Founders' Choice: Stars Coach For A Night
I will never forget my night with the Dallas Stars during the Sean Avery experience.
Today’s piece is the first in our “Founders Choice” series for 2025 where we will regularly write about topics that different founding subscribers have suggested they would very much like to have me address. This one is from a Founder named Corey, who asked me to write a piece about my favorite hands-on sports experience my career has given me. I have been a lucky guy, for sure. But, here is what I came up with – the night the Dallas Stars allowed me to be an assistant coach for a preseason game.
I must admit that I owe a lot to the Dallas Stars. I definitely needed some sort of foothold when I was first hired in Dallas at the Ticket. The Ticket was an incredibly popular radio station at the time and any new broadcaster would have a hard time breaking in. Everyone talked Cowboys so there was nothing unique about having takes on Troy Aikman and Emmitt Smith.
The open door for me was arriving in town at the precise moment (or so) of hockey fever taking over this city. And my hockey background opened door after door as the station used me immediately for much of their Dallas Stars coverage.
It is possible I would have made it in Dallas without hockey, but I am always thankful about how the Stanley Cup runs in 1999 and 2000 (the one that got away) were special. I was able to host and report from nearly every series over those years and travel to St Louis, Denver, and Buffalo in 1999, in particular.
What a dream for a guy who was in his first year in a pro-sports city to literally be inside the locker room as the team was celebrating the Stanley Cup.
For 15 years, I was part of the Ticket’s Dallas Stars Postgame Show which basically meant that over those years from 1998-2013, I was at nearly every single home game and usually with Dan McDowell would do 60 minutes after every home game and all playoff games.
Then, for several years the Stars hired me to do television for them as part of their Fox Sports Southwest package from 2014-17. All told, I think I have probably been to 1,000 Stars games and counting and have visited 26 of the other NHL franchises for Stars road games, too.
I tell you all of this because it will explain the story below. The Stars are my extended family in some ways. The first thing I did when I moved to Dallas was talk my wife into using a little of our new KTCK income on Stars season tickets at Reunion Arena.
I could have gone for free, but I wanted tickets to sit with Sally or a friend and then go do my job. Even this season, I still have a 10-game plan and love being there live. I do cheer for them and while it doesn’t mean I am never critical, I concede that my relationship with that franchise is probably different than the others in this city. The Stars have been incredibly kind to my career over the years and I absolutely am thankful for that relationship. Heck, for a long while, my dream job was to someday do play-by-play for the franchise (especially when Ralph left the team), but it was never quite in the cards. That’s ok, as they hired the right guy and there is nothing wrong with how things have turned out for me.
I digress.
In 2008, the Stars asked me if I would be interested in serving as an assistant coach on the bench for a preseason game. Would I? Yes. I had no idea what that meant, but I was excited to find out. Luckily, I also wrote down my story and I believe it appeared originally on DallasStars.com shortly thereafter.
Then, their media team also had their team photographer get pictures of me on the bench as well as even making an intermission feature of my experience. In other words, I am able to come back 17 years later and do this show-and-tell for you today.