EMILY HSUEH
SHAWVILLE April 7, 2021
From mentored to mentor, player to coach, Mike Rusenstrom has had a lengthy career in the hockey world and continues to be a leader in the Pontiac. Having played hockey for several years himself, he now coaches the sport to kids of all ages.
For his contributions, he has been inducted into the Pontiac High School Athletic Hall of Fame, alongside names that . . .
influenced and inspired his own journey on the ice. The Hall of Fame was created by two PHS teachers — Darcy Findlay and Chad Davis — to acknowledge PHS alumni for their sporting achievements.
“I thought I was pretty cool. I thought it was neat, I’d been watching it, seeing the people that were getting inducted,” he said. “It’s all names that I knew, and people that I’ve reached out to or I’ve followed what they’ve done.”
Rusenstrom grew up in Bristol and played several sports during his time at PHS. But the one that stuck with him the most was hockey, playing with the minor team the Shawville Pontiacs.
“It was a lot of basketball, volleyball were the main ones I was involved in. Just kind of anything down around the gym, hanging out with people there,” he said. “Our family was always involved in sports, but hockey was the main one and at home, we’d be competing with the brothers and friends. At school it just kind of carried over, you’re always competing against somebody.”
Rusenstrom attended PHS from 1993 – 1996, from grades seven to nine. However, at the end of his grade nine year, he decided to pursue his hockey dream. He left PHS and the Pontiac, moving out to Ontario to play for the Junior B Arnprior Packers for a year. After that, he moved from the Junior B team to the A team the Kanata Valley Lasers, where he played for another year. He completed his schooling at West Carleton Secondary School.
In 1998, Rusenstrom got his big break when he was drafted by the Oshawa Generals in the fifth round of the Ontario Hockey League. As a defenseman, he played 117 games for the Generals over three seasons, racking up eight points and 131 penalty minutes.
His journey with the Generals goes down as one of his personal athletic highlights.
“I know a big [highlight] was playing minor hockey in Shawville and getting to play in the midget tournament, the team did really well that year,” he said. “But getting drafted and making Oshawa that first year, that was a pretty big deal. Moving away, competing against a group of guys you don’t know; the first year we had a really good run in the playoffs, we made it to the conference final.”
After hanging up his skates with the OHL, Rusenstrom pursued a diploma in cabinet making at Algonquin College. He returned to the Pontiac in 2002, where he got involved with minor hockey once again, this time as a coach.
“I’ve been coaching hockey now since my son started, he’s 12. I’ve kind of been involved with Shawville minor hockey, coaching different levels and age groups of kids,” he explained. “The last couple of years [my son’s] been playing down in the city, and I’ve been on the bench with a couple of double A teams there, down in Hull.
“He loves the game and being around the rink so I can’t ask for much more than that. Our whole family enjoys hockey, my daughter doesn’t play but she likes watching, my wife as well.”
Now that he is back in his hometown, working as a mentor and his kids attending PHS, Rusenstrom has reconnected with the region and remembers the people who were mentors to himself while chasing his dreams.
He recalled fellow inductees Bryan and Terry Murray as inspirations for their involvement in the professional hockey scene and looked up to them. He watched Luke Murphy as he made it to the Junior league and remembers the volleyball and basketball teams Kelly Schumacher was on as absolutely dominant. Matt Greer and Darcy Findlay now teach his children, Reese and Gavin, and he was happy to see Teena Murray inducted into the Hall of Fame.
“Teena Murray was someone I got to know through hockey, she was always an open book. She was someone that — at the time she might have been only a year or two out of university, but it was like, ‘Hey, here’s my number if you ever have any questions on training or fitness…’” he said. “I can remember over a course of four or five years, she was faxing me workout programs and different exercises. She was in the United States faxing me things in Kanata or Oshawa and set me up with different stuff, but we always had that connection from Shawville.”
He also noted that David Holmes, John Petty and Rick Valin were great role models for him, and was honoured to share a spot with them in the PHS Athletic Hall of Fame.
“I just think it’s a pretty cool honour, just looking at the class of athletes going in, it’s cool to see the different backgrounds,” he said. “It’s interesting seeing all the names getting listed and for the most part, pretty well everyone who’s been inducted is someone that has had an impact on me in one way or another while I was playing sports or after.”
