Callum Gareth 'Gary' Yannick Janser's rocky road to professional icehockey (a Biography)

[Daniel Janser 2,132]

Callum Gareth Yannick's christening. (pic courtesy of Leandrofg)

 

A biography normally starts with the question 'Why did xyz start playing hockey?'. In Cal Gary's case, the question is 'Why the heck did it take him so long?' and we will provide the answer.

 

Cal Gary was born on the day the Wranglers took the continental cup home after a 25 season hiatus. But not to some random dude. No, his father as well as his uncle were on the roster of the triumphant Albertan team. The former was even the captain of the Calgary franchise. His grandpa was GM of the Istanbul Red Wolves at the time. During his dad's traditional day with the Continental Cup, he was taken to church to be baptized in the symbol for reaching the highest accolade in hockey. And because Dan is a practical joker, he named his son Callum Gareth Yannick, so that his first two names could be shortened to Cal-Gary and the initials will be the trademark CGY of the Wranglers. The godfathers were Landon Wolanin and Leandro Gonçalves, household names amongst Calgary fans. This was but the first of many dad jokes to follow.

 

With the stars being aligned in such a fashion, one would expect, that young Callum would follow suit in his family's trade. But this is not what happened.

 

Of course growing up in Calgary, he learned to skate at an early age. He did not join a hockey team though and only played shinny with his friends. Part of him did not want to compete with his father, a certified Calgary legend and potential HOFer, and partly he did not want to get a place on the roster, just because coaches wanted to curry favour with his old man. When he was old enough to walk, his mom and dad took him to long hikes, either in the Rockies near Calgary, the Scottish Highlands or the Swiss Alps when his parents visited their respective families during the Summer holidays. This awakened his love for climbing and there is many a grey hair on Daniel's head caused by the recklessness of his youngster.

 

Because he was born in Canada to a Swiss father and Scottish mother he holds three citizenships and learned to speak Swiss German, French, English and Scots Gaelic growing up. Bonnie, née Ferguson, made a great effort to bring the young lad in touch with Scottish traditions including, but not limited to wearing kilt, sporran and the sgian dubh and dirk. He also got fond of Haggis and loved watching his uncles participate in the Highland games and once he was old enough, he joined them.

 

Clan Ferguson Tartan

 

Once his dad's career was over, the family moved to Switzerland to be closer to their next-of-kin. Callum went to primary school in his kilt and was laughed at for it. But he was not discouraged and stoically kept on wearing his favourite garment. In his dad's native country, he also pursued his love for climbing and started a freeclimbing club, always looking for the next challenge. Doing so he developed remarkable grip and upperbody strength. Callum still has to find a person to beat him in thumbwrestling. Practically as collateral he became a certified mountain guide.

 

He was also a very good scholar and went to college, where he showed particular talent in physics and math. He graduated with very high marks and applied for a spot at TTHU Hamburg to become a shipbuilding engineer.

 

But before he could attend Uni, duty called and he was drafted into the Swiss Army. Due to his hobby he was allocated to the alpine warfare specialist troops, where he was trained to fight and survive in the Swiss Alps. He showed so much dedication, knowledge and ressourcefulness, that he was pencilled in for an officer's career. This was not his first choice initially, but during his time in the military, he got to appreciate the comraderie, the band of brothers so to speak, when a motley group of people overcome hardship together. So he agreed to prolong his time in the army and became a captain in the 'Mountain Infantry'. This was also the time, when he at long last discovered icehockey as an alternative to freeclimbing, as he could enjoy the team work of this sport.

 

badge of the training facility for infantry officers

 

After three years in the army, he could finally enlist to the TTHU Hamburg to became a shipbuilder. The blame for this rather eccentric career path for someone living in a land locked country is to put on Kurt Janser, who took young CGY to as many sailing trips as his parents would allow. He passed the final exams with 'summa cum laude'. Having his degree in his pocket, he than decided to go back to where his father and uncle's professional hockey career started and enlisted for the Mississauga Hounds' roster, who were in desperate need of a defender. The future will tell, whether he will be as succesful as Marcel and Dan, or whether he is too late a bloomer to show the skills it takes to reach Mount Olympus of hockey.

 

(862 Words)

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@leandrofg  @jacobcarson877

 

Edited July 13, 2023 by Daniel Janser

[leandrofg 1,130]

Landon is the godmother.