Community Corner

Oct 30, 2017

What’s going on Cuda Country? Marketing and Community Relations Coordinator Joey Goldstein here. Each month I am going to give you all a breakdown of what the Barracuda have been up to in the community. Everyone knows about the Barracuda's success on the ice, but off the ice the guys are working just as hard to make sure that they continue to be a major part of the community in and around San Jose. Along with players, Frenzy is constantly out making appearances, and many of you may have seen our Street Team at local events with our inflatable slapshot booth throughout the summer.

Let’s start with everybody’s favorite fish, Frenzy, because October has been a busy month for the hardest working fish in the AHL. In addition to getting you all excited at Barracuda games, Frenzy made a number of stops in San Jose and the neighboring towns. These visits included Cumberland Elementary School in Sunnyvale for their annual Walk-a-Thon, the Sharks and Parks street-hockey tournament here at SAP Center and the St. Timothy’s Family Fun Festival. Additionally, many of you may have seen Frenzy at our “Meet the Barracuda” event for season-ticket members or the “Meet the Sharks” event a few days prior. One of Frenzy’s favorite stops of the month came just a few days ago at the Making Strides of Silicon Valley walk. The turnout for this walk always blows us away, and it gave Frenzy a chance to bust out his Pink in the Rink jersey from last season which was a hit with everyone at the walk.

Frenzy has also made a number of appearances with our Street Team at local events in the area. Most recently, the Barracuda Street Team could be found at the East Valley YMCA in San Jose for their annual Community Halloween Party. The Street Teamers also brought the inflatable slapshot booth to Day in the Park, Day on the Bay, the Silicon Valley Heart Walk, and to Kennedy Middle School for their Fall Festival. Whenever you see Street Team out and about, they always have fun giveaways for everyone, and you can even enter to win tickets to future Barracuda games.

With the season, as well as the school year, well underway we have also begun making visits with Barracuda Math Class and Hockey 101. So far this year we have been to Discovery Charter School, Galarza Elementary, Bachrodt Elementary, Valley Christian Elementary, Blackford Elementary, Adelante Academy, Silver Oak Elementary and Carolyn Clark Elementary. In October, Jon Martin, Mike Brodzinski, Alexander True, Nick DeSimone, Cavan Fitzgerald, Jake Middleton, Adam Helewka and Nick Nollenberger all visited schools to help us teach students about hockey. I also want to quickly throw some props to the newest member of the Barracuda staff, Faith Christensen. She has been putting all of these school visits together for us and has been doing a fantastic job running point on our educational programs. If you see her walking around the concourse on game days, say hi!

I mentioned it briefly earlier, but this past month we also held our annual “Meet the Barracuda” event at Stanley’s Sports Bar inside Solar4America Ice. This is always one of my favorite events each season because it's a perfect opportunity for our most loyal fans to get to know this year’s Barracuda team and interact with them for a couple of hours. It’s also a good chance for me to catch up and talk hockey with fans that I haven’t seen since the end of last season.

That wraps it up for this month! November is going to be just as busy, if not more, with all of the home games we have but Frenzy, Faith and I are always looking for more things to do in the community so if you have places for us to visit click one of the links below and let us know!

Barracuda Math Class

Hockey 101

Frenzy Appearance

Street Team/Inflatable Slapshot Appearance