City Midget Sharks Eulogy

Hi, I’m Ryan and on behalf of the City Midget Sharks team we are sharing some of our best memories of Roderick, I had the privilege of calling Roderick my teammate for the last 5 years in both winter and Spring Hockey, starting with A1 all the way up to triple A.  Some of you may know that Roderick grew faster then lots of us and those of you who know Roderick will not be surprised when I tell you that one of his talents quickly became hitting.  One of my personal favourite memories and probably one of our whole team’s favourite memories was at our tryout game against Eastman at the beginning of the season.  There was a huge kid easily the biggest on the ice.  Everyone seemed a bit intimidated just looking at this kid’s size, that is, until he came down the boards and Roderick just destroyed him.  The whole team was astonished started to laugh and that settled our nerves and our game quickly picked up after this. My teammate Cole will now share some more words about him on the ice.

My name is Cole and I was Roderick’s D-Partner.  Roderick and I were good friends and one of my favorite memories about Rod was one game we were playing Eastman and he came up to me in between the second and third period and he was all pisst off that I had 9 more penalty minutes then him this season.  So it was the third period and it was his shift and he went out and got a penalty as soon as the shift started and he came off after the penalty and told me it still wasn’t enough.  So we were down a goal, it was the end of the third period and Roderick was out and someone poked the goalie and of course he was there to back up our team and he got tossed and he got 10 minutes penalty and we lost the game and we went in the room, he was just sitting there with a huge smile on his face. And he came and started bragging to me that he had more penalty minutes and I just laughed with him.  Thank-you

Hi I’m Jordan and I’ll be talking about what Roderick was to our team.  Roderick was a kid that any coach wanted on their team. He was hard working, tough and never afraid to stick up for his teammates.  Every time a guy got a cheap hit on one of our guys Roderick was always there.  He had our backs.  Roderick was one of those kids that give a hundred and ten percent every game.  He would back check, battle and he would hit some kids so hard that our team would freak out and we would get all pumped up.  Whenever you fell down, Roderick was always there for you.  Roderick was also one of those guys that off the ice he would always give you a ride, he would give you some tape, sip of his water, some shampoo, some ice tea and he would always give it to you without even hesitation.  He was an amazing teammate and an even better friend.  All of us on the sharks will always miss him and we’ll always be teammates forever.  Thank-you

These are the words of three of Roderick’s teammates shared at Roderick’s service.  Roderick spent a couple hours on the ice and in the dressing room five to six days a week through the last winter with these teammates.  The whole team was very touched by the loss of Roderick.  On Tuesday night after the accident a whole group of them came to our door brought us the jersey Roderick has worn at all his home games the last season.  They had all signed it and written a message on it.  They all gave us a hug and we invited them into our basement and spent some time talking about Roderick’s passion for hockey, his accident, and his last days.  Quite a few of them have later dropped by to show their love and support.  These are amazing hockey players who spend so much time working out, bodybuilding, always practicing to become better and tougher hockey players but one of their own, leaving them so suddenly, I've seen their hearts melt and they become so sensitive and tender.  Bless you guys, you will always be special to us.  THANKS FOR THE JERSEY!

Toughest D-Man I ever coached, Miss You! -Coach Jerald; Run that blue line up there bud! Love ya -Kraz: Thanks for all the tape, Rip Rod -Reid #2; Rest well my friend -Corey; RIP Big Guy, we miss you -Merner #7; Thanks for always having my back -Comeau #37; Rest in Peace Rod -C.Nepinak #16; Rest Easy Big Rig! -#35; Rest Easy Bud -#14; Love u Buddy! -Ryan R #12; Rest in Peace Rod RIP -#18; Love You -Jordan #1; Rest easy Rod love You Buddy -Codey Behun #15; Sharks! -?; Thanks for the ice tea! -Krowetz #3; Rest Easy Love You -#9; We love you Rod Rest Easy -#11; Rest Easy Rod Love you buddy! -Curtis Rebeck #19; Rest in Peace Rod -Graeson #10; Love you Rod Rest easy -#5; Rest easy big guy love you #8 Couch; Rest Easy Buddy Love you -#17 Nolan Koop; R.I.P. -Matt Wessel
TEAMMATES FOREVER