The Calgary Surge's Caelum Swanton-Rodger has found a way to become a hometown hero, whether in cowboy boots or work boots. The 7-foot centre and rookie from Ranchlands was a key contributor in Thursday's Surge2Stampede celebration at Scotiabank Saddledome, helping the Surge defeat the Vancouver Bandits 95-80.
A Night to Remember
Swanton-Rodger played 9:36 minutes during the contest, but his second-quarter slam-dunk sent friends, family, and himself home with a memorable highlight. Despite the elevated 'yahoos' from loved ones, the 23-year-old remained cool and collected. 'I played in the NCAA for the last few years, and I got a lot of dunks,' Swanton-Rodger said. 'So I've learned to kind of tune out a lot of the noise.'
However, he couldn't tune out the magnitude of the evening. 'Yeah … like growing up and going to Flames games and going to Hitmen games here and getting to see this building rock and now getting to experience it myself has been phenomenal,' Swanton-Rodger said. 'It's been an amazing experience. Huge honour — massive, massive honour.'
Stampede Spirit
Throughout the week, Swanton-Rodger has been proudly showing his teammates everything about the Calgary Stampede. 'We've got a lot of Americans and a lot of guys from Toronto that don't really know rodeo,' he said. 'We went to the rodeo, we rode the rides, we got the fried Oreos … all the good stuff.' There's even talk of a team outing to ride the mechanical bull at Ranchman's. When asked who on the Surge would last the longest on a bull, Swanton-Rodger replied, 'Me … Yeah … I'd say so — I'm a strong guy, for sure.'
Increased Role Under New Coach
Swanton-Rodger has been earning more minutes for the Surge, a byproduct of new coaching since Dave DeAveiro took over from the fired Perry Huang about a month ago. The former Edge School hoops star added, 'Just having this team in Calgary to playing at the professional level here to seeing the amount of fans we get every game to now playing in the Saddledome in my hometown's home arena, it's a massive honour. And I couldn't have asked for a better day.'
Playoff Hopes
The win also gave the Surge (3-13) some hope for a playoff spot. They also beat the Bandits in their last outing, a 92-84 decision Sunday in B.C. The two-game surge puts them in contention for the last playoff spot, currently held by two seven-win teams — the Edmonton Stingers (7-8) and the Saskatoon Mamba (7-9) in the Western Conference.
