games operations | jamie drysdale

Chapter One

I loved hockey since I was a little kid. I love everything about it, other than playing. My family grew up on the poorer side, so I only ever played soccer. Hockey was too expensive of a sport. But that didn't stop me from learning everything I could, and watching every game I could. Saturday nights were special growing up in Canada. Hockey Night in Canada. It was always the time my family hung out together no matter what.

As a kid I always wanted to be involved with hockey somehow. I learned how to time keep and did that for local games, but I wanted more. I was never a player, but I wanted to be involved somehow. My dream was to make it to the show. I would go and watch OHL games all the time, or even the GTHL when they came to Kitchener. There were a couple players I really like watching. Jamie Drysdale was an incredible defensemen, it was hard to deny that. Not to mention as a 15 year old he was quite cute.

April 2018 came around and something great had happened. I was always an Erie Otters fan, Connor McDavid, Dylan Strome, Alex Debrincat, Connor Brown, they created some amazing talent. So when Jamie Drysdale got drafted 4th overall to the Erie Otters my heart was set. My favourite player at the time, Owen Headrick, had just finished his last season in the OHL so I was in the market for a new favourite player, and why not go for a rookie who was only a couple months older than me, not to mention super cute.

I watched every single Otters game I could online, or I listened to them on the radio broadcast. The 12th game of the season rolled around, and it was the first time the Otters were going to be in Guelph, which was one of the few teams within an hour of me, thankfully they're only 30 minutes away. At 15, I convinced my dad to take me to the game. We bought tickets right behind the Otters bench, and I made sure to straighten my hair, do my makeup, and put on a pair of ripped skinny jeans and my signed Owen Headrick jersey. The game went well for the good guys, the Otters won 5-4 in overtime. After the game my dad and I went down outside the locker rooms and I got to meet Jamie, looking bad on it now that picture 6 years ago, we look so small and like babies. It was one of his first pictures with a fan so he was really awkward, especially now that I know the truth.

That October I also started working part time for my first hockey team. There was a Junior C team that came back after years to my hometown and they needed some good promotion. I started working for them as their social media and communications manager, as well as doing some events and scheduling. This was how I truly fell in love with working in hockey. On March 6th 2019 I sent an email out to all OHL teams close to me, otherwise known as just the Guelph Storm and Kitchener Rangers, asking if they were looking for any interns or workers to be doing anything for the team. I never got a response from Guelph, but I heard from Kitchener after 3 hours.

The offered me an interview right there to talk about opportunities, and I had said interview three weeks later, and got offered a game operations internship on the spot. Luckily I wouldn't be alone, there was a group of interns who all thankfully became extremely close friends.

As the next season started, I also started my internship, unfortunately for me, we didn't play Erie for the first time at home until December 29th, and even more unfortunately for me, that was also when Jamie Drysdale was away at the World Juniors. On February 11th they finally came back. Once again, unfortunately for me, he was injured. But luckily, he was in fact in the building, and even more lucky for me, one of the girls on the intern team was aiming to be a scout, and she knew the Erie Otters assistant coach. After the game she hooked me up. I brought my Drysdale jersey, really hoping to get it signed but because of my job the odds were low. As soon as the game ended Oakley ran to grab my jersey and a sharpie, telling me to put it on immediately. Next thing I knew, Jamie Drysdale was walking towards me.

"Turn around, Sky." Oakley said with a huge smile on her face. By now a lot of the interns and our boss had come around. It was very clear to me that Oakley had told a lot of people her plan. I turned around and met eyes with him. He had definitely grown since the last time I saw him.