomplished hockey resume and who is willing to give-back so much of his expertise and time to our Glace Bay hockey community.