COVENTRY, U.K. – The world of British ice hockey is full of unsung heroes, those people who whilst not part of a team’s formal playing or coaching staff are every bit as important to the culture and success of a club. Many of them such as the programme vendors, the 50/50 raffle sellers and the goal judges can go unnoticed around the rink. Others, however, are less easy to ignore.
Scorch in action (Photo courtesy of Tom Walker)
Eager to find out, I caught up with Tom in his dragons den before the Blaze’s recent game with the Nottingham Panthers and began by asking him how and why he became a mascot.
“I’ve always done something or other on match-nights whether it was 50/50 tickets or raffle sales, as soon as we got Scorch two seasons ago and I heard that they were looking for people to do it, I put my name forward. At first, it was meant to be me and this other guy, and we were going to do alternate weeks, but then about half way through the first season he stopped showing up so I’ve ended up doing it ever since,” Tom Walker said
“It’s something I really enjoy doing, the hardest part of it is balancing while you’re skating round with the head on, but you find a way to master it after a while.”
Tom Walker aka Scorch the Dragon (Photo by Matt Kane)
“As a hockey club we do a lot of things in the community so we’ll take Scorch into local schools with a player and they’ll speak to the kids about the game, although since I’m usually at work in the week somebody else will play Scorch,” Walker said
I’ve also done some charity events, I did a donkey derby event recently with some other mascots where I got the chance to ride around in a cart that was strapped to a donkey, It was a lot of fun and we raised a lot of money from it.”
Team mascots are now a regular feature in hockey rinks throughout the UK and some of them, including Scorch, even have their own profiles on social networking websites. I briefly asked Tom about his relationship with some of the League’s other mascots, which include `Gordie the Gorilla` of the Belfast Giants, `Hamish the Lion` of the Edinburgh Capitals and `Vinnie the Viper` of the Newcastle Vipers.
“They are all really nice guys, although since we don`t take Scorch to away games the only time we get to meet each other is at the Play Off Weekend at the end of the season, Gordie can be a bit mad sometimes, again he’s a nice enough guy outside the costume but as soon as he puts his gorilla suit on he has a tendency to lose it and I know he’s upset a few fans in the past,” Walker said
“I’d heard that Belfast had tried to make a Giant-like mascot but the fans didn’t take to it so they’ve just stuck with Gordie.” As Tom made the finishing touches to his transformation into Scorch the Dragon, I asked him what he thought was the best thing about being a mascot.
“I like meeting the fans, and doing all the stuff in between periods like taking penalty shots or standing in goal while young fans take shots at me, they tend not to be able to hit the puck very hard though so I’ve managed to avoid any broken bones,” Walker said (laughing).
“I have a lot of fun with the officials as well, Tom Darnell (Elite League linesman) is always a good laugh, recently we played Edinburgh at home and James Kavanagh was on the line. I know James through playing rec hockey in Solihull so when he came on the ice before the game I went to give him a cheeky check into the boards as I was going round but it backfired and I ended up on my backside,”
“Being Scorch is just a really good excuse to have fun and it’s something I really enjoy doing, naturally I think the Blaze are the number one club in the UK and it’s a privilege to be their mascot.” Contact the author at Matt.kane@prohockeynews.com
You must be logged in to post a comment.