MASON GEERTSEN NAMED COLORADO EAGLES 2018-19 IOA/AMERICAN SPECIALTY AHL MAN OF THE YEAR
Apr 3, 2019
The Colorado Eagles are proud to announce that Mason Geertsen has been named the Eagles winner of the IOA/American Specialty AHL Man of the Year award for his outstanding contributions to the Northern Colorado community during the 2018-19 season.
Geertsen won an ECHL Kelly Cup with the Eagles in 2017 and has been an instrumental part in the team’s transition to the AHL. This year Geertsen has made it a point to be a part of as many community appearances as he was able to attend, never saying no to a fan or team request.
Geertsen, and other players he chose, came out to a local cancer center and delivered candy on Halloween to a child who had been flown into the northern Colorado area for special treatment and was going to miss Trick-or-Treating with his friends in Montana. During this visit Geertsen offered Koleman tickets to an upcoming game and the chance to come down to the locker room after the game. Even after a tough loss that night, Geertsen wanted to show Koleman and his family around the locker room and they even got to go home with two team-signed sticks.
Later in the year Geertsen was an instrumental part in the Eagles Hockey Fights Cancer initiative. Growing out his hair for over a year, he decided to cut and donate his hair before the team’s Hockey Fights Cancer game to the non-profit organization Children With Hair Loss. “Cancer is a terrible thing. Everyone knows someone who has gone through it. As hockey players, we want to try and bring some kind of positive experience to those fighting it,” said Geertsen.
Geertsen is now one of 31 finalists for the AHL’s 2018-19 Yanick Dupre Memorial Award, honoring the overall IOA/American Specialty AHL Man of the Year. The league award is named after the former Hershey Bears forward and AHL All-Star who died in 1997 following a 16-month battle with leukemia. The winner of the Yanick Dupre Memorial Award will be announced by the American Hockey League at a later date.
The Eagles return to action when they travel to Chicago, Illinois to take on the Chicago Wolves on Saturday, April 6th at 8:00pm MT.
