WPO Rocky Mountain Member’s Son Playing in NCAA Hockey’s 2016 Frozen Four Championship Tournament
WPO Rocky Mountain member Thompson Smith and his wife Stacey are going to Tampa, Florida this week to watch their son Landon play for the Quinnipiac College Bobcats in the NCAA Division I’s “Frozen Four” collegiate ice hockey championships. It’s the kind of once-in-a-lifetime thrill that most of us YPO/WPO member sports moms and dads all wish we could share with our sons and daughters, though most of us likely won’t be so lucky.
Dad’s pretty proud. “It’s great. It’s wonderful. It’s so exciting,” he said when I talked to him last week.
Thompson and Stacey’s son’s hockey journey started at a young age. “I didn’t grow up playing hockey but it was a game I fell in love with and learned to play as an adult,” Thompson told me. “Like most hockey parents we got Landon on the ice early. It’s funny but we could tell almost from the beginning that he had a talent for the game. He was playing with kids as old as nine when he was just five.”
Even as Thompson grew the company he founded — Argus Event Staffing, which provides event staffing and security for major sports and event venues in multiple states — he made time to volunteer as a coach for his son’s teams.
Landon eventually began playing for the Thunderbirds, a Denver-based team that competed at the AAA (highest) level of US boys’ competitive hockey, regularly facing off against teams from the hockey hotbeds of Minnesota, Michigan, Massachusetts, and Illinois. “Their team won the US national championship for U16 (under 16 years of age) players in 2010. That was quite a remarkable group of kids.”
Thompson and Stacey watched Landon head off from their Denver home as a high school sophomore to play Junior A hockey. “Cedar Rapids, Iowa in the USHL,” Tom said. “He billeted with a local family and went to school and played hockey.”
Thompson said navigating the hockey landscape gets trickier for players as the skill and competition levels increase. “It’s a tough gig,” he said. “There are a lot of different routes kids can advance along. Landon chose to go play in Canada in the British Columbia Hockey League after that. It’s a different kind of approach from the USHL in that league. The coaches are better at helping each individual improve their skill set to go as far as they can in the game.”
As a member of the Salmon Arm Silverbacks, Landon led the BCHL in scoring. He wasn’t selected by an NHL team in the annual player draft as he was turning 18, so he chose to play NCAA hockey at Quinnipiac College, which has built a Division I powerhouse over the past decade, seemingly from nowhere.
“He actually was recruited to play at the University of Denver (which, ironically, is also playing in the Frozen Four this weekend) but the the guy that recruited him (two-time NCAA champion head coach George Gwozdecky) was unexpectedly fired, and Landon decided he wanted to play elsewhere. He went where he thought he could get the education he wanted while playing for a high quality program. Quinnipiac has the best coaches out there and the team’s results show it.”
College players can’t have agents, so I asked Thompson how he and Stacey were able to help their son navigate the complex landscape of elite hockey. “Landon has an advisor, a fellow named David Thomas from a player’s rep firm called Cornerstone Management” Thompson said. “They work for nothing on speculation that if they can help guide a player through the sport during their formative years, they will potentially become a client if the player makes the pros.”
He said Landon’s advisor first spotted Landon when his Thunderbirds team won the national title and offered his assistance. “David has been a big help. He offers guidance and suggestions,” Thompson said. “Landon’s past coaches know the landscape well, too, and they also have been great sources of advice for us.”
Landon’s dream is to play in the NHL. “That’s something he’s excited about and working hard towards,” said Thompson. “He’s doing great in school studying business and he likes business a lot, but he would like to see if he can follow his dream. Kids that develop late, as Landon did, often don’t get drafted, but sometimes they turn into these great hockey players. Being drafted is great for many kids, but for others it’s not always the best thing.”
He said Landon is attracting interest from several NHL teams’ scouts. Scoring a goal in each of Quinnipiac’s first two championship tournament games, including the game-winning goal against the Rochester Institute of Technology, showed Landon can perform under pressure on a big stage.
Not surprisingly, Thompson said his family would definitely do it all over again with Landon’s hockey career. “It’s an awesome game full of terrific people. It teaches kids about teamwork, what it takes to win, what it means to be dedicated to a goal.”
I asked Thompson if he had any advice for other YPO/WPO members with kids involved in athletics.
“Absolutely,” he said. “One thing that we always stayed true to is that we always made sure the kids had fun and wanted to come back for more. We did that from age 5 all the way through. Always fun. It’s a different kind of fun, I guess, when the hockey gets more and more competitive, but if it’s handled correctly it can stay fun.”
“The other piece of advice I’d give other YPOers is: Get involved with your kid’s sport. The parents, the association, the coaching. It’s a really neat way to connect with your kids.”
Landon Smith’s Quinnipiac Bobcats take on the Boston College Eagles at Tampa’s Amalie Arena at 5 PM Eastern time on Thursday, April 7th. The game is being televised nationally and streamed over the Internet.
