Ex-Steelers kicker Shaun Suisham embraces his journey in the world of girls hockey
Like plenty of professional athletes, former Pittsburgh Steelers kicker Shaun Suisham had to get a real-life job when his playing days were over.
And, sure enough, he has a tiny office he shares with a co-worker, complete with drab cinderblock walls and plenty of spreadsheets to sort through.
But his office does have an expansive space adjacent to it.
Two, in fact.
They’re each 200 feet long and 85 feet wide, and they flank Suisham’s cozy office.
And that’s a big reason Suisham doesn’t look at his position as director of the girls hockey for the Pittsburgh Penguins Elite youth program within the confines of the spacious UPMC Lemieux Sports Center as a J-O-B.
He frequently uses the noun “journey” to describe his current gig.
“Sport has changed my life, and I believe in the power of sport,” said Suisham, who spent 10 seasons in the NFL, including five with the Steelers. “I happen to have two daughters. As I was going through the journey of playing football, we started to skate. They like hockey. Thanks to the Pittsburgh Penguins, we have a wonderful opportunity for our girls that are chasing our dreams.”
On the surface, having an NFL kicker run a hockey program might seem like an ill-fitting match. But Suisham is from Wallaceburg, Ont., a small community within the footprints of the Toronto Maple Leafs and Detroit Red Wings (and the hometown of former Penguins forward Doug Shedden).
In many ways, he was a hockey player who happened to play football.
“I had a wonderful relationship with the game of hockey,” Suisham said earlier this month in Cranberry. “I loved hockey. I still do. A bunch of great teammates. A huge part of my childhood was just a bunch of great memories, in particular tournaments and the time in the locker room. That’s really what has driven me to become fully immersed in this because I want that for (his daughters, Sienna and Stella).”
A right-handed defenseman, Suisham never got above the junior C level in hockey-mad Canada. But he got pretty far in life as a right-footed kicker in football-curious Canada.
“I played three-down football,” Suisham said regarding the sport north of the border. “We played on Thursday afternoons. We had picnic tables as our stands. We didn’t have a scoreboard. We had a flag guy that would hold a different colored flag up to let us know how much time was approximately left in a quarter. The field was shared with soccer (teams). We practiced on the field, we played on the field. One of my proudest moments was being able to lead a charge to put a scoreboard up at the high school.
“It’s a fantastic reminder — and I share it with our teams at times — the value is the journey and the experience. I look back on my time, even though we didn’t have an unbelievable facility, an unbelievable field and we didn’t garner much fanfare or attention, that experience and value of that was real. … I’m so grateful for that.”
That gratitude is rooted in getting a full scholarship to Bowling Green through football.
“The world has a funny way of leading us in the direction that we need to go,” said Suisham, 43. “I didn’t choose football as a path. It kind of chose me, and I mean that in a sense that I had an opportunity to get my schooling paid for and chase a dream in the (U.S.) versus a pursuit of passion that was not going to pay for my school.”
After college, Suisham embarked on a somewhat nomadic journey through the NFL. The Steelers initially brought him in as an undrafted free agent in 2004 but cut him loose during training camp.
After signing with the Dallas Cowboys in 2005, he bounced around with that team, the San Francisco 49ers, the Washington Redskins, the Cowboys again, the Cleveland Browns and St. Louis Rams before returning to the Steelers in 2010, helping them reach the Super Bowl that year.
He enjoyed the greatest stability as an NFLer with the Steelers and remains the sixth-leading scorer in franchise history with 545 points.
A knee injury suffered during a 2015 preseason game brought his career to a premature ending. But he remained in Pittsburgh largely because of family and hockey.
Former Steelers general manager Kevin Colbert is a hockey fan himself and connected Suisham with the Penguins, specifically former vice president of communications Tom McMillan, and arranged for Suisham to partake in the Penguins’ staff games, informal contests among team employees and guests, such as kickers for the local football team.
That connection in 2010 led to Suisham linking up with the Pittsburgh Penguins Elite program as a coach in 2018. Approximately 11 months ago, he was elevated to his current role as director.
The trappings of that office include … well … an office he shares with Brittany Howard, arguably the greatest player in the history of the Robert Morris women’s program and a former professional player with various teams in Toronto.
Howard first met Suisham and his wife, Erin, at a banquet in 2018. Last March, she was hired as a coach with the program.
“Six years later, we’re sharing an office,” Howard quipped. “So it’s a unique opportunity. I’m also from Ontario. So we’re only about 45 minutes down the street from one another. It was cool coming in, two Canadians sharing an office.
“For our girls program, he’s been fabulous. The growth of our program from when I first got in contact with him last February to now has been instrumental. We’re going to continue to grow this program. He’s at the forefront pushing that campaign.”
That push comes from the profound lens through which he views the job at hand.
“What has become very apparent to me is that hockey is special,” Suisham said. “The girls that I have the great pleasure of coaching are driven. They are athletes. They are pursuing a dream through hockey. This journey with them has been outstanding. They’re a great group that often makes me cry because of the sense of pride that I feel and happiness that I get to experience through them and with them on this journey.”
Seth Rorabaugh is a TribLive reporter covering the Pittsburgh Penguins. A North Huntingdon native, he joined the Trib in 2019 and has covered the Penguins since 2007. He can be reached at srorabaugh@triblive.com.
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