Silvertips chime in on Apple Cup excitement

Published 8:00 pm Tuesday, November 22, 2016

EVERETT — The Everett Silvertips may call the U.S. Division home, but the five teams in the division are made up almost exclusively of Canadian hockey players.

That’s not surprising given that the Western Hockey League is one of the three leagues that comprise the Canadian Hockey League. However, it means players come from all over Western Canada and are immediately thrown into an American culture that embraces football at every level.

While the Seattle Seahawks have been Super Bowl contenders throughout most of the current Silvertips’ junior hockey careers, the college programs have not been nearly as relevant on the national stage. In fact, Friday’s game between No. 6 Washington and No. 23 Washington State is the most significant Apple Cup in the lifetime of anyone on Everett’s roster.

So how much do the Silvertips — whose roster comprises of 21 Canadians, two Americans, an Austrian and a Finn — know about the Apple Cup?

“I know that Washington plays Washington State,” said overage alternate captain Lucas Skrumeda. “I voted Cougars last year and my billet mom was giving it to me a little bit because she went to Washington. So I’ll probably have to go purple this year.”

While college football does exist in Canada — Seahawks punter Jon Ryan played at the University of Regina and was once cut by the WHL’s Regina Pats — it isn’t followed nearly as closely as it is in America.

“Down here it’s followed heavily by everybody,” said Skrumeda, a Winnipeg native. “In Canada it’s not really on TV that much. Not much of a following.”

Skrumeda is in his fourth year with the Tips so he’s had some time to be exposed to the Apple Cup and what it means for folks here at his home away from home. Fellow alternate captain Matt Fonteyne is also in his fourth season, and the Alberta native echoed the feelings of Skrumeda.

“I heard the game was coming up and I heard it was important because my billet dad, Chris, was talking about it, but I didn’t know it was called the Apple Cup,” Fonteyne said.

“No, I had no idea (how big college football is in America),” he added later. “It’s crazy looking at the stadiums and it’s packed every single game.”

Even Wyatte Wylie, Everett’s first Snohomish County born-and-bred player, isn’t much of a college football fan.

“I paid attention to UW because their quarterback (Jake Browning) was in the Heisman (race),” the 17-year-old Wylie said. “I knew about that, but I really only watch NFL.”

Head coach Kevin Constantine is a Minnesota native who follows football as closely as he can, though the fact the seasons coincide can make it difficult. The fact that the Tips play nearly every Saturday during the season doesn’t help either.

“To be honest with you I know nothing about either program, so all Washingtonians can dislike me for just being too busy during the hockey (season) as a coach,” Constantine said. “The next thing I would say is I’m a Big Ten fan cause I grew up in Minnesota. So I got to watch my Gophers lose to everybody for a long, long time, to the Michigans and Ohio States.

“But I was also coaching in Houston in the AHL when (WSU head coach) Mike Leach was at Texas Tech and if you want to go where football is huge, go to Texas,” Constantine continued. “Whether it’s ‘Friday Night Lights’ in high school, where there are 10,000 people at the game or a college program, just watching on TV and watching the Texas Longhorns play against Texas Tech, it was always exciting.”

The Tips (15-3-4-0, 34 points) play host to the archrival Seattle Thunderbirds at 7:05 p.m. Wednesday at Xfinity Arena in a game that will feature several Apple Cup-themed festivities.

The T-Birds entered Tuesday’s game against Edmonton with a 10-8-1-1 record.

Notes

The Everett Silvertips announced Tuesday they had dealt 1998-born forward Spencer Gerth to the Victoria Royals for a conditional seventh-round pick in the 2018 bantam draft. Gerth, a 6-foot-2, 200-pounder from Langley, B.C., appeared in 14 games this season for the Silvertips with a pair of goals and four penalty minutes.

For the latest Silvertips news follow Jesse Geleynse on Twitter.