Callahan leading by example
By Christopher Botta, New York Times – Eleven years ago, Ryan Callahan, a determined but seemingly unexceptional teenager from Rochester, was the beneficiary of a favor between an agent and a coach.
In the spring, Steve Bartlett, Callahan’s agent since he was 15, called Jeff Jackson, the coach of the Guelph Storm of the Ontario Hockey League.
“Steve had this kid from upstate New York who really wanted to play in the O.H.L.,” said Jackson, now the coach at Notre Dame. “He said he was asking for a favor but I wouldn’t regret it. He said Ryan wasn’t that big and didn’t have the hardest shot, but nobody would do more to help our team win. He wanted me to draft him.”
With their last pick, in the 15th and final round of the 2001 O.H.L. draft, the Storm selected Callahan, then 16, who was coming off a 13-goal season for the Buffalo Lightning of the Ontario Provincial Junior Hockey League. Two years later, Callahan scored 36 goals for Guelph. Two years after that, he had 52.
“He deserves all the credit for being a self-made star,” Jackson said. “A lot of kids in hockey turn out to prove people wrong, but few have come as far as Ryan.”
