PLAYER PROFILE: Gary McDermott

In this week's Player Profile spotlight we had to aim the spotlight high up just to catch a glimpse of this giant's babyface. No we weren't trying to call batman but let's just says if the Shockers were the L.A. Lakers, this dude would be their Shaquille O'Neal. Let's find out more about the two-year veteran who holds up the blueline...actually he holds it up well over 6 feet something, this week we'll get to know Gary McDermott.

Gary is the cousin of assistant captain Andrew Stevens, however no one is really sure how they are related to each other as there is a considerable size difference.

" He's been really tall for as long as I've known," commented Stevens.

McDermott's father was a pretty famous guy and you all might remember him when you were going up watching the Friendly Giant on CBC. Gary's father was known for being tall and gentle and scored himself a TV show at CBC and was not much of a hockey player. Actually he wasn't much of a sports person at all. Gary's father was usually left out of activities in school because teachers felt he had an unfair advantage over the other kids.

Regardless, Gary liked having a famous father. He was often on the set of his father's TV show and vowed that one day he would be a successful TV star like his dad.

As Gary grew up, he had the ambitious to get out and try new things that his father never had a chance to do. One, was to player hockey. Unfortunately, Gary was not able to buy equipment at Canadian Tire like every other kid his age, he needed to have equipment especially made for him. Luckily for him, his father being as famous as he was, was able to pull some strings and get him a one of a kind hockey stick made. Green Peace wasn't too happy about the creation of the stick due to the destruction of an entire rain forest but their protest was cut short after Gary threatened to decimate the entire seal population with his bare hands.

Gary's love for hockey exploded but his career never really lifted off the ground.

"I wasn't like the other kids. I didn't want to go to the NHL, I just wanted to play hockey," McDermott explained.

In result of his hockey career not making him any money, Gary started to follow the ways of his father and started to get into acting. Gary got his first gig as the Jolly Green Giant for General Mills and became an over-night success!

Monuments, statues, commercials, action figures, and other memorabilia started hitting the mainstream and Gary was arguably more famous than his father ever was or would be.

Gary, like most famous kids started to spiral out of control. He started hanging out with Macauley Culkin and Drew Barrymore and they were denoted as the Terrible Three. Drugs, sex and rock 'n' roll lead to more constant partying and questionable practices which in turn sent Gary back to hometown, Verdun, Quebec. Gary hated who he had become and relinquished all ties with Culkin, Barrymore, the siamese twins that he picked up at T.G.I Fridays and Hollywood altogther. Television was no longer part of his life.

Gary layed low key for awhile and worked a warehouse job where he shipped clean needles to homeless shelters.

"It felt great to help out the needy," McDermott explained.

In the meantime he still played lots of ball hockey, waiting for the perfect moment to highlight his life and that is when an interesting offer came on the table. Cousin, Andrew Stevens, had been recruiting for a new season of the Shockers and the team was in dier need of some experience on the blue line not to mention some size to protect the front of the net. That is when he gave a call to big cousin, Gary. With no hesitation Gary jumped on board and immediately became a huge impact. His experience started to make its way in the play of the others and he is most likely responsible for a good part of their improvement over the past seasons.

Unfortunately, this past weekend Gary suffered an injury in another league and will be out for an undetermined amount of time. A stick reached up and bit him in the face so we will be resting at hope to recover. He will be out of the line-up for now but is looking forward to making a comeback. Gary has 4 goals and 8 assists in 23 games in the NABHL.

On behalf of the Shockers players, management and fans, we wish Gary a speedy recovery and hope to see him back in the line-up soon!