Young man with Down syndrome and autism is IceCaps biggest fan
Andrew Abbott has become what the Canadiens' farm team calls its seventh player.
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ST. JOHN’S, N.L. — Nobody in Newfoundland loves the St. John’s IceCaps more than Andrew Abbott.
“I wouldn’t even be able to think about what he would do without the IceCaps,” Andrew’s father, Jim, said. “I know how happy he is here. It’s his whole life.”
Andrew is 25, but in reality his father says he’s more like a 5-year-old. Andrew has Down syndrome and autism.
When the IceCaps arrived in St. John’s five years ago as the American Hockey League farm team for the Winnipeg Jets, Jim was hoping they might be able to do something to help Andrew.
Jim ran into Danny Williams — the former premier of Newfoundland and now president and CEO of the IceCaps — at the Mile One Centre one day and asked if the club could help. A few years earlier, Williams had presented Andrew — who still attends a vocational school for young adults — with a Duke of Edinburgh Award, presented to young people age 14-24 for completing a series of self-improvement exercises. Jim was surprised Williams remembered his son.
“He said: ‘Leave it with me … I’ll have it taken care of,’ ” Jim recalled Williams telling him.
Williams was a man of his word and Andrew soon started working for the team and has since become what the IceCaps call their seventh player.
Andrew arrives with his dad about two hours before every game at the Mile One Centre wearing his No. 11 IceCaps jersey (none of the players wear that number) and has his hair styled into a mohawk and dyed in the team’s colours.
“He doesn’t call it a mohawk … it’s his warhawk because his players are going to war,” his father said. “That’s how he sees it in his mind.”
When the IceCaps leave their dressing room for pregame warmups, Andrew stands outside the door and fist-pumps all the players and coaches before they head out on the ice. After the warmup, he goes on the ice to pick up the pucks and is often shown on the big screen, getting a loud cheer from the fans.
Andrew will also help out in the IceCaps locker room, supplying towels, getting ice and water and anything else players might need, and he even sits in quietly sometimes on the pregame coaches’ meeting.
“All of a sudden, he’ll sometimes say: ‘Sly, love you buddy,’ ” IceCaps coach Sylvain Lefebvre said with a big smile.
When the Jets left town after last season and the IceCaps became the Canadiens’ farm team, Jim was worried there might no longer be a spot for Andrew with the new organization. Williams and Glenn Stanford, the COO of the IceCaps, met with new general manager Vincent Riendeau and Lefebvre to let them know about Andrew’s situation.
“If I wanted to sit down and write how I’d want to be treated and Andrew to be treated, I couldn’t dream it any better,” Jim said about how the IceCaps management has dealt with them. “I can’t say enough about them.
“Sly is like a father to Andrew now. I’m his dad … Sylvain is like another father. The treatment by everybody in the organization has been unreal.”
Jim said there has been a big improvement in Andrew’s social behaviour, speech and cognitive abilities in the four years he’s been involved with the IceCaps, but he still has to watch over his son 24/7.
“I could not leave Andrew alone for five minutes in the building because something troubling could happen,” Jim said. “But I can leave Andrew in the dressing room with these guys. They look after him. He’s part of the team.”
When asked about the challenges he faces as a father with Andrew, Jim said: “He’s my son and I love him dearly. We could have had a lot worse thrown at us.”
Andrew loves all the IceCaps players dearly, but does have four favourites: Morgan Ellis, who often gives him a snow shower on the ice before the game, goalies Zach Fucale and Eddie Pasquale, and Mike McCarron.
“He’s a great inspiration for us for sure,” McCarron said about Andrew. “He’s always happy and he always comes in and gives everybody a hug. He brings a great energy and laughter to the locker room, so it’s great to have him around.”
Just about everybody at the Mile One Centre seems to know Andrew, who can’t walk very far in the arena without having someone shout out his name to say hi and/or give him a fist pump.
“It’s like he owns the building,” Jim said.
“Andrew has his challenges, but to Andrew he doesn’t have any challenges,” his father added. “He’s Andrew. He’s happy. And as long as people are nice and kind to him, he’s happy. And if somebody is not nice, Andrew has zero filters. He will tell you what he thinks … it doesn’t matter who you are. That’s Andrew.”
Said Andrew’s second father, Lefebvre: “I’m sure we brought something to him, but he brought something to us, too.”
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