(Photo courtesy of Shannon Desrosiers)
Shannon
Desrosiers could not linger for too many victory laps and photo ops. The day
had brought a special sports memory, but there were other commitments in other
towns, states and countries to get to before she reunited with a bed.
Saturday,
April 22, all but defied Desrosiers’ almanac. A practical microcosm of her life
since leaving her co-coaching post at Clarkson University, the day stole June
21’s material as the longest of her 2017.
The
day packed a party for which nearly every element to enrich her existence came
over in varied time slots. There was her family, her alma mater and her
adulthood community early on. Then there was her competitive streak and her
love of running.
In
the aftermath of her first-place finish in the women’s division of St. Lawrence
County’s inaugural Maple Run, her native Canada dropped in. That cleared a path
for her love of hockey to enter the itinerary.
“Not
very often you can run a half-marathon, hustle home to shower and drive to
Montreal to get on a plane for the coaches convention in Naples,” Desrosiers
said with a smile in an interview with Pucks and Recreation.
The
Maple Run — orchestrated by former Clarkson cross country and Nordic skiing
coach Amanda Stopa Goldstein — began two-and-a-half hours after sunrise at 8:30
a.m. Held in the county seat of Canton, the race took Desrosiers, along with a
host of fellow Clarkson and St. Lawrence connections, through SLU’s campus trail.
“A
very challenging course,” the 18-year
veteran resident of Upstate New York’s North Country stressed.
Desrosiers
was done before 10:30, clocking in at one hour, 20 minutes and 55 seconds. “It was
one of my best times,” she said, “and I am happy to have an event like this in
the North Country.”
But
just as happy to embark on a business trip before the afterglow could taper off.
Upon accepting her medal and maple-heavy prize package, Desrosiers darted home
to shower, then made the two-hour trek across the border to Montreal.
From
there, it was another five-plus hours of flying to Florida for the subsequent
week’s annual American Hockey Coaches Association convention.
Yes,
three years after she relinquished her half of the Golden Knights coaching
duties with her husband, Matt, Desrosiers’ counsel is still coveted by Clarkson
and the college hockey community. She cannot help but oblige as much as her
current lifestyle will permit.
“I
miss a lot about coaching,” she admits. “The dedication of the players, the
effort at practices, the competition of the games.
“But
for right now, I am really happy that our kids and I can be some of the team’s
biggest fans.”
Tradeoffs and
trophies
Five
weeks before the Maple Run, Desrosiers took a break from training to watch her
former pupils secure their all-time best single-season record (32-4-5) and
their own crowning glory in Missouri.
Three
years earlier, Matt and Shannon Desrosiers had guided Clarkson to its first
NCAA title in Hamden, Conn. Then-two-year-old daughter Brynn was on hand for
the clincher and celebration, while son Brody was three months away from birth.
Now
with the five-year-old Brynn and two-going-on-three Brody by her side, Shannon
had a reverse angle for the encore championship. All three were in the
green-and-gold sector of St. Charles’ Family Arena for wins over Minnesota and
Wisconsin.
“It
was just as awesome, but in a different way,” Desrosiers said. “Obviously, the
first was special because it was the first, and also because it is amazing to
share and work towards something like that with your spouse.
“But
it is also really fulfilling to know that the hard work Matt puts in now — the
days away recruiting, the things he misses with our kids, the late nights doing
video — are all worth it.”
While
travel is a necessary evil of the occupation, the Desrosiers kids never miss
the glamorous products of Matt’s work. When applicable, webcasts for the
Clarkson road games are a staple on the weekend schedule back home. And
Shannon, being Shannon, often multitasks by hopping on her treadmill while
watching the action.
Days
featuring a matinee away game tend to entail a movie night for the three back
in Potsdam. That is unless the Clarkson men are at home, in which case a family
outing to Cheel Arena is on tap. Those nights are complete with the pregame
buffet in the beloved Barben room perched above the rink.
Otherwise,
the three are dining with friends or getting out to a youth hockey commitment.
Shannon volunteers with the Potsdam Minor Hockey Association, and Brynn and Brody
are already taking fundamental lessons.
“Both
are loving the game and really taking off,” she marveled.
That
regimen, along with a varied spread of offseason activity, speaks to the
parents’ propensities reaching the offspring without fail. The only aspects to
change between the two generations are the country, time zone and nearest
mountain range.
Speedy Saints,
knowledgeable Knights
For
the first half of her life so far, Desrosiers (nee Smith) built her endurance
against the elements of Fernie, B.C., near the Alberta border in the thick of
the Canadian Rockies. Fernie sits at an elevation more than seven times that of
Potsdam and nearly nine times that of Canton. A short distance from the U.S.
border in Montana, it has been dubbed a “Crown of the Continent” by the
National Geographic Society for its numerous and rigorous recreation options.
On
top of that, the town of barely 5,000 has produced seven NHL players in the
last half-century. One of them, 1999 Hobey Baker Award winner Jason Krog, had
an upbringing there that overlapped with Smith’s.
For
the locals, the definitive winter sport was the natural thing to do when the summer
attractions were out of season. The rest of the time, those other sites could
make for a wholesome staycation.
“Hockey
was always No. 1, but I always loved running,” Desrosiers said. “I did
middle-distance events in track in high school, as running long distances
wasn’t conducive for hockey training, but I loved any type of running, biking,
tennis, water sports, being outside. Anything active, really. We are also at a
way higher elevation, so that helped. I also loved to ski and snowboard.”
As
a forward for her hometown Fernie Bladerunners, Shannon Smith caught the
attention of then-St. Lawrence coach Ron Waske in the 1999 recruiting cycle.
Her arrival in Canton coincided with that of Paul Flanagan, who supplanted
Waske and promptly delivered the Saints’ first winning season in six years.
With
Smith as a consistent top-sixer, SLU rose to a perennial 20-win range and
reached the first NCAA women’s hockey championship game in 2001. She
co-captained the team to a 22-9-4 finish as a senior.
Meanwhile,
amidst Smith’s freshman year, a two-way junior defenseman from Fort Erie, Ont.,
named Matt Desrosiers was helping the men’s team to a 2000 ECAC playoff title
and Frozen Four appearance. The Skating Saints repeated as ECAC champs and
nabbed their third straight national tournament bid in Desrosiers’ senior year.
Upon
her own graduation two years later, Smith stayed in the shade of the
Adirondacks and moved up the street to rival Clarkson. She promptly began her
coaching career as an assistant under Rick Seeley for the women’s program’s
inception in 2003-04.
Following
a five-year minor-league playing career, Matt Desrosiers joined Seeley’s
cabinet in the same capacity in 2006. A year later, Smith took the Desrosiers
surname, and within another year, both had taken Seeley’s job at the helm.
The
Desrosiers duo made instant headlines for being the first coaching couple in
U.S. women’s college hockey. (Maine’s Sara and Richard Reichenbach have since
matched the distinction.) But they also kept busy chasing goals in their other
chief athletic passion.
In
the summer following their first year as co-head coaches, Shannon placed No.
118 in a field of 2,247 at Lake Placid’s 2009 Ironman triathlon. That, followed
by an impressive showing at Ironman Canada in her native province, earned her a
ticket to Hawaii for the 2010 World Ironman Championship.
In
2012, within three months of bearing Brynn, she was back in the Canadian
Rockies for the centennial Calgary Stampede, where she logged a 1:26:31 time in
the half-marathon. The illustrious Boston Marathon and other out-of-state
events have made their way to her transcript as well.
In
between, she and Matt had brought Clarkson to its first NCAA tournament in 2010.
A temporary recession in the win column gave way to a program-best 28-win
campaign in 2012-13. The Golden Knights followed that with a repeat at-large tournament
bid, then used it to break their own year-old record with their 29th, 30th and
31st wins on the year.
The
31st, a 5-4 upset that disrupted a dynasty from Minnesota, brought the first NCAA
championship for any non-WCHA team. It was also Shannon’s last game, as she
intended to turn the bulk of her focus to raising Brynn and the forthcoming Brody.
Besides
her informal frequenting of Cheel Arena with the kids, Shannon continues to
serve Clarkson as a stewardship liaison in donor relations. Meanwhile, under
Matt’s continued guidance, the Golden Knights have not looked back, becoming a
steady presence in the exclusive eight-team bracket. No other program in the
Eastern Time Zone managed to throw another sledge at the championship barrier
before they took their second swing this past spring.
With
their 3-0 shutout of the Badgers on March 19, they eclipsed their previous best
with 32 wins on the year. Two days later, with the trophy on campus and the
family back home, the Vernal Equinox heralded a turn of the page and a reversal
in rooting roles.
Winter of
contentment, glorious summer
Besides
raising funds for local athletic programs, the minds behind the Maple Run tout
the race as a way “to celebrate the end of Winter.” But Shannon Desrosiers’ April
22 day-ending getaway to a puck-focused gathering properly signaled that, in a
way, winter is never truly over. For the rest of the year, her household hosts
a cousin of the kinetic instincts that come in handy against biting cold.
“It’s
a different hectic,” she explained. “Matt has way more time with our family
which is fun. We are still busy running
around to sports and camps and enjoying summer. We live on the lake, so our
kids love swimming, boating and tubing. They also still love to get on the ice
whenever they can, so having access to that is awesome.”
As
for her competitive running, the fall and winter tune-up did not culminate in
the Maple Run any more than a NASCAR driver’s offseason builds solely toward
Daytona. After Shannon spent the 2017 Frozen Four by Brynn and Brody’s side, the
parents’ positions switched for the local race.
But
a month later, Matt took his opportunity to make the Buffalo half-marathon more
like the 2014 Frozen Four and its eight preceding hockey seasons. The two were
co-competing again, though the outcome, at least in terms of the leaderboard,
was more like that of the 2010 and 2013 tournaments.
Shannon
placed second in her division at Buffalo, logging the same 1:20 time as she had
in the less crowded Canton field. “My goal was to break 1:20, which I did,” she
said. “I think I was about 10 seconds shy, which in running is significant.”
Meanwhile,
Matt took one hour and 25 minutes to finish his Buffalo run. You could forgive
the implicit rust. He was just coming off his first NCAA hockey championship
campaign as a solo head coach, then a healthy scratch for the first
half-marathon ever held in his adulthood home county.
“It
is nice to have him as a training partner in the offseason,” Shannon said, “and
it is still something we can do together.”
Though
their athletic itch is all but insatiable, the Desrosiers have savored their
summers with stints in cruise control. Last year, they marked their 10th
wedding anniversary in Europe, and the company of their connections in the
county never loses its appeal.
As
one compromise in her split from formal coaching, Shannon savors a little more
of the latter than Matt year-round. But just like the occasional half-marathon,
the window of warmer weather is open to both halves of the Clarkson dynasty’s
founding tandem.
“I
love having people over, especially in the summer,” she says. “Matt likes to
play guitar when he can, and we both like great food and a good glass of wine.”
The
2017 offseason will cut off a tad earlier than normal for the Desrosiers
household. In a minor drawback to the rewards of success, Matt has been named an assistant coach for Canada’s 18-and-under national development team. The select
squad will have a nine-day training camp in early August, then shuffle to Lake
Placid for the annual three-game set against its American counterpart later in
the month.
That
will subsequently segue into the start of the 2017-18 college season. But just
as NFL training camps pique a puckhead’s anticipation of what will soon follow,
the starting line of Clarkson’s intended road to a repeat means the next exit
is for Shannon and her long trek of preparation to defend her Maple Run medal.
“Next
race, I want to break 1:19,” she said. “My goal is to just keep getting
faster.”
