While many of Suburban Hockey Schools’ instructors elected to go the college hockey route during their playing days, there are also those who made their way through the major junior ranks. Among them are Cal McGowan and Jeff Mitchell, two of the most popular instructors on the SHS staff.

McGowan was born in Nebraska and raised in British Columbia. In an effort to take after his older brother and cousin, he started playing hockey at age 4 in Vanderhoof, B.C. McGowan began playing travel hockey as a squirt in Victoria, where his family had moved in order to get more ice time for his sister, who was an aspiring figure skater. A tight-knit family, the McGowans often made their kids’ desire to play sports a priority.

"There were quite a few summers when we combined our family vacation with hockey schools," McGowan said. "We would go camping, and my brother and I would go to hockey school during the day, and then come back and sit around the campfire with the rest of the family at night."

Spending time at summer hockey schools, along with playing street hockey any chance he got, kept McGowan on the path to a successful hockey career. As a pee wee and bantam, he played on travel teams in Merritt and made the jump to junior hockey at age 16. After two seasons with the Delta Flyers and Merritt Centennials of the British Columbia Junior Hockey League, McGowan played three years of major junior hockey for the Kamloops Blazers of the Western Hockey League from 1988-91, where he led the team and was third in the league in scoring during his final year with 58 goals and 81 assists. By the time he was finished with his amateur hockey career, McGowan had developed into a mature player and person, thanks to a combination of hard work, his parents and coaches.

"I had many coaches growing up who were influential in my life," he said. "They really made me feel like I was a solid hockey player by providing guidance and instilling confidence.

"Maybe more importantly, I learned how to respect the game of hockey, respect the arenas, respect the coaches and people in general."

A fourth-round draft pick of the Minnesota North Stars in 1990, McGowan began a three-year stint with the Kalamazoo Wings of the International Hockey League in 1991-92. He played the majority of the 1994-95 campaign with the Worcester Ice Cats of the American Hockey League, followed by a year with the AHL’s Binghamton Rangers. He also played professional roller hockey with the Orlando Rollergators, Denver Dare Devils and Orlando Jackals of Roller Hockey International in 1995 and 1996.

McGowan then went on to play two seasons of professional hockey in Germany before returning to the United States to play for the Amarillo Rattlers of the Western Professional Hockey League and the Florida Everblades of the East Coast Hockey League in 1998-99.

Upon completion of his professional hockey career, McGowan realized his desire to teach hockey, and became an assistant coach with the Wayne State University Warriors as well as an instructor for SHS. In October of 2002, he was named a program manager with the Rochester Hockey Club, where he was responsible for the development of players and coaches within the program, as well as insuring ongoing quality and competitive balance in the RHC. He is now an assistant manager at Suburban Training Center in Farmington Hills.

"I think a good coach is one that can relate to players, and by identifying their needs, can discern the appropriate teaching strategy that would apply to those players," McGowan said. "Dealing with a team sport like hockey, team values and concepts are important, but in order to really reach a player you have to relate to him or her on an individual basis."

Fellow STC assistant manager Mitchell has followed a similar path. A native of Wayne, he played AAA hockey throughout his childhood with teams like Compuware, GPD, Little Caesars, the Fruehauf Flyers and the Fraser Falcons before making his way into the Ontario Hockey League with the Detroit Junior Red Wings from 1992-95.

"Hard work, focus and good coaching is how I got as far as I did," Mitchell said. "I always tried to really pay attention to the fundamentals of hockey – power skating and stickhandling. I went to summer hockey schools, roller bladed and figure skated as a kid to get better at the fundamentals."

In 1993, the Los Angeles Kings selected Mitchell in the third-round of the NHL Entry Draft, but the Kings traded him to the Dallas Stars in 1995. Like McGowan, Mitchell made his debut with the Stars organization playing for their IHL affiliate in Kalamazoo. Over the next four seasons he played for the K-Wings and had a stint with the Philadelphia Phantoms of the AHL in 1997-98. He also saw his first NHL action that season, playing in seven games with the Stars.

Since then, Mitchell has seen action for teams in the AHL, IHL and ECHL, where he most recently served as a player/assistant coach for the Toledo Storm. While he enjoyed playing the game, he continues to focus on the teaching aspects.

"I love to work with kids," Mitchell said. "Seeing them grow as people and as hockey players is extremely rewarding."

His work with Suburban Hockey Schools has been particularly enjoyable.

"We have a very high quality of instructors," Mitchell said. "They all do a great job with on-ice time management and quality of drills. And the ratio of kids to instructor is low, which is really important."

McGowan agrees, and feels that the key to a good hockey school is having good instructors.

"A coach needs to nurture a youth player’s love for the game of hockey," he said. "The reason I am still involved in hockey is because it’s a continuum of the hockey experience for me. To provide the experiences and teach the skills of the game to kids who can really benefit from it is a great feeling.

"If a young hockey player can take something away from the experiences that I had, then in my eyes I did service to that child."

For more information on Suburban Hockey Schools, visit www.suburbanhockey.com or call (248) 478-1600.