‘Essentially, he was our water boy’
Greg McPherson, who has Down syndrome, understands an equipment manager’s role on a team. The graduate of ecole secondaire catholique volunteered as a team manager for various teams at the high school.
“Essentially, he was our water boy,” said Ron McPherson, a member of the Vanier faculty. “He was always around to help, and the players sure appreciated that.
“He’s done it before, at a lower level. Now, it’s the big leagues for him.”
Greg, who works part-time as a busser at M.T. Bellies restaurant in Welland, chips in at home helping do the laundry, which is another thing in the job description of Hornby and his assistants.
After every game uniforms are cleaned in two industrial-sized washing machines with all but the jerseys spun dry in dryers which are just as large.
“The jerseys we hang up to drip dry because we don’t want to damage the logos,” Hornby said as he gave the McPhersons a rundown of the to-do list on game days.
Also along for the tour were Stayzer and Kathy Ellis, who along with Stayzer co-founded G-Mc’s Fitness Homies with Extra Chromies, a registered charity helping people with Down syndrome in the region.
“This is huge, it’s awesome that the Niagara IceDogs have opened their mind to not seeing the disability but seeing the ability in Greg,” said Stayzer, who received the McPhersons’ permission to use their son as poster boy for the charity.
Stayzer, also the team’s strength and conditioning coach, expects the players will benefit from interacting with McPherson as much as McPherson will by being part of a team.
“He will teach these young men a great life lesson about being in the moment, one day at a time, enjoying life for what it is at this exact moment,” Stayzer said.
“He’s going to help turn these young kids into young men.”
When Hornby told Stayzer he was looking for an assistant, Stayzer thought about Joey Moss, a person with Down syndrome whom Wayne Gretzky brought to the Edmonton Oilers in 1985.
Thirty-two years later Moss is still with the franchise and the annual split-squad game at the end of training camp is named the Joe Moss Cup in his honour.
Stayzer, a personal trainer, took on Greg McPherson three years ago as his first special needs client.
It didn’t long for the relationship to become more than trainer-client.
“After a couple of weeks training with him he became the best part of my day,” he said.