The Genesis of Tucker Hockey
A Four-Part Mini-Series
Part 4: Taking the Leap of Faith
Published March 24, 2022
While in the Czech Republic teaching and honing his power skating and hockey skills at Canadian Hockey Camp – Europe in the summer of 1997, Rex had a vision to create his own hockey business – Tucker Hockey. Rex saw a business card for a hockey school. He wondered to himself, “Why can’t I do that myself for a living?”
“Vision is not seeing things as they are but as they will be” – Gil T. Figaro
Rex diligently did his research; start up costs, analyzed local competition, assessed various hockey services, marketing / promotions, and created power skating curriculums. Finding a niche in a Calgary hockey school saturated market was the challenge and the key to future success. Rex slowly started up and operated Tucker Hockey as a part time gig from 1999 to 2002. He operated a mix of adult and minor programs; averaging 3 or 4 on ice sessions per week.
During this time, Rex came to the harsh reality; to have a full-time hockey job and have peace within; he would have to create it himself! He needed to gather up the courage and will power to take his part time hockey business to another level – a full time operation. It was a risky endeavour at the tender age of 41. He truly felt, it was now or never to make a living in the hockey world. He diligently began to get his ducks in a row. Yes, Rex was going to take the leap of faith!
At this time in the summer of 2002, Rex had his business university degree, nearly 20 years of business experience combined with his power skating and hockey skills expertise of coaching players of all ages and abilities. He had spent hundreds of hours honing his coaching craft over the past decade in Calgary and Europe. This gave him the confidence and belief that he shall succeed.
“No man knows what he can do until he tries” – Publilius Syrus
Firstly, Rex had to convince his inside sales boss Dan Roussy to fire him; so Rex could receive a small severance package of $3500. At the time, to complicate things, he was one of the top producers in the company! However, Dan felt “Rex was deserving of pursing his dreams”. Dan was a very understanding and compassionate boss so he finally cooperated with Rex’s requests. This financial aid certainly helped with the full time start up / pursuit of Tucker Hockey. Secondly, Rex also needed to polish up and strengthen his business plan including ice requirements, hockey development programs, marketing plan, yearly cash flow projections, etc. This was a critical document to ensure a clear road map and create a new / successful chapter in his life.
“If you don’t know where you’re going, you’ll end up somewhere else” – Yogi Berra
Rex spent 2 weeks finishing up this critical business task prior to leaving for Europe in August 2002. He had been recruited to be the Head Coach of a Canadian Rep U18 team which toured and played exhibition games in 5 different countries – Germany, Czech Republic, Austria, Italy and Switzerland over a 2 week period. After this tour, Rex returned to Calgary. The next day, he stepped on the ice at South Fish Creek Arena (now Cardel South) and operated a minor power skating program. Tucker Hockey fulltime was now his world of reality.
Rex started up Tucker Hockey with $2,000 in his savings bank account, a business plan, a leap of faith, many long days and a lot of hard work. With incredible determination, drive, passion, and love for hockey he went about building Tucker Hockey. His directives…? “Basically, to teach skating and hockey skills to anyone who may love the game and wishes to improve.” He took on any and all projects that presented it self. All hours – early morning 7 am, day time noon & 3 pm and late night 10:00 pm and any days during the week and all weeks. Failure was not an option! Rex believed if he put enough passion into the business, the financial security would come.
“In order to succeed your desire for success should be greater than your fear of failure” – Unknown
Rex’s long held dream of combining his business education with his love of hockey and Canada’s favourite sport had now morphed into his reality. He could foresee his full time hockey ambitions finally coming true but it was rather a scary and unfamiliar territory the first couple of years. Yes a path less traveled. But there was no time to worry; rather it was time to get busy on the hockey development autobahn. It would require an Olympic gold medal effort and energy to survive and succeed in the early years!
“The difference between the impossible and the possible lies in a person’s determination” – Tommy Lasorda
The daily norm was 18 hour work days. Starting at 5:30 am and often finishing up at midnight or later! Rex recalls being on the ice and working 28 straight days on many occasions before taking a day off. This hockey madness was certainly not for everyone, but it was a work environment that Rex was passionate about and loved! There was no life balance as an up and coming hockey entrepreneur but failure was not an option. He was a driven man! Rex has often said “A balanced person can live an unbalanced life but an unbalanced person needs to live a balanced life otherwise it’s a big problem.” Yes, a man settles where he finds peace. Not money, not status, but peace. Such was the life of Coach Rex. There was a great sense of peace within. Friends and family could see it!!
“Chase your passion. Not your pension” – Edward James Olmos
In the early days Rex performed every business and hockey task for Tucker Hockey, including answering the phone, replying to emails, handling registrations, taking program payments, booking ice, arranging programs, designing curriculums, placing posters out at the arenas, ordering jerseys, etc. Tasks seemed to be endless, but he always made sure they all got done. He loved the diversity of his business and hockey creation. Rex loved to skate, to teach, to instruct, the mix of different people and the daily challenges of figuring things out. No two days were the same!
Coach Rex
Photo by Terence Leung
https://www.instagram.com/terenceleung_takesphotos/
Rex’s childhood love of hockey had finally become his full-time business occupation. This inspired him to travel back to his childhood province Newfoundland during the Christmas break of 2002. He ran his first of four hockey schools in Springdale, Newfoundland near his hometown of Little Bay Islands in the Green Bay area. Subsequently in November of 2014, 2015 & 2016, Rex also ran a week long hockey school back in Springdale, Newfoundland for the local Springdale District Minor Hockey Association. It was great to travel back to the homeland visit family and give back to the nearly 100 local kids with additional hockey development.
In early part of 2003, he hired on Lyle Hanna as a part time Tucker Hockey instructor. Lyle taught Rex his first NCCP coach course back in 1991. In 2010, he would hire Wally Kozak on who also co instructed the same NCCP course with Lyle. Yes, indeed the circle of life!
By 2016, Tucker Hockey had on an annual core of 20 active on ice instructors. Later in 2020, Rex expanded the Tucker Hockey On Ice Instructor Awards to acknowledge the valuable work of its quality instructors. Over 100+ on ice instructors have worked for Tucker Hockey in its history and many have been loyally involved for 15+ years including: David Mahoney, Jim Hepburn, Frank Lyall, Jack Evans and Ron Wong. Coach Rex has truly valued everyone’s contributions and the hockey friendships cultivated because of the love of hockey.
Part of the Tucker Hockey On-Ice Team
Photo by Terence Leung
https://www.instagram.com/terenceleung_takesphotos/
Rex hired his first part time administrative assistant, Karen Adler in the spring of 2003. With the business growing, Karen provided much needed assistance with answering the phone, emails, handle registrations and program payments. In 2008, Tucker Hockey hired its first full time administrative assistant, Christyne Kavanagh, who was a valuable member of the team for almost 10 years. During the Spring of 2018, Candace DiGiacomo joined the Tucker Hockey Team. She is now Tucker Hockey’s full time Office Manager / Administrator and a tremendous asset on the administration and customer service side of business operations.
Candace DiGiacomo – Office Manager / Administrator
In the spring of 2004, the Hockey Zones newsletter was born. The first issue was eight pages long, and later issues grew to 40 pages, with advertisers, stories on local hockey people and with many contributing writers. Later Hockey Zones was converted to an E-Newsletter in 2020 and will continue on for years to come. You can check out the Newsletters HERE.
Tucker Hockey operated its first hockey camp in Rural Alberta in September of 2004. Coach Rex and Lyle Hanna conducted a 1 week conditioning camp in High River for the local minor hockey association. Approximately 100 players ranged from ages U7 to U18 in age. This was the start of many other rural on ice sessions and larger hockey projects in various parts of Rural Alberta including Airdrie, Beiseker, Black Diamond, Cochrane, Indus, Morley, Okotoks, Siksika Nations, Springbank, Strathmore, Turner Valley, etc over the years to come.
During the year of 2004, Coach Rex would find himself on the ice over 500 times a year instructing hockey group programs for adults, youth, providing 1 on 1 coaching and working with minor and adult teams. This would become the annual norm with his busiest year being 575 on ice sessions!
Also in 2004, the Tucker Hockey Classic Minor & Adult Awards were created to give back to the hockey community. Currently, the Tucker Hockey Awards include: Danny Cammack Memorial Minor Award, Bradley Mersereau Memorial Adult Award, Ern Rideout Memorial Apprenticeship On Ice Instructor Award, Lyle Hanna Memorial Assistant On Ice Instructor Award, and the David Mahoney Leadership Award. Giving back and making a difference in the local community started in the early days of Tucker Hockey and has continued to be a part of Tucker Hockey’s core values and mantra for nearly two decades.
You can view more details on these awards HERE!
While operating Tucker Hockey, Rex became more aware that many children even in Calgary could not enjoy the benefits of organized hockey; simply because the costs to play hockey today are so high. Reflecting back on his own childhood, Rex did not always have the opportunity to play hockey. With his father a fisherman and his mother a school teacher turned stay – at – home mom, funds to buy hockey equipment were limited. Even with skates, a stick and limited hockey equipment, opportunities to play were hampered by the ice quality on outdoor ponds and the harbour of his home town of Little Bay Islands, Newfoundland.
As a result, Rex became very motivated to help disadvantaged children and to do a little more good in the world. So in 2008, Rex and other dedicated volunteers created a non – profit society, the Kids Hockey Advancement Society (KHAS) to help deserving kids play hockey. The KHAS’s not for profit mission statement was to give all deserving children the chance to play organized hockey – the Nation’s greatest sport. Over the 7 year life of the Society, it raised over $165,000 for worthy causes with the main recipient of the proceeds benefiting Kid Sport of Calgary. Unfortunately, due to the Calgary recession which occurred in 2014, Rex had no other choice up to shutdown the society. He badly needed to focus all his time and energies on protecting his own small business – Tucker Hockey.
Nevertheless, so far, Tucker Hockey’s philanthropy and social consciousness ways has given back in excess of $400,000 to the local Calgary community over the past 20 years. Check out Tucker Hockey’s History of Social Consciousness HERE!
2010 was a big year for Rex’s personal life. He met his future Czech wife Marcela during the summer of 2010 on a bus in Prague! Like most things in Rex’s life, it was not the usual path to go about meeting a significant other, but it was exactly what was meant to be in his life. Yes, life works in many mysterious ways!
Tucker Hockey operated its first hockey camp in Prague, Czech Republic in July 2015. This elite power skating, puck control and hockey tactics camp consisted of a mix of Czech born age players from U9 to U18 levels. Coach Rex partnered with Michael Grim, President of HC Hvezda Praha – HC Star Prague to organize the camp with the help of 4 local Czech hockey coaches. Since the Czech kids are taught English at an early age, it was decided to operate the camp using English rather than Czech as the official camp language. Nevertheless, Rex’s wife Marcela was a big help with her organizing, administrative and language translation skills to make this inaugural camp a reality for Tucker Hockey!
Marcela Tucker – Executive Assistant
Over the past 20+ years, Coach Rex is proud to have instructed players from semi pro down to U7 and from ages 4 learn to skate up to the rip old age of 75 years with a broad range of hockey skills and background as well as personal goals. He has dedicated over 12,000+ hours fine tuning his hockey teaching craft. As a result, he has experienced many unique and memorable moments teaching players especially the kids.
Minor group program
Here are a couple lighter / amusing stories over the years from Coach Rex.
“We always try to have fun with the kids. On occasion I will use a sponge puck to get the attention of the kids in the dressing room. I will often say, have you seen my Sidney Crosby autographed puck? On this one occasion, I had tossed the puck towards a kid and he seemed to be like a deer in the headlights. He just froze and watched the puck as it came towards him, and it bounced off his forehead! Although surprised, he was very happy and relived that it was not a real puck!! Even his Dad had a good chuckle over that one….the three of us laughed together for quite a while in the dressing room!”
“Dealing with kids of all ages on a day to day basis, requires a lot of patience and often provides interesting interactions. I was introduced to one child as “Mr. Tucker” by his mom. I said No, please call me Rex or Coach Rex. When I made the correction, I thought we were good to go. The next day, my young 5 year old student’s first words when we stepped on the ice together…..“What are we doing today? Mr. Rex!” At least, he got the Rex part right!! It was cute!”
“On another occasion, I was teaching a U9 team. After the group finished a power skating drill, I lead the players with a couple of quick technical forward skating laps around the rink; then after the skate instructed the players to take a quick water break. I stopped at the coach mate board to get ready to explain the next drill; when one of the players looked up at me with his puppy dog eyes as big as saucers. He had curiously and enthusiastically hurried over towards me and said “Did you play Pro Hockey Coach Rex!!? Do you know Jarome (Iginla)!!? I found it quite amusing. I guess he was somewhat impressed by the ole coach’s skating! And the answer… unfortunately for him and for me was no to both of his questions.
Adult group program
Photo by Terence Leung
https://www.instagram.com/terenceleung_takesphotos/
Tucker Hockey has operated minor hockey group programs, adult hockey group programs, customized 1 on 1 coaching programs, and worked with minor hockey teams & associations as well as adult recreational teams. Over the years, Tucker Hockey has expanded it’s on ice curriculums from the genesis of its power skating expertise to include:
- Power skating & hockey skills
- Checking
- Elite power skating & conditioning
- Speciality shooting / puck control clinics
- Conditioning / prep camps
- Adult ladies only
- Defenseman clinics
- 3 on 3 hockey play programs
- Offensive tactics
- Evasive skating / puck control & battle / compete
- Extreme edges & explosive skating and
- Semi Private group program
Coach Rex with the players
Photo by Terence Leung
https://www.instagram.com/terenceleung_takesphotos/
To date Tucker Hockey has completed on ice hockey development sessions and or programs with the following organizations.
- Blackfoot, Bow River, Bow Valley, Cal – East Ringette, Calgary Buffaloes, Calgary Northstars, Crowchild, Crowfoot, Girls Hockey Calgary, Glenlake, HC Hvezda – Prague, Czech Republic, Lake Bonavista, McKnight, Midnapore, Saints, Shaw Meadows, Siksika Nations, Simons Valley, Southside, Southwest, Springbank, Springdale, Newfoundland Minor Hockey Associations and Trails West, and Westwood.
“A coach will impact more people in one year than the average person will in a lifetime” – Billy Graham
Reflecting back over the years, next to the initial challenge and uncertainty of starting up Tucker Hockey during the first full time year 2002 – 2003, Rex’s greatest challenge and stress came in the Spring of 2020. Covid-19 hit the hockey operations hard. The business endured and overcame 4 rink closure shutdown periods. Fortunately, Rex had systemized and galvanized the business. Tucker Hockey truly valued the loyal customer support and understanding during this 2 year period; heartfelt thanks. It had been a difficult period dealing with the fear of keeping the business going in very uncertain times. Yes, a business in which Rex poured his heart and soul into from day one but successfully weathered the Covid – 19 storms.
“When you are content to be simply yourself and don’t compare or compete, everyone will respect you” – Lau Tzu
Tucker Hockey has allowed Rex to fulfill his life-long childhood dream of making a living in the hockey world. He was and still is extremely passionate about hockey and making a difference! This kept him focused and motivated during challenging times such as Covid – 19. Tucker Hockey has provided the best years of Rex’s life – enjoying the skating, fitness, teaching, people, and variety of the hockey and business sides of his creation. The kind words and testimonials from some of the tens of thousands of past participants, both Minor, Adult and 1 on 1 have been truly valued. Also, the abundance of friendships Rex has cultivated over the years from the sport of hockey is very much appreciated. He has dedicated many long hours to the success of Tucker Hockey; however, he loves what he does. It’s certainly not a cross but a choice in life. Rex tries to teach not only hockey skills but life skills especially to youth participants and hopefully make some sort of difference along the way.
“Try not to be a person of success, but rather a person of value” – Albert Einstein
Final Comments / Conclusion:
Everyone has a story. Rex hopes by sharing his life’s story it may inspire others. He reached his true calling later in life. Yes, he found happiness from creating a hybrid hockey and business job /career. He finally reached self fulfillment in his life after many years of struggling for peace and happiness. At the age of 41, his work career came together and later at the age of 51 he found happiness in his personal life. He married a Czech woman Marcela, who he initially met in the summer of 2010 on a Prague bus!
Rex stresses “there is certainly hope for anyone!” “If you keep the faith, preserve, maintain a strong mental toughness and count your many daily blessings; life will eventually reward you.”
Rex has experienced many obstacles and overcome many challenges on his road less traveled. It may help and become part of someone else’s survival guide to follow their future dreams and aspirations. There’s a price to pay for any level of success in life. Paraphrasing two songs – one by Garth Brooks “Thank God for unanswered prayers” and the Rolling Stones “You don’t always get what you want… you get what you need.” That is often the story in one’s life!
What will be the next chapter or Part 5 chapter for Coach Rex and Tucker Hockey? Definitely, he will continue to embrace continuous learning and helping others.
“Who dares to teach must never cease to learn” – John Cotton Dana
Coach Rex desires to operate his hockey business well into his 70’s and to still skate around the rink in his 80’s.
“We don’t stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing” – George Bernard Shaw
Rex aspires to continue to build a strong Tucker Hockey team on and off the ice with good people. Taper his 500+ on ice sessions per year but still be actively involved in the local Calgary hockey community providing and overseeing professional and quality hockey services.
Maybe he will do some motivational speaking in later years too! Yes, while trying to make some sort of difference in the world. He will continue to love life and the great sport of hockey and keep counting his many blessings.
“See you at the local rink – hockey & smiles” says Coach Rex. “It’s my sanctuary and happy place! It’s where I like to hang out!”
“ Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome while trying to succeed.” – Booker T. Washington
