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WHL Brandon Wheat Kings

Hockey Taught McCallum Accountability

December 29, 2018 - Western Hockey League (WHL)
Brandon Wheat Kings News Release


The biggest lessons that Bob Lowes and Kelly McCrimmon taught Scott McCallum may have never helped the Brandon Wheat Kings.

Now 39 and the general manager of the Gilbert Plains Country Club, the Dauphin product said he's not sure how much he changed as a hockey player, but he grew incredibly as a person when he was a Wheat King for nearly two seasons in the late 1990s.

"Brandon might not have reaped the benefits of it but when I look at the things that were changers in my life, I definitely look to the years that I was in Brandon in terms of how I matured and the things that I learned over the course of my life," McCallum said. "Certainly Bobby Lowes, being the type of coach he was, accountability was everything, which I think is sometimes hard for young kids to learn but it was certainly something that I really learned in Brandon.

"I remember some pretty stern conversations with (then general manager) Kelly McCrimmon not only about what kind of hockey player I was, but what kind of person I was that still resonates with me today. More than anything, not only did they want to develop good hockey players, but they wanted to develop good people."

McCallum started skating at age five, and quickly began spending his evenings at an outdoor rink.

"My mom would drop me off after school at the rink with a bag lunch or supper," McCallum said. "Sometimes I would have to shovel the snow myself or help the caretaker. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, they used to have broomball on the outdoor rink from 7 to 8 so they were nice enough to let me take my skates off and play broomball. I could finish it off by skating from 8 until 9, and then the lights went out. That was most weekdays for me, and really where I grew the passion for the game."

McCallum, who grew up with three older sisters, played his minor hockey in Dauphin.

He said his parents Bill and Gloria always supported him, although he chuckles his father once told him that he wished he played soccer because you only have to buy a ball and cleats.

McCallum said an early stint in goal didn't last long and he eventually settled in on the blue-line after also trying forward. In his second year of atom, he was invited to play with a regional summer team, an experience that proved to be a little more expensive than anticipated, and left a mark on the family.

By Grade 6, he was already five-foot-seven, well on the way to growing into what would become a six-foot-four frame.

"I grew up knowing about the Brandon Wheat Kings and I grew up aware of the team that I loved and looked up to, the Dauphin Kings," McCallum said of the local Manitoba Junior Hockey League squad. "I was in the community and kind of a rink rat so I grew up around that hockey team."

Under the guidance of his longtime coach Bill Asham, a local cohort of players thrived. McCallum was joined by Mark Odut, Curtis Campbell and fellow WHLer Jeff Church on a team where a number of players went to play in the MJHL and higher levels of junior or pro hockey.

McCallum had some awareness the WHL draft was coming up because a couple of scouts called him before it happened.

He was selected second overall in the 1994 Western Hockey League draft by the Tri-City Americans. His mother answered the phone when Tri-City assistant general manager Scott Bonner called to tell him the news.

"I remember my mom covering up the phone and saying 'If this is another one of those summer hockey things, we're not doing it,'" McCallum laughed. "She didn't know who the Tri-City Americans were."

When he was 15, the team held its camp in Airdrie, Alta., so McCallum didn't get his first taste of Kennewick, Wash., until camp in his 16-year-old season, the 1995-96 campaign. He didn't know a soul there.

"Whether it was good or bad, there were some older guys who took me under their wing," McCallum said. "I probably grew up a little too quick."

McCallum said it was a shocking step up on the ice, even after playing on a talented Parkland Rangers team that fell in the Manitoba AAA Midget Hockey League final to the Brandon Wheat Kings.

McCallum said every part of the experience was an incredible transition.

"It's almost like you're in a make-believe land," McCallum said. "You have school to focus on, which is demanding, you've got practice and you have to be at your best every day just to barely fit in, and then you have bus trips and on top of it, the whole social aspect being in a new city with new friends and new teammates. It's quite an undertaking for someone that age."

McCallum loved the enthusiasm of the American crowds, quipping: "A majority of Canadian fans wish they were the coach, and the majority of American fans are just fans."

The Americans had an outstanding year in his rookie season, going 45-25-2 before losing to the defending champion Kamloops Blazers in the Western Conference semifinals.

Due to being a healthy scratch, McCallum played just 44 games that season, posting a goal and an assist.

His second season would be his breakout year. In 56 games, he had a goal, 16 assists and 119 minutes in penalties.

"I started to feel a sense that the game wasn't as quick as it was but it was always in spurts," McCallum said. "I could never string along any type of consistency in the Western Hockey League."

What would become a familiar nemesis cropped up that year as well when McCallum began experiencing back problems, costing him time in the lineup.

Still, McCallum had tantalized scouts enough that he was a fourth-round pick by the Phoenix Coyotes at the 1997 National Hockey League draft in Pittsburgh. He shared the experience with his entire family.

"Certainly when your name gets called, it's quite a surreal feeling," McCallum said. "Still, you get the feeling that what you're getting into is a long ways away."

He would last just nine games with Tri-City in the 1997-98 season. He was acquired by the Wheat Kings in return for defenceman Jeff Katcher in what McCallum described as a mutual move between him and the Americans.

"It seemed to be the right time and the right fit," McCallum said.

He walked into a Brandon dressing room that still had major pieces of its 1996 WHL?championship team, including Cory Cyrene, Kelly Smart, Burke Henry, Darren Van Oene and Andrei Lupandin.

"It was an incredible feeling," McCallum said. "No disrespect to the Tri-City Americans, they were a very classy organization and at the time that treated me well, but I certainly went from an environment of everybody on their own page to an environment where it was cohesive and very structured. It was team oriented and everybody was playing for one goal."

He learned the difference pretty quickly. His new spot in the dressing room was between his friend Henry and Stefan Cherneski, who he knew a bit. After he drove to meet the team in Regina, he tied his skates for the game and mentioned that maybe the pair could skip the bus and ride back to Brandon with him.

"I remember both of them looking at me and saying 'Let's just worry about the hockey game, and we'll worry about that after,'" McCallum said. "At that moment I knew I was on a hockey team. It was certainly a different room."

His family drove to as many home games as they could in Brandon, and he said it was nice to be close to home, even though he doesn't remember ever driving home during a break in the season.

McCallum's game was built on his physical presence, and he added a terrific shot. His skating also progressed in Brandon, although his back limited him to just 32 games after the deal was made in 1997. He played 10 playoff games as Brandon fell in the league final to the Portland Winterhawks the next spring.

McCallum would skate in 52 games as a 19-year-old in the 1998-99 season, his last in the WHL.

"Even in my stint in Brandon, I don't think that I ever got myself confident enough to actually be the player I was capable of being," McCallum said.

He spent his overage season with the MJHL team he grew up idolizing back home in Dauphin.

"Sometimes they say going back one step makes you that much better but I really think that coming back and playing junior A allowed me to be the guy," McCallum said. "Confidence is everything. I got an opportunity to be in all those situations that every player loves to be in and I think I capitalized on a lot of those situations."

He had a good year, playing on the MJHL representative in the old Viking Cup, a tournament that involved junior A all-star teams and European squads.

After being scouted at the event, McCallum landed an opportunity as a 21-year-old to play in the ECHL in the 2000-01 season.

"My adjustment to pro was probably easier than my adjustment to the Western Hockey League," McCallum said. "Maybe it was because with my stature - the physical side of the game would have been more of an adjustment for a more skilled player - but for me, I think my body had matured by that time."

He would play four pro seasons in the ECHL and the Central Hockey League, until the 2004 lockout year in the National Hockey League squeezed roster spots in the lower minors.

He had spoken to Foxwarren product Ron Low the summer before, and the former Dauphin King who had played and coached in the NHL, questioned McCallum about what he was going to do after hockey ended. Low, who owned the Dauphin Golf Course, asked McCallum if he had considered becoming a golf pro.

Faced with the choices of taking a pay cut to play hockey in 2004 or embarking on the next chapter of his life, McCallum chose golf.

He took the golf management program at what was then Grant MacEwen College in Edmonton.

"It was quite an opportunity for (Low) to give me a start in the golf business," McCallum said. "I worked under his brother-in-law Gary Brandon in Dauphin for four years. He was a fantastic guy and taught me a lot about the golf business."

When an opportunity came up down the highway in Gilbert Plains, McCallum took it, and he has served as general manager of the 18-hole course since 2009.

He oversees the operations of the entire country club, from the grounds crew to the restaurant and pro shop, for a board of directors. McCallum marvels that the course was built by volunteer labour.

"I have to pinch myself every year when I go down there because if anything needs to be done - if a tree needs to be limbed or anything needs to be done - all you have to do is put a call out and the volunteers are there," McCallum said. "It's pretty amazing the quality of golf course that the Gilbert Plains Country Club has."

McCallum has to exercise his back to keep it in good shape, but it has not been a major problem.

He has never completely gotten hockey out of his blood. He helped out former Kings coach Marlin Murray by serving as an assistant coach for two seasons from 2008 to 2010.

He now serves on the board, and is director of hockey operations.

"We're looking forward to building a program that people are encouraged to send their kids to, that they know our goal is to move kids on to the next level," he said. "Maybe I can share some of the things I've learned along the way, not only in building hockey players, but in building good people too."

McCallum has some firsthand experience in that job.

He married Lindsay Agnew from Brandon, and the couple have two children, Cash, 10, and Londyn, 8. Both golf and play hockey.

He said the two sports certainly have their similarities.

"The strength of mind relate to each other really well," McCallum said. "Being able to focus and stay within the game, never getting too far ahead of yourself. I think those things all compare."

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